This handout was used for my Southern Regional Education Board Summer Session presentation. I presented methods of integrating literacy strategies and technology to engage students.

1. Getting CLOSE to the text to Read CLOSEly
To read well, that is to say, to read slowly, deeply, looking cautiously before and aft, with
reservations, with doors left open, with delicate eyes and fingers … (Friedrich Nietzsche
Preface to Daybreak, 1886)
During this session we will discuss ways to..
ü group, annotate and converse with assigned text
ü Today, we will read closely a poem and apply several
literacy strategies to analyze the poem
ü respond to Google Forms for assessment
ü create Word Art that shows understanding of text
ü post to Padlet.com to share knowledge during reading
ü view images and connect them to text read
ü create wikipages or blogposts to analyze text read
ü publish an ePortfolio to display work
ü publish a digital story that highlights theme and main
ideas
Resources for this session can be found here
http://msbisonline.weebly.com/my-presentations.html
Valerie R. Burton, M.Ed.
eCard: http://About.me/VRBurton
Presentations: http://MsBisOnline.Weebly.com/
Twitter: http://Twitter.com/MsBisOnline
Google+: https://Plus.Google.com/+ValerieBurton/posts
Facebook: http://www.Facebook.com/MsVRBurton
PLN Blog: http://2Blog2Share2Learn.Edublogs.org/

2. Getting CLOSE to the text to Read CLOSEly

3. Getting CLOSE to the text to Read CLOSEly
Annotating
Targeted Reading Skills:
ü Formulate questions in response to
text
ü Analyze and interpret elements of
poetry or prose
ü Draw conclusions and make
inferences based on explicit (literal)
and implicit (figurative) meaning
Objective: read closely to determine the main idea or purpose of a text,
the key information that supports it, and further clarify/illustrate main
idea by connecting it to life.
Learning experience: Learners will read and locate information of
interest. Learners can highlight, underline, put questions in margins, etc.
Student product: Text based notes to be used for writing, presenting or
discussing
Assessment: Teacher rubric, observation, essay or participation in
discussion
Rationale: Annotating a text is an effective strategy to promote active
and critical reading skills by requiring students to read text and identify
points of interest. These points of interest can either be teacher directed
or student driven. Suggestions for annotating text can include labeling
and interpreting literary devices; labeling and explaining the writer’s
rhetorical devices and elements of style; or labeling the main ideas,
supportive details and/or evidence that leads the reader to a conclusion
about the text. There are many protocols/templates that can be used to
help guide the annotation: D.I.D.L.S., D.I.T.S., D.U.C.A.T.S.,
S.M.E.L.L., S.O.A.P.S.Tone, S.O.L.L.I.D.D.D., T.A.P.S.
Learning Log/Notebook Template
Targeted Reading Skills:
ü Condense or summarize ideas from one
or more texts
ü Distinguish between relevant and
irrelevant information
ü Compare/contrast information from one
or more texts
ü Make text-to-text, text-to-self, and/or
text-to-world connections
Objective: read closely to determine literal and inferential meaning,
determine central ideas and supporting details, and assess author’s point
of view – while attending to and citing specific textual evidence.
Learning experience: Learners will read and locate/synthesize
information
Student product: Text based notes to be used for writing, presenting or
discussing
Assessment: Teacher rubric, observation, essay or participation in
discussion
Rationale: Learning Logs and/or Note-taking Pages are useful when
reading, listening or observing. Students can focus on thinking about a
text or topic on the surface level and then at a deeper level with students
providing evidence to support their interpretations.
It requires students to engage by note taking, visually representing ideas,
and recording ideas in writing.
Self-generated Questions
Objective: read text closely: attending to details, language, and
perspective; posing and responding to text-dependent questions; and
analyzing connections and relationships to deepen understanding.
Learning experience: Learners will read and locate/synthesize
information and create 6 questions. They will share questions with group
and the group will submit 6 questions to be included on class quiz.
Student product: Personal notes/questions and Group generated
questions for quiz.
Assessment: Teacher rubric, observation, and participation in discussion
Rationale: Students pose questions about a text at different levels of

4. Getting CLOSE to the text to Read CLOSEly
Targeted Reading Skills:
ü Interpret and synthesize recurring
themes/ideas
ü Pose personally relevant questions
about texts
ü Relate new information to prior
reading and/or experience by making
text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-to-
world connections
comprehension and analysis. They share these questions and formulate
answers to each other's questions based on their discussion. The
questions should vary from "right there" questions, "think and search"
questions, "author and you" questions, and "on my own" questions.
Gist statements (#hashtags)
Targeted Reading Skills:
ü Condense or summarize ideas from
one or more texts
ü Distinguish between relevant and
irrelevant information
ü Compare/contrast information from
one or more texts
ü Make text-to-text, text-to-self,
and/or text-to-world connections
Objective: Accurately paraphrase sentences, keeping original meaning,
and changing the structure of the sentence if necessary
Learning experience: Learners will read and locate/synthesize
information and create a summary of 20-25 words.
Student product: Summary and 5 #hashtags.
Assessment: Teacher rubric and observation
Rationale: These strategies help students identify the
most important ideas in a text, put those ideas into
their own words, and then make connections
between among these important ideas. Students can
be asked to summarize a text using established parameters. Gist
statements call for a student to summarize text using a certain number
of words and #Hashtag statements call for a text to be labeled by
category or by internal feeling.
Text Discussions
Targeted Reading Skills:
ü Draw conclusions and make inferences
based on explicit and implied
information
ü Understand that one text may generate
multiple interpretations
Targeted Listening and Speaking Skills:
ü Express a viewpoint and listen to others’
perspectives in order to reach
consensus
Objective: analyze plot, characters, themes, setting, and language of the
text so that they are prepared to discuss and write about it.
Learning experience: Learners will read and locate/synthesize
information
Student product: Discussion questions that will drive the conversation
about the text.
Assessment: Teacher rubric, observation, essay or participation in
discussion
Rationale: Discussions often help students gain a deeper understanding
of text. In addition to requiring students to find textual evidence to
support their claims, this strategy encourages students to express their
own viewpoint while acknowledging their peers’ perspectives. These
discussions explore ideas, values, and issues drawn from the assigned
text. A successful seminar is focused on making meaning and not on
mastering information.
Close Reading can only be done if we require them to read with a
purpose!!

5. Getting CLOSE to the text to Read CLOSEly
Reading Focus - Author Techniques and Related Questions
Authors use a TECHNIQUE to create their message. Examine the technique and then identify why it is important
to the meaning of the text as a whole. What technique was used? Why was it used? How does it drive meaning?
What? technique Why? was it used How? does it drive meaning
Literary terms:
 Similes
 Metaphors
 Personification
 Figurative
language
 Symbols
What is being compared?
Why is the comparison effective? (typically because of
the clear, strong, or unusual connection between the
two)
What symbols are present? Why did the author choose
these symbols?
Literary Terms used to make a point
Analyze Dudley Randall’s use of language
in Ballad of Birmingham, especially the
figures of speech and syntax. How does
he use language to convey his state of
mind concerning the church burning/ civil
rights movement?
Word choice
What word(s) stand out? Why? (typically vivid words,
unusual choices, or a contrast to what a reader expects)
How do particular words get us to look at characters or
events in a particular way? Do they evoke an emotion?
Did the author use nonstandard English or words in
another language? Why? What is the effect?
Are there any words that could have more than one
meaning? Why might the author have played with
language in this way?
Language used to describe historical
and cultural influences
Describe major features of the language
used in one specific group – occupational,
ethnic, social, or age, etc. Indicate the
purpose these features serve or what
influences they reflect.
Textual evidence to support a position
Defend a position or one or more issues
raised in the poem about the Civil Rights
Movement.
Tone and voice
What one word describes the tone?
Is the voice formal or informal? If it seems informal, how
did the author make it that way? If it's formal, what
makes it formal?
Does the voice seem appropriate for the content?
Language/Literary devices used to
create tone
Define Dudley Randall’s attitude toward
the Civil Rights Movement and analyze
how he uses language to convey this
attitude.
Sentence structure
 Short sentence
 Long sentences
 Sentence
fragments
 Sentences in
which word
order is
important
 Questions
What stands out about the way this sentence is written?
Why did the author choose a short sentence here? (for
example, so it stands out from sentences around it, for
emphasis)
Why did the author make this sentence really long? (for
example, to convey the "on and on" sense of the
experience.)
Why did the author write a fragment here? (for example,
for emphasis or to show a character's thoughts)
Based on the order of the words in this sentence, which
word do you think is the most important? Why? What
was the author trying to show by placing a particular
word in a certain place?
Language used to influence theme,
characterization, etc?
Write an essay analyzing how language
functions in the poem, Ballad of
Birmingham by Dudley Randall and what it
reveals about the characters or themes of
the work as a whole.

6. Getting CLOSE to the text to Read CLOSEly
Mini-Rubrics to score student participation for Sharing Questions
When they ask questions, look for students to:
0 Ask simple or literal questions about the text
 Ask questions about motivation and cause and effect
+ Ask questions about the logic of an argument and author’s purpose
++ Explain the basis for their questions when asked
When they answer questions, look for students to:
0 Suggest literal answers or farfetched answers not related to the text
 Suggest simple answers that make sense
+ Support answers with evidence from the text
++ Recognize when questions are resolved and when they require further exploration
When they share notes or responses, look for students to:
0 State notes and responses and point out related passages in the text
 Give simple reasons for notes and responses
+ Explain interpretations of passages noted
++ Explain inferences based on specific words and phrases
When they respond to others’ comments, look for students to:
0 State their own unrelated comment
 Agree or disagree with another’s comment
+ Give reasons for agreeing or disagreeing with another’s comment
++ Add to or challenge specific aspects of another’s idea
Student Participation Record
Record a plus (+), check (),
or zero ( 0 ) for each student
SharedInquiry
discussion
Sharingquestions
Prereading
Firstreading
Secondreading
Directed
orinterpretivenotes
Vocabulary
Writing
John Smith       
Jack Holmes    + + + + +
Boris Coleman + + +   

7. Getting CLOSE to the text to Read CLOSEly
Name_______________________________________________Date_______________Pd_______
Dudley Randall, “Ballad of Birmingham” from Cities Burning (On the bombing of a church in Birmingham,
Alabama, 1963)
“Mother dear, may I go downtown
Instead of out to play,
And march the streets of Birmingham
In a Freedom March today?”
“No, baby, no, you may not go,
For the dogs are fierce and wild,
And clubs and hoses, guns and jails
Aren’t good for a little child.”
“But, mother, I won’t be alone.
Other children will go with me,
And march the streets of Birmingham
To make our country free.”
“No, baby, no, you may not go,
For I fear those guns will fire.
But you may go to church instead
And sing in the children’s choir.”
She has combed and brushed her night-dark hair,
And bathed rose petal sweet,
And drawn white gloves on her small brown
hands,
And white shoes on her feet.
The mother smiled to know her child
Was in the sacred place,
But that smile was the last smile
To come upon her face.
For when she heard the explosion,
Her eyes grew wet and wild.
She raced through the streets of Birmingham
Calling for her child.
She clawed through bits of glass and brick,
Then lifted out a shoe.

8. Getting CLOSE to the text to Read CLOSEly
“O, here’s the shoe my baby wore,
But, baby, where are you?”
Dudley Randall, “Ballad of Birmingham” from Cities Burning. Copyright © 1968 by Dudley Randall. Reprinted with the
permission of the Estate of Dudley Randall. Source: Cities Burning (Broadside Press, 1968)
Technique lang/lit? (line #) Importance?
Gist Statement re: importance of techniques used
2 Hashtags