Common Core, Close Reading, & Teaching for Biliteracy
Is Close Reading helpful for language learners? Participants in Edgewood’s Biliteracy Development this Spring engaged in a discussion around the article Implementing the Common Core State Standards: A Primer on “Close Reading of Text” (Kappes and Brown, 2012). This blog post captures their insights on this hot topic!
Bilingual Teacher Katie Spurgeon summarizes key points of the reading: “Paraphrased in part, this article defines close reading as: ‘an investigation of a short piece of text with multiple re-readings over multiple lessons in order to unlock new levels of meaning with each read.’ Through this technique, readers will come to appreciate rhetorical devices, poetry, context, vocabulary and much more, while becoming independent at unpacking the language of a text…It teaches the transferable skill of being able to strategically comprehend and glean meaning from an unfamiliar text, unsupported, which can be used across content areas. Furthermore, it causes the reader to analyze and synthesize their knowledge against the text’s information to form inferences and new ideas; also known as critical reasoning.”
Katie writes, “One key note about this technique is that it specifically avoids the pre-teaching of background knowledge as a textual support, because it would devalue the art of closely reading and make it less meaningful.” For bilingual teacher Josie Lunar, this aspect of close reading leads to questions around its effectiveness with language learners. Josie explains, “According to Brown and Kappes (2012), ‘Previewing the content of the text undermines the value of a Close Reading exercise’ (p.3). When I draw upon pedagogy for teaching language learners, I feel that close reading interferes with our practices of using student language and experiences to develop background knowledge and academic oral language when starting a unit. Close reading requires students to truly get involved with the text and that is something that I would love for my students to do, but I can’t expect them to that if they are not able to draw from their own experiences.” Josie’s reflections echo some of the key tenets of teaching for biliteracy described in Chapter 6 and 7 – that providing a concrete experience coupled with prereading, prewriting, and speaking activities are critical for language learners to contextualize what they read. Josie’s concerns about close reading and background knowledge were shared with the majority of her classmates.
Supports may be helpful, but can supports prevent independence? Ashley Peirick reflects: “My question for you after reading your post is, how do you build in rigor with a text if you are not using the close reading strategy? If ELLs are never given the opportunity to do so, what happens when they take AP coursework or are in college and are expected to have understanding of a text in which they have no background knowledge? If you leave this strategy out completely, my fear is that we are setting them up to fail later on in life.” Ashley believes that equity for language learners calls for giving them access to grade-level standards and grade-level texts. Compassion and over-scaffolding can easily lead us to lower our expectations.
Classmate Jacob Budde contributes to the chain of reason: “The article fails to account for the difficulty of the said “belief” of readiness in response to rigor… At this point, who makes the “call” of the “just right” amount of background knowledge that we know to be essential for our language learners? While the authors mention Gradual Release of Responsibility (see page 4, first paragraph), they don’t take into account where building background knowledge is housed within the greater cycle of unit and lesson planning…” Perhaps the real charge of bilingual teachers is in intentional unit design. Teachers need to be thoughtful about creating an instructional plan for learners that honors students’ cultural and linguistic experiences, and deliberate in planning supports that give access and ultimately lead to independence. For more on this topic, visit the article Supporting English Language Learners by Sheena Hervey, Generation Ready.
As in most areas of teaching for biliteracy, a closer examination reveals its complexity! The following are some ways bilingual teachers might draw upon what reading closely can offer our students, and still stay true to practices we know are helpful for teaching for biliteracy:
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- Capitalize on helpful aspects of close reading (Josie Lunar): “[Teachers can] focus on the linguistic elements of the text. When presented with the text, our students can focus on vocabulary, and grammar, and syntax which will help our students understand the author’s style of writing. Semantically, a close reading text can help our students develop word meaning and it will help them develop a sensitivity to all the connotations of a language being used in the text.”
- Blend and Balance (Ashley Peirick): “I think that close reading can be incorporated into a unit, maybe not exactly as it is prescribed in the article, but it could be blended with other strategies that we know are beneficial for all students and their learning.”
- Think critically and advocate: (Mariela Dinsmore): “Me pregunto a si mismo cual es la población que se ha tomado en cuenta para establecer el “gap” existente entre las demandas de la lectura y las expectativas. Estoy de acuerdo en que las expectativas tienen que ser iguales para todos los estudiantes, pero no todos los estudiantes son iguales y tampoco aprenden de la misma forma y/o tienen la misma capacidad para procesar información.”
Mariela Dinsmore, Ashley Perick, Jacob Budde, Katie Spurgeon, Josie Lunar,
K DLI teacher Gr 2 DLI teacher Gr 6 DLI teacher Gr 1 ELI teacher Gr 5 DLI teacher
Madison, WI Watertown, WI Madison, WI Madison, WI Wauskesha, WI
To readers: Is close reading helpful for language learners? Post a comment!
