Common Core Close Reading: How to Closely Read Text

What does it mean to closely read text?  Closely reading text is a much deeper interaction with a reading passage than just rereading or highlighting information. It involves looking at the word choice an author uses and why those words are important.  Watch our helpful YouTube videos.

                       Click Here To Watch Helpful Videos

Closely reading is almost like having a conversation with the author in which a reader questions and analyzes information.  

Click Here For Close Reading Literature Task Cards

Click Here For Close Reading Informational Text Task Cards

Common Core requests for students to closely read text because it goes beyond answering comprehension questions and gets students to analyze how words and ideas work together to convey ideas.

Click Here For The Previous Common Core Close Reading Grades 3-5 Blog Post

Click Here For The Common Core Close Reading Middle School Blog Post

Common Core Number and Operations Fractions Activities

Are you ready for Common Core?  If you are nervous, please don't be.  A variety of teaching ideas will be posted to make the transition to Common Core much easier.  

This blog post provides fun hands-on ideas to teach the Common Core Math Standards and most particularly the Common Core Number and Operations Fractions section of the standards.  CCSS.4.NF.A.1, CCSS.4.NF.A.2,

CCSS.4.NF.B.1, 5.NF.A.1, and more standards.

Many of the Common Core Standards want students to be able to understand math concepts in the visual format as well as the numerical format.  Clothespins and paint sticks are great because students can touch, hold, and see the differences between fractional amounts and improper fractions.

To recreate this, draw a number line on a paint stick.  Each paint stick can be divided into different fractional amounts.  Write different fractions on clothespins.  Include mixed numbers and improper fractions.

Students can then place the clothespin at the appropriate point on the blank number line.

Possible Ideas:

~Students can use paint sticks to add or subtract fractions.

~Use to help students visualize the meaning of mixed numbers or improper fractions.

~Determine which fractional amount is missing on the number line.

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Why Should You Use Daily Reading Practice?

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Would you like quick, daily Common Core Reading practice that could be completed in just a few minutes each day?

Try out my resource for free!  The Common Core Standard is written next to each question.  Weekly progress charts are also included.Click Here To Access It

Nonfiction and fiction passages are included across the weeks.

Why should you use daily reading practice?  Daily Common Core Reading enables students to review reading skills in small, manageable doses.  It works well as daily morning practice, as a bellringer, or even as nightly homework.

200 THIRD GRADE READING PASSAGES FOR NEXT YEAR! (Pssst... DEEP DISCOUNT)

There are just a few days left for this sale. Access a full year of Daily Common Core reading today. Follow the link to access more grade levels.

Now is an excellent time to start thinking about some of the resources you'll need for next year. Literacy and Math Ideas has PLENTY of year-end products and resources ready for immediate download!! In particular, we would like to remind you all about one of our best-selling resources. Literacy and Math Ideas has a FULL YEAR of reading passages specifically targeted for the 3rd grade!! Think about that for a second... That's 40 full weeks… 200 passages in all!!

These passages can be used as morning bell ringers, in class assignments or homework! The passages are also aligned to Common Core. Additionally, each passage has 2 comprehension related questions, a weekly checklist, and a different passage for each day of the week.

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What topics do these passages cover?

With this product, your students will be exposed to a variety of topics including historical fiction, folktales, poetry, informational text, literature and more! This resource is sure to facilitate the critical reading foundation needed in the 3rd grade and beyond!

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Different Types of Main Idea Questions

I am a stickler for making sure that students understand what questions are asking them to do.  When I work with students across grade levels, I spend part of the time on question comprehension.  Understanding what a question is asking one to do is the first step.  There are several ways to word a main idea question.  These are the most common formats and also the ones that can be tricky for students.

I begin the unit with main idea manipulatives to help students conceptualize what main idea means.  I use several manipulatives that I create using bean bags, puzzles, etc. After years of seeing so many math counters, fraction circles, etc., I started developing my own reading comprehension skill manipulatives.  I have only posted main idea manipulatives so far and will soon be posting other skills. Click Here for Main Idea Manipulatives

As students read, they have to highlight information in the text that helps them to identify the main idea of a text.  

To reinforce main idea and other Common Core reading skills, students complete quick, daily Common Core practice.  I developed very short paragraphs with two Common Core questions for daily five minute review when students first enter the classroom.  I have always used bell ringers and the math problem of the day  I could not find anything like that for comprehension to keep skills sharp so I created my own for the different grade levels that I see daily.Click Here for Daily Common Core Reading Practice

When students rotate to their learning centers, they do main idea task cards.  Since I work with so many grade levels and students vary in ability levels, I made differentiated task cards to cover all bases.Click Here for Differentiated Main Idea Task Cards

Strategies to Boost Reading Scores

I am sorry, but I must say the phrase. Common Core.  For some students, the Common Core Assessment is no big deal. For others, it causes frustration.  This blog post provides classroom tested strategies that have boosted the reading performance of below and on-level students.  Even better, the strategies take very little extra preparation.

Strategy 1:
Expose students to extra reading passages, and discuss them for just five minutes a day. 

Benefits
Students build vocabulary knowledge and tackle harder text with extra support.

What to Use:
Daily Common Core Reading Passages or Short passages from magazines.  Organize magazine articles by topic.  Discuss them for a few minutes a day.  Over time, students begin to learn vocabulary words and learn how to tackle harder text.  This is what I did everyday until I created Daily Common Core Reading.

Strategy 2:
Teach thematically.  When I first began teaching, I mostly focused on skills.  Week one we worked on main idea, week two we worked on inferences, etc.  After further research on theme based teaching, I decided to give it a try.  It works!  Even my lowest performing students that had previously struggled for years made great leaps.  I still teach these topics, but I do it now in the context of  a theme such as animal adaptations, how societies or communities change over time, etc.

Strategy 3:
Assess students on how well they apply reading strategies.  Students must explain how a specific passage is connected to an overall theme.  They must explain how ideas in a passage advance the author's main idea or the plot.  Often, students know they should apply strategies, but they do not always consistently use them.

Strategy 4:
Read higher grade level text to students, and encourage them to read specific types of texts.  As soon as I began to read to students (even my older ones), I was able to make them into believers.  I highly encourage using high-interest quick text.  You can use these short high interest stories or read Goosebumps to lower grade level students, Gary Paulson stories to intermediate grade levels, and odd but true stories to middle school students.  Gradually, shift students to reading magazines such as National Geographic for Kids, (selected articles) from the Economist (middle school students), etc. Students have to gradually read more complex text in order to grow as readers.

Strategy 5:
Make use of those dead periods in the day to double dose instruction.  The first ten minutes of the school day, the beginning of a class period, and even the end of the school day are good.  I take those times to give students targeted extra practice at their own levels. This is especially helpful if you have students that do not do read at home.  The extra 15 minutes of targeted reading (with progress charts) adds up and really helps.  

Daily Common Core Reading Passages

 

Boost Common Core Reading Scores
Common Core Reading

Using High-Interest Nonfiction Passages To Build Comprehension

The more students know about a topic, the more they tend to like it.  Students love reading fiction.  The tricky part is trying to get them to read informational text.

Doing something as easy as taking a nature hike might be enough to grab their interest.  I love nature and enjoy going into the field to experience nature before I write about it.

The pioneers and Native Americans made salads

using dandelion leaves.

I foraged for native plants that have been used throughout history for food.  I would not recommend doing this with a class, but teaching students an unusual fact about plants that are in their own backyards can spark interest in reading more about plants.

Black walnut seeds provide food for squirrels and other rodents.  They also are the home of maggots that
keep safe in the warm layer under the outer shell of this seed.

This is a picture of a wild plant called bloodroot.  It is an ephemeral.

Ephemerals are plants that bloom for just a few weeks out of the year.

They grow in early spring before larger plants are able to grow and 

compete with them for sunlight.

Click Here for Weird and Gross Passages

(Morning Work) Daily Common Core Practice in Just 5 Minutes a Day

 

 

 

(Multiple Grade Levels are Available) These high-interest passages review the Common Core Reading Standards in just five minutes per day.  Historical fiction, realistic fiction, poetry, informational text,drama/plays, fantasy, and science fiction passages are all included to give your students quick, daily practice at your grade level. Common Core Standards are written right next to each short passage for easy progress monitoring. Best of all, the passages are thematic so each week, students build important reading, science, and social studies knowledge as they review each standard.  

Click Here To Access Grade 2 Weeks 1-5 Bundled Together

Click Here To Access Grade 3

Click Here To Access Grade 4

Click Here To Access Grade 5

Click Here To Access Grade 6

Click Here To Access Grade 7

Click Here To Access Grade 8

Free Common Core Literacy Center Planing Form

Hello Everyone!
I am back with a free planning form.  Can you believe the year has moved by so quickly? As you begin to plan for next school year, I want to provide a free literacy center planning form.

Click Here To Access It

Additional Learning Center Resources

  Access Main Idea Bundle 

Access Task Cards 

                                                                Access Leveled Passages

Access Critical Thinking Cards

Guided Reading Task Cards That Are Organized By Lexile Level and Guided Reading Level

Click Here for Guided Reading Levels A to I

Click Here For Lexile Ranges 500-699 and Guided Reading Levels N,O,P

Click Here

(****Follow any link to access additional levels and reading comprehension topics****)

Just released!  Thank you guys so much for the feedback about the task cards.  As a fellow educator, I understand what it is like to look for materials that meet the needs of each student.  

These task cards are unique because they are organized by guided reading levels.  Plus, they are also organized by Lexile levels too. This makes it much easier to monitor student progress and help students at their individual levels.  Click the link to access these task cards and more at other levels too.Click Here

Click Here For Compare and Contrast Cards

Click Here For Inference Guided Reading Levels 

J,K,L, and M