Reading Closely for Textual Details Units

Description

This unit develops students’ abilities to read closely for textual details and compare authors’ perspectives through an examination of a series of texts about United States education.

The unit activities are organized into five parts, each associated with short texts. The parts build on each other and can each span a range of instructional time depending on scheduling and student ability.

Part 1 introduces students to the idea of reading closely for details through an examination of a range of text types. Part 2 introduces students to a particular process for close reading that involves questioning the text—at first generally and then in text-specifi c ways—to help them focus on important textual ideas and characteristics. Part 3 develops student pro ficiency by analyzing textual details for making comparisons across texts. Parts 4 and 5 develop students’ abilities to express their analysis, first through writing text-based explanations in Part 4 and then, in Part 5, through facilitating and participating in text-centered discussions.