Close Reading and Text Dependent Questions

This past school year I really worked hard to try and incorporate more close reading skills and text dependent questions into my reading instruction.

First, I had to figure out what exactly close reading was.  Here are a few books and web posts that I found really helpful:

Close Read Complex Text and Annotate With Tech
great post with lots of good links

10 Super Innovative Teacher Ideas for Close Reading
another good post with a lot of helpful information and links


Text Dependent Questions- Grades K-5 by Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey

Falling in Love with Close Reading by Christopher Lehman and Kate Roberts

Once I wrapped my head around close reading strategies and thought about how I could use it in my classroom I gave it a try with a couple TIME for Kids articles and short fiction passages.  I was amazed at how hard it was for my 5th graders to find actual proof from the text to support their thinking.  I had wrongly assumed that this would be a simple task we would simply gloss over.  NOPE!

We worked on text dependent questions A LOT this spring, and I was excited when my kiddos finally started to get it, and I heard them discussing books on their own and saying things like "yeah, because on page 23 it said....".  YES!  They actually took the time, on their own, to go back and find proof to support their reasoning when discussing a book.  

I wanted to have an easy to use resource that would allow me to have a large quantity of text dependent question stems close by at any time so I could hit the different reading standards with a variety of text dependent questions.  

 I created a set of text dependent question cards that have worked wonderfully for me!  They are organized by each common core reading standard and there are a variety of questions to go with each standard.  There are over 190 different question prompt cards covering fiction and non-fiction!

They can be hole punched, organized on a binder ring, and kept close by for those times when you want to throw in a TDQ!  You can print them on white card stock with the colored boarders, or print them in black and white on bright colored card stock.  

 You can find this resource in my Teachers Pay Teachers store if you are interested in getting the whole set of over 190 different text dependent question stem cards!

Happy Reading!

Non-Fiction Reading

Last week I started a new unit on reading non-fiction. My students love listening to me read nonfiction to them, but I rarely see them pick up a nonfiction book and read it themselves.

I am hoping that  exposing them to many different topics and types of nonfiction will pique their interest and encourage them to pick up a nonfiction book.

We started by charting the characteristics of both fiction and nonfiction.  At first they were kind of stuck on real/non real, so it took a bit of prompting to get them to think beyond that.  Once they got going they were able to come up with many characteristics.

The following day we brainstormed different forms of non-fiction texts.  Again, they got stuck on the basics, and kept naming different types of books (a book about whales, a book about Texas....) .  It took some prompting to get them to realize that nonfiction writing is found in so many things we see everyday, not just books.  

We made this chart listing different types of nonfiction texts, and I added some visuals so they could see examples of the different items we brainstormed.

My class is now more excited to read nonfiction, after seeing all the different types of nonfiction there is.

Next we will be talking about nonfiction text features and then moving into main idea and details.

Do you have any favorite resources for teaching nonfiction reading?