Lessons and Units for Closer Reading, Grades K-2. Nancy Boyles

Texts for This UnitThe End-of-Unit Text Connection Lesson: Questions to PoseFable to Begin the Unit: The Wind and the SunClose Reading Lessons for Melissa Parkington’s Beautiful, Beautiful HairClose Reading Lessons for Mama Panya’s Pancakes: A Village Tale From KenyaClose Reading Lessons for Each KindnessClose Reading Lessons for Ivan: The Remarkable True Story of the Shopping Mall GorillaLearning Pathway: How to Study an AnimalUnit Focus: How Are Animals the Same? How Are Animals Different?The RationaleGetting Ready: Tips and MaterialsThe Unit Preview Lesson: Questions to PoseThe Kickoff Lesson: Questions to PoseThe Weekly Lessons: How the Texts, Lessons, and Assessments AlignOther Excellent Texts for This UnitThe End-of-Unit Text Connection Lesson: Questions to PoseFable to Begin the Unit: The Hare and the TortoiseClose Reading Lessons for Panda KindergartenClose Reading Lessons for Antarctic Antics: A Book of Penguin PoemsClose Reading Lessons for Surprising SharksClose Reading Lessons for Turtle, Turtle, Watch Out!Learning Pathway: How to Study a PersonUnit Focus: How Can You Make a Difference—Even if You’re a Kid?The RationaleGetting Ready: Tips and MaterialsThe Unit Preview Lesson: Questions to PoseThe Kickoff Lesson: Questions to PoseThe Weekly Lessons: How the Texts, Lessons, and Assessments AlignOther Excellent Texts for This UnitThe End-of-Unit Text Connection Lesson: Questions to PoseFable to Begin the Unit: The Lion and the MouseClose Reading Lessons for BlizzardClose Reading Lessons for The Wednesday SurpriseClose Reading Lessons for Rosie Revere, EngineerClose Reading Lessons for The Story of Ruby BridgesLearning Pathway: How to Study a PlaceUnit Focus: What Is Special About This Place?The RationaleGetting Ready: Tips and MaterialsThe Unit Preview Lesson: Questions to PoseThe Kickoff Lesson: Questions to PoseThe Weekly Lessons: How the Texts, Lessons, and Assessments AlignOther Excellent Texts for This UnitThe End-of-Unit Text Connection Lesson: Questions to PoseFable to Begin the Unit: The Lion and the DolphinClose Reading Lessons for AntarcticaClose Reading Lessons for Fernando’s GiftClose Reading Lessons for Creatures of the Desert WorldClose Reading Lessons for America the Beautiful: Together We StandLearning Pathway: How to Study a ThemeUnit Focus: Why Is It Important to Make Good Choices?The RationaleGetting Ready: Tips and MaterialsThe Unit Preview Lesson: Questions to PoseThe Kickoff Lesson: Questions to PoseThe Weekly Lessons: How the Texts, Lessons, and Assessments AlignOther Excellent Texts for This UnitThe End-of-Unit Text Connection Lesson: Questions to PoseFable to Begin the Unit: The Two FrogsClose Reading Lessons for Fireflies!Close Reading Lessons for Those ShoesClose Reading Lessons for Maddi’s FridgeClose Reading Lessons for The Empty Pot

      9  References

      Foreword

       Tanny McGregor

      No doubt about it, I’m a middle-aged teacher. Like most teachers around my age, I often look back at education and think about how things have changed. Take picture books, for example. I remember how, in the 1980s, finding a great picture book would energize my spirit and serve as the foundation for solid instruction in my classroom. I could cross the curriculum with a picture book. I could integrate the arts, stimulate meaningful conversation, and give my students yet another opportunity to love reading a little bit more. I recall countless conversations with colleagues about books and authors, about units and ideas. In the hallway, the parking lot, and even in the ladies room, we talked about picture books.

      It sure seems like things have changed. One of my teaching partners recently said to me wistfully, “Remember when we used to get together and talk about books?” The teachers I know feel so bogged down with mandates, assessments, and increasing workloads that conversations about books seem a luxury, something from a gilded age of teaching and learning that has slipped into the past. Many of the topics that occupy our thought life now seem to drain our energy, not charge it. If we are not careful, we might wake up one day to realize our instruction has become about toeing the line rather than teaching the child—and bland, like our lives would become without books.

      It does not have to be this way. Even with changing standards and a restless political atmosphere, meaningful instruction can still hold its own, and picture books can actually work to unite all the disparate instructional pieces. Yes, some things have changed. But some things will always stay the same: we need picture books. They can help us make meaning out of the chaos in our lives, and, most important of all, books bring a child into an everlasting relationship with reading.

      So it is a rather happy event that Lessons and Units for Closer Reading, Grades K–2 is entering our teaching lives because Nancy Boyles understands. She knows how so much around us has changed. She recognizes the current state of affairs, but she holds on tightly to what matters in the classroom. In this book, Nancy takes what some think of as “new” instructional terms and demands, like rigorous standards, complex text, and close reading, and shows how these practices can live in harmony with beautiful, engaging picture books. She shows us that close, attentive reading of an author and illustrator’s meaning is, to quote the Talking Heads, same as it ever was. So this book reassures teachers like me to the same degree that it instructs.

      It is no accident that Nancy uses words like coherence, connections, and global understandings in these pages. Through her unit and lesson design, she brings that coherence to us in incremental, practical ways—ways that new and experienced teachers can easily absorb into their teaching practices. Nancy is giving us what we want—specific lesson ideas based on a solid framework that uses children’s literature—but it is actually what we need, too. We need to be reminded that the rigor and cognitive demand that some think of as 21st century instruction can meld with the beauty and simplicity of words and pictures . . . in books made for children.

      Acknowledgments

      With heartfelt gratitude to the Corwin team:

      Lisa Luedeke, publisher—for continuing to include me in the Corwin Literacy author family

      Rebecca Eaton, marketing director—for thinking outside the box to reach out to audiences in new ways

      Wendy Murray, editor—for being the most wonderful editor an author could possibly wish for: smart, insightful, an amazing writing mentor, and occasionally available for phone consultation early on a weekend morning (post-coffee, of course)

      Melanie Birdsall, production editor—for her eye for detail and patience coping with my marginal tech skills

      Julie Nemer, editorial development manager—for turning the student forms into pages with WOW factor.

      Gail Buschman, graphic designer—for a book cover that captures the color and spirit of the K–2 classroom.

      And on the home front:

      My daughter Caitlin and husband Ron, for their good will in tolerating all the time

      I spend in front of my computer each day—and for fortifying me with dark chocolate and cups of tea.

      Courtesy of Rick Harrington Photography

      Reading Closely in K–2 Guidelines for Getting Started

      Simply stated, close reading means uncovering layers of meaning in a text. In many respects, effective K–2 teachers have always engaged in the actions and