UNIT 1

READING CLOSELY

FOR TEXTUAL DETAILS

DEVELOPING CORE LITERACY
PROFICIENCIES

GRADE 6

“The wolf you feed”

images

GOAL

In this unit you will develop your proficiency as an investigator of texts. You will learn how to do the following:

  1. Examine things closely (images, videos, websites, and texts).
  2. Ask and use questions to guide your close examination.
  3. Find the key details—clues—that tell you something.
  4. Make connections among those details.
  5. Use those connections to develop an observation or conclusion.

TOPIC

In this unit—titled “The wolf you feed” (a quote from an Indian legend)—you will be learning about the ways humans have viewed the wolf over time and what we now know and think about the hunting and social behavior of wolves. You will study some fascinating pictures of wolves, watch a video, explore websites, and read short informational texts and a story that present various views of wolves.

ACTIVITIES

You will start by examining a set of photos and graphic images to develop your skills of looking closely for key details, then work on these same skills with a video and websites. When you read, the details you look for will be things such as key information or statistics, explanations, and pictures the author creates through images and sentences. You’ll also look for important words that you need to understand because they tell you something about the topic and how the author views it. You will learn how to use questions the way an expert investigator does—in this case to dig deeply into what you are seeing or reading. Those questions will also guide the discussions you will have with other students and your teacher. From your investigation of the texts, you will come to your own understanding of the topic of wolves and their behavior—which you will then share with others through a final written explanation and a discussion you will lead.

READING CLOSELY FOR TEXTUAL DETAILS LITERACY TOOLBOX

In Reading Closely for Textual Details, you will begin to build your “literacy toolbox” by learning how to use the following handouts, tools and checklists organized in your Student Edition.

TOOLS

To support your work with the texts, you will learn how to use the following tools:

Approaching the Text Tool

This two-part tool helps you prepare to read a text closely. It provides places to think about what you initially know about the text as you approach it—your purpose for reading, the author, publication date, and so on. It also lets you record several questions that you can use to do a first reading and then a rereading of the text.

Analyzing Details Tool

This four-part tool supports you in developing and using the key skills of the unit: searching for and selecting key details or quotations, recording references from the text about where you found the details and quotations, analyzing what those details mean to you as a reader, and connecting the details to form your understanding of the text.

Questioning Path Tool

This graphic organizer will provide places for you to record questions you or your teacher want to think about as you read a particular text. You will be able to record general Guiding Questions and also questions that are very specific to the text you are reading. What you record in the Questioning Path Tool can help you initially approach the text, question it during a first reading and investigation, analyze it further, deepen your understanding, and extend your reading and thinking to other questions and texts.

Model Questioning Paths

For each text you will read, there is a Questioning Path Tool that has been filled out for you to frame and guide your reading. These model Questioning Paths are just starting points, and your teacher or you may prefer to develop your own paths. The model paths are organized by the steps from the Reading Closely Graphic (approaching, questioning, analyzing, deepening, and extending) and include general Guiding Questions from the Guiding Questions Handout and some questions that are specific to each text and its content. You will use these model paths to guide your reading, frame your discussions with your teacher and other students, and help you when you are doing the final activities in the unit.

HANDOUTS

To support your work with the texts and the tools, you will be able to use the following informational handouts:

Reading Closely Graphic

This graphic helps you understand the relationship among the various steps you will follow as you use questions to read a text closely: approaching, questioning, analyzing, deepening, and extending.

Guiding Questions Handout

This handout organizes a set of good, general questions to use when you are reading any text—called Guiding Questions. The questions are organized in rows that match the questioning process in the Reading Closely Graphic (approaching, questioning, analyzing, deepening, and extending) and also by four areas that we often pay attention to when we read a text.

Attending to Details Handout

This handout presents descriptions and examples of the kinds of details you might look for as you read a text, for example, facts and statistics, explanations of things, images and word pictures, technical terms, and so on.

Text-Based Explanation—Final Writing and Discussion Assignment

This handout will explain to you what you will be doing in the two-part final assignment for this unit: (1) writing a multiparagraph explanation of an understanding you have come to about the topic and one of the texts and (2) participating in and leading a discussion of your text and how it compares to others in the unit. The handout will also help you know what your teacher will be looking for so you can be successful on the assignments.

CHECKLISTS

You will also use this checklist throughout the unit to support peer- and self-review:

Reading Closely Skills and Habits Checklist

This checklist presents and briefly describes the Literacy Skills and Habits you will be working on during the unit. You can use it to remind you of what you are trying to learn. You can also use it to reflect on what you have done when reading, discussing, or writing. It can help you give feedback to other students. Your teacher may use it to let you know about your areas of strength and areas in which you need to improve.