Standards Putting the Assessment Tools to Work
Assessing Standard 1 (Textual Evidence)
Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
Notice key details in a text
Notice Key Details in a Text: Active Reader Cards
Assessment Tool
Active Reader Cards: Noticing Key Details
Purpose
Although most of the cards and frames in this book support explicit comprehension follow-up lessons, this card is intended for use during the initial close reading lesson. It’s aimed at noticing key details in a text, an essential prerequisite to the deeper analysis we will expect of students when they return to the text for rereading. If students become more proficient “noticers,” they will be more independent in their close reading and not as reliant on teachers’ text-dependent questions to retrieve meaning from what they read.
How to Use the Active Reader Cards
1 Photocopy and cut apart the Active Reader Cards: Noticing Key Details and provide one card to each student at the outset of an initial close reading lesson. Alternatively, you could display the poster-size image of the magnifying glass retrieved from the companion website (http://resources.corwin.com/boyleslessons/k-2.htm).
2 Tell students this is their “magic magnifying glass” and it will help them spot important clues in the text to help them understand it better. Point out some helpful clues to notice: something that’s new (additional information they may be getting about a character, the problem, or in informational text; something they didn’t know before), something that’s surprising, or something that’s confusing. They may notice other details they’d like to share, as well.
3 When you pause your reading after each chunk of text, invite students to share a detail they’ve noticed before launching into the text-dependent questions designated for that part of the text. As students become better at observing key details, they’ll likely address many of the points in your questions before you even have to ask them. (Note that this recommendation, to have students share their own details before you ask specific questions, is specified on all planners for the Initial Close Reading Lesson at the top of the “During Reading” section.)
4 As you respond to students’ observations, ask them to go a little deeper: Was this a detail that was new, surprising, or confusing? How does this detail help them understand the story or information better? (They might say something like “Now I know more about this character. I can picture that she is a bully.” Or, “I was confused at first. I was wondering what that animal was on this page, and now I know.” Any insight that taps the meaning of the text is acceptable. Asking follow-up questions such as these will make sure that students are prepared for the accompanying Reader Response Frame if you choose to use it.
5 Collect the cards at the end of the lesson so they may be reused another time.
6 You can differentiate this lesson by asking students to look for just one type of detail, or ask students to consider additional kinds of details, such as words a scientist might need to know, words to use in their writing, sentences they can visualize, or ideas that make them curious.
Active Reader Cards: Noticing Key Details
Notice Key Details in a Text: Reader Response Frame
Assessment Tool
Reader Response Frame: Noticing Key Details
Purpose
The Reader Response Frame: Noticing Key Details asks students to put into writing the same kinds of observations they made orally using their Active Reader Card. It would be appropriate to use this frame after any initial close reading lesson or, in fact, any lesson in which you want students to tune in to textual evidence.
Tips for Evaluating Students’ Responses
In addition to the criteria noted for evaluating any written response,
1 Look for a detail that is not only new, surprising, or confusing, but important in some way to the meaning of the text and illustrates the kind of detail that the student claims. (For example, if the student is claiming this is “new information,” it should actually be the first place in the text this information is revealed.)
2 Look for an explanation of why the detail is important that makes sense and really could impact understanding. Look for the same kind of reasoning noted earlier under Step 4 of “How to Use the Active Reader Cards”; now we just want students to put this reasoning on paper.
Reader Response Frame: Noticing Key Details
Assessing Standard 2 (Development of Ideas)
Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.
Summarize a story
Identify details that support a central idea
The tricky thing about this standard is that it measures both theme identification and summarizing. As students move into the upper grades, these concepts are often combined into a single response. In the lower grades, it appears that this standard will be measured with two different kinds of tasks: identifying the theme in a text and summarizing a text. Those will be our two focal points for assessment under this standard.
Summarize a Story: Active Reader Cards
Assessment Tool
Active Reader Cards: Summarizing a Story
Purpose
The purpose of these cards is to emphasize to students that everything they need to know about story text begins with an understanding of the story parts. These cards are a hands-on reminder that as they read a story they should always be on the lookout for the characters, setting, problem, actions that precede the solution, and the ending. Then after reading, they should use these story elements to put together a brief summary: “Little Red Riding Hood was walking through the woods one day. Her problem started when she talked to a wolf. It got bigger when the wolf got to her granny’s house before she did and tried to eat Granny. The woodcutter saved Granny and everyone lived happily ever after.” These cards have been modified slightly to work better for primary students. However, no set of cards can match every story you will read. Modify the cards as needed. I frequently use enlarged versions of these cards during reading so we can all focus on the same card simultaneously. You can find these larger cards on the companion website (http://resources.corwin.com/boyleslessons/k-2.htm).
How to Use the Active Reader Cards
1 Copy and cut apart the Active Reader Cards: Summarizing a Story for students to use at the end of your lesson, making