metaphor, simile, and paradox, among others. Some of them are specific to an era, region, or social group and, thus, can confuse readers.
Interpret: Best understood as a way of explaining what someone said or wrote using more accessible, familiar language for those who lack experience with or knowledge of the subject or this type of text.
Key terms: In highly technical or scientific subjects, certain terms are an essential part of the precision and accuracy that discipline demands. In some subjects, a certain term (e.g., evolution, uncertainty, or entropy) represents a specific idea or applies to a very precise process.
Court opinion: A statement announcing a decision after a case is tried. The judge summarizes the facts, reads the applicable law, explains how it relates to the case, provides the rationale behind the decision, and states the judgment, which is usually written.
Shape meaning or tone: Certain words carry added, often implied meanings; we describe these as “loaded words,” for they have the power to affect the meaning of the words around them or to influence the speaker’s tone (e.g., turning it from sincere to ironic).
Symbols: In humanities classes, a symbol suggests some greater meaning when it is attached to an idea; thus, the bald eagle symbolizes the American spirit; in science and math, however, symbols represent operations, procedures, and concepts such as change (∆) or pi (π).
Technical meanings: These would be words with specialized meanings specific to the subject being investigated, explained, or argued about; one example might be the distinctions made between political philosophies, such as libertarian and republican.
Tone—informal and formal: When thinking of tone, think about tone of voice. The formal tone of the Constitution matches its importance and subject; the informal tone of a literary text signals the relationship between the individuals and reveals the character of the speaker.
Words and phrases as they are used in a text: The point of close reading is to understand what the text really says; to do this, students must scrutinize the words and phrases used by the author as they are the key to determining what the author really means or what the text says; also, they are an essential source of evidence.
Uses and refines the meaning of a key term over the course of a text: When first introduced, certain words establish a general idea that the author, through repeated and careful use, refines in an attempt to invest in it more meaning and importance each time it is used.
Planning to Teach: What to Do—and How
Reading Standards: Craft and Structure
Reading 5: Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to one another and the whole.
9–10 Literature
Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise.
11–12 Literature
Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact.
9–10 Informational Text
Analyze in detail how an author’s ideas or claims are developed and refined by particular sentences, paragraphs, or larger portions of a text (e.g., a section or chapter).
11–12 Informational Text
Analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the structure an author uses in his or her exposition or argument, including whether the structure makes points clear, convincing, and engaging.
9–10 History/Social Studies
Analyze how a text uses structure to emphasize key points or advance an explanation or analysis.
11–12 History/Social Studies
Analyze in detail how a complex primary source is structured, including how key sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text contribute to the whole.
9–10 Science/Technical Subjects
Analyze the structure of the relationships among concepts in a text, including relationships among key terms (e.g., force, friction, reaction force, energy).
11–12 Science/Technical Subjects
Analyze how the text structures information or ideas into categories or hierarchies, demonstrating understanding of the information or ideas.
Source: Copyright © 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved.
Common Core Reading Standard 5: What the Student Does
9–10 Literature
Gist: Examine how an author’s choices about structure and narrative design affect the plot, pacing, and perceptions of the reader, focusing on how techniques such as flashbacks, parallel plots, or nonlinear-episodic narratives, create a sense of wonder, anxiety, or awe in readers.
Why did the author use or put that sentence or larger section in that place?
How is time, location, mood, or purpose affected by the author’s arrangement of events, details, or time?
How does the author structure the story, poem, or play—and to what end?
11–12 Literature
Gist: Analyze how an author uses and places specific elements of a text such as where and how the story begins or ends, examining why the author chose a nonlinear structure such as in media res, for example, and how that choice impacts the story and the reader’s experience of it.
Why does this author begin the story in this way?
How would you describe the overall structure of the story in terms of its impression or effect on the reader?
Which choices regarding structure most contribute to the story’s meaning and aesthetic impact?
9–10 Informational Text
Gist: Concentrate on how the author arranges details, evidence, or events to support and develop a claim or idea, analyzing how the writer begins and then refines the idea by connecting sentences, paragraphs, and larger chunks (sections, chapters) as they explore and advance their idea(s) and claim(s).
What idea or claim does the writer examine or advance?
How does the author develop or refine these ideas or claims at the sentence, paragraph, section, and chapter level?
How do these structural elements add meaning, clarity, or coherence?