Step 15: Close and Critical Reading Questions Ch. 9-11

Consider the events of these 3 chapters and answer the following four Critical Reading questions in your Readers Notebook:

1) What does the text say?

2) How does it say it?

3) What does it mean?

4) Why does it matter?

Example:

Lets say this is your text:

Roses are red

Violets are blue

Sugar is sweet;

And so are you.

What does the text say? This is asking for a summary or restatement.

Example: The narrator is talking to someone and telling her that she is sweet.

How does it say it? This is asking about the structure of the text.

Example: This is a rhyming poem, and is delivered in a sing-song rhythm.

What does it mean? This is asking for the overall meaning of the text. Example: It means that the author of the poem wants to tell someone how much he likes her.

Why does it matter? This is asking you to answer what the text means to you and your world.

Example: Because most of us have experience love, or at least a crush in our lifetime, and we can relate to the experience. It makes me want to tell my girlfriend how much I love her.

Step 16: Read the list of strategies below. All of them can help you improve your understanding of texts that you read.

Close and Critical Reading Strategies

1. Use spider.pdf before, during and after reading as a visual means of explaining and organizing information and ideas. This website can help:

2. Use Marginalia.pdf (words written in the margins of the text) to describe the craft the author used.

3. Use thinking notes (like your Readers Notebook) and think aloud strategies.

4. Annotate text. (take notes)

5. Take and organize notes (Cornell Notes and Double Entry Journals).

6. Determine relevance/importance.

7. Consider potential for bias.

8. Consider perspectives not represented to avoid controversy.

9. Look for evidence to support assumptions and beliefs.

10. Evaluate depth of information.

11. Evaluate validity of facts.

12. Recognize influence of political/social climate when text was written.

Step 17: Ch. 12-13

As you read these chapters, think about what you learn about the quality of Alabama schools for black students.

1) Consider the time period in which To Kill A Mockingbird was written.

In your opinion, do some of these problems still exist?

2) How has education changed since this novel was written?

Write your answer in a journal format in your Readers Notebook.

Step 18: Ch. 14-22

As you read these chapters, consider the different perspectives of the characters who are involved in Tom Robinsons trial. Choose one main character and describe the trial from his/her perspective. Write this in your Readers Notebook.

Step 19: Ch. 23-25

Listen to the radio podcast from NPR.org at

http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=128340180&m=128352450 and in your Readers Notebook answer the question discussed on the radio:

1) Do you think that a book like To Kill A Mockingbird can change peoples opinions about race?

Step 20: Ch. 26-27

This novel is told from the point of view of a young girl. Point of view is often important in the telling of a story.

Now that you are close to the end of the novel, think about why Harper Lee chose to tell the novel from Scouts point of view. In your Readers Notebook answer the following question:

1) How did this affect your views of events taking place in the novel?

Step 21: Ch. 28

Before reading Chapter 28, read the following list of words from the chapter, and write a short prediction in your Readers Notebook of what will happen in this chapter:

dark "Run" trembled

afraid useless reeling

kitchen knife kicking jerk backwards

dying dead

Step 22: Ch. 29-31

Now that you have reached the end of the novel, you should be thinking about Harper Lees main point or theme. What message/s do you get from reading the novel? Go to http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/ and choose the cluster word webs or spider maps to help you think about the theme of the novel. In your Readers Notebook, put your theme at the center of the graphic organizer and give examples from the novel that support your theme in the surrounding spaces.

(From Kelly Gallagher, Deeper Reading, p.49)

Last modified: Tuesday, 21 June 2011, 12:25 PM