Close Reading of Informational Sources: Assessment-Driven Instruction In Grades 3-8

This widely used teacher resource and course text; now significantly revised with 75% new content; provides a flexible approach to fostering high-level understanding of a wide variety of informational sources in grades 3-8.

Through the lens of a new three-phase lesson plan, the author explains how to teach students to think critically about sources, monitor for meaning, identify main ideas, explain key details, and make sense of unfamiliar vocabulary. Now in a convenient large-size format, the second edition is packed with practical features, including a detailed study guide and links to recommended online videos.

The companion website allows readers to download and print a reproducible lesson planning template and quick-reference tools, as well as additional resources referenced in the book.

New to This Edition

• Substantially revised and updated to reflect the ongoing development of the author's approach; lessons now comprise three clearly defined phases.
• Expanded to cover close "reading” of video, audio, and infographics, as well as traditional texts.
• Chapters on new topics: selecting sources and teaching the use of context clues to learn new vocabulary.
• Additional practical features: sidebars with clear explanations of comprehension strategies, sample lessons, examples of students’ written responses, suggestions for assessment, tips for follow-up instruction, companion website, and more.

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Table of Contents

Introduction

1. Strategic Close Reading of Informational Sources sample
2. A Repertoire of Strategies Needed for Close Reading
3. An Assessment-Driven, Three-Phase Plan for Learning
4. Selecting Sources
5. Introducing Sources and Teaching Students to Make Informed Predictions
6. Synthesis and Identifying Main Ideas
7. Monitoring for Meaning
8. Identifying and Explaining Key Details
9. Learning from a Source’s Visual Images and Other Features
10. Using Context Clues to Make Sense of Unfamiliar Vocabulary
11. Synthesis of Information from Multiple Sources

Appendix A. Lessons for Phase 2—Meet the Strategies

Appendix B. Study Guide

"What an awesome book for teachers and reading specialists! Teachers often struggle with how to teach students to actively read, interact with, and synthesize multiple informational sources. I love the three-phase plan for learning in the second edition, as well as the suggestions for follow-up instruction. Teachers can use the Stages of Development rubric to determine where their students are on the continuum and how to move students further along. This is an essential tool for my teaching--it is filled with great resources, anchor charts, student work, and student-friendly explanations for the strategies taught."
- Beth Herrig, MA, reading specialist, Indian Prairie School District #204, Aurora, Illinois

"Like the prior edition, the second edition demonstrates Cummins's ongoing research and her passion for working with teachers and students. Her firm belief in explicit instruction and the gradual release of responsibility is evident in her clear and concise lesson plans. Dr. Cummins's goal is to develop strategic readers, viewers, and listeners. This is accomplished by her three-phase plan for learning and matching template for lesson planning. This text is an excellent resource for professional learning communities and grade meetings for inservice teachers, as well as literacy classes for preservice teachers."
- Harriet Y. Pitts, EdD, Department of Teaching and Learning (Emeritus), New York University

"In today's multi-informational world, students are challenged with a wide variety of sources that they must learn to read and understand beyond a superficial level. Cummins's second edition builds on the first by providing an expanded instructional roadmap, replete with close reading strategies for a variety of learning contexts. Each chapter has the feel of a workshop as Cummins guides teachers through a rich three-phase plan for learning with informational sources."
- Richard T. Vacca, PhD, College of Education (Emeritus), Kent State University