Design Topic ____________________________ Subject(s) ______________________ Grade(s) _______ Designer(s) ___________________________

STAGE 1 DESIRED RESULTS

Unit Title: ______Close Reading Strategies______________________________

Established Goals: By the end of the period, students will demonstrate close reading by
highlighting and annotating on a short essay.
7th grade science class.
Understandings: Students will understand
that
Understanding of a texts features,
structures, and characteristics facilitate the
readers ability to make meaning of the text.

Essential Questions:
How does using close reading strategies
help me better comprehend what I am
reading?

Students will know:

how to apply close reading strategies to what
they read.

Students will be able to:

show evidence of close reading

write an essay based on their closereading notes

STAGE 2 ASSESSMENT EVIDENCE

Performance Tasks:
Other Evidence:
Summative: Students will write a one-paragraph
Formative: Evidence of close readingresponse to the essay they close read.
highlighting, underlining, annotation, questions
Self-assessment: Compare notes taken with what
librarian takes to see if they are similar.
Key Criteria:
Students are able to answer the prompt using given vocabulary words correctly and
referencing their close reading annotations.

STAGE 3 LEARNING PLAN

Summary of Learning Activities:
W: Help the students know where the using is going and what is expected. Help the
teacher know where the students are coming from (prior knowledge, interests).
H: Hook all students and hold their interest
E: equip students, help them experience key ideas, explore the issues.
R: provide opportunities to revise and rethink their understandings and work
E: allow students to evaluate their work and its implications
T: tailored to the different needs, interests, abilities of learners
O: organized to maximize initial and sustained engagement as well as effective learning
Source: Understanding by Design, Unit Design Planning Template (Wiggins/McTighe 2005)

Design Topic ____________________________ Subject(s) ______________________ Grade(s) _______ Designer(s) ___________________________

1.
2.
3.
4.

See if kids have heard of close reading. What classes? H

Hand out short essay that we are close reading together.
Show a picture of highlighted text book. Whats wrong with this? H
Look over the essay. Find out why kids are reading this. Thats the focus for reading.
(Often the response question/assignment) W
5. Use the Smart/Promethean board to show how to close read the first paragraph
together. E
6. Underline or circle/highlight important facts, vocab words. Ask questionsjot in the
margins E
7. Write the definitionssynonyms E
8. Answers to questions should be written down unless they are not answered by the
reading.
9. Have students complete close reading of the rest of the article. T
10. Discuss their close reading. Look over my example and compare to theirs. Need to add
anything? E2, R
11. Have students practice writing a paragraph answering the prompt, using facts from the
reading. R
12. Two-column notes for close reading text from a textbook: describe that the left side can
be labeled in many ways. Questions, vocabulary, confusion all work. The right side can
then be answers, definitions, or evidence. E
13. Read through first section of the chapter together, taking notes on the Promethean
board while students take notes in their notebooks. R
14. Give the students a chance to practice close reading and note taking for the next
section while taking notes on the Promethean board. Discuss why I chose to write down
what I did and that I am not using full sentences, just short descriptive words. R, E2, T,
O
15. Students have the rest of the class period to work on notes and ask questions while the
teacher and I roam the room looking to see if anyone needs additional help. R, T

Source: Understanding by Design, Unit Design Planning Template (Wiggins/McTighe 2005)

Design Topic ____________________________ Subject(s) ______________________ Grade(s) _______ Designer(s) ___________________________

Source: Understanding by Design, Unit Design Planning Template (Wiggins/McTighe 2005)