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Introduction to using Close Reading Skills as a way to better understand text
I use this lesson plan within the first two weeks of school and often teach it as a way to honor the lives lost on September 11, 2001. The lesson is can end up being very teacher-focused, but don't be fooled. Of the two years I've taught this lesson, students consistently tell me that this is the first time anyone has helped them to understand the meaning of a pledge most of them have been reciting since kindergarten.
1. Ask students to write down the
Pledge of Allegiance. Many will begin and be unable to, so have
it available for an overhead. Make sure to include correct punctuation.
I use the version found here.
I also ask students if they know the history of The Pledge. Few
do. Resources I use for the Pledge history can be found at Home
of the Heroes, The Pledge of Allegiance:
A Short History, or The
Story of the Pledge of Allegiance.
You may want to spent some time discussing the different generations of the Pledge from its original form and the reasons for the changes. The version we recite today, which includes "under God", was added during the McCarthy Era. You might want to draw connections for your students between the McCarthy idea that a Communist would never pledge to anything "under God" as the motivation for changing the Pledge.
2. Ask students to choose 3 words
that are either words they do not know or are words they think
are very important to this text.
3. Ask students to then write down
what they think the words mean, or to free-associate the meaning
of the word on their own.
4. Ask students to list their words.
Make sure that all of the following words are included:
Pledge, Allegiance, Flag, United, Republic, One, Nation, Indivisible,
Liberty, and Justice
As students list each word, write it on the board or on an overhead,
leaving room for a definition.
5. Ask for volunteers to look up individual words in the dictionary.
As students find their definitions, list them with concise meaning
(via input from students) on the board/overhead. Discuss the meaning
of each word.
6. Once all words are defined, have students re-write the Pledge
of Allegiance using the brief definition of words/synonyms instead
of the actual words.
7. Discuss meaning of chunks of text delineated by punctuation.
Check for understanding.
8. Ask students to write a few sentences about the experience. Did their understanding of the Pledge change because of the close reading? Ask them to share their thoughts with a neighbor, then ask students to share their thoughts with the class (I ask, "What did you say? What did you hear?")
9. Emphasize closeness of reading as providing clearer meaning to a text they all ready knew very well. Most students will be surprised to learn they are actually making a pledge to all the other citizens in the U.S.
Though I originally wrote this lesson plan on my own for class on September 12, 2001, I apparently had only tapped into the collective conscious. Red Skeleton had this to say.