common core state standards professional learning module series

CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONTom Torlakson, State Superintendent of Public InstructionCALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONTom Torlakson, State Superintendent of Public Instruction

Common Core State Standards Professional Learning Module Series

Content Literacy in History/Social Studies 6-12

Unit 2: Close Reading in History/Social Studies

2

Unit 2: Learning Objectives

• Understand how the practice of close reading can be used to address the CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy, the CA Historical and Social Sciences Analysis Skills, and the CA History-Social Science Standards.

• Explore how to use central, inquiry-based questions to guide students’ close reading of history/social studies sources.

• Examine several ways to direct students to use text-dependent questions to analyze the evidence of primary and secondary sources.

• Consider approaches to aiding English Learners and students with disabilities in accessing and analyzing text in history/social studies.

• Explore a process for guiding students in collaborative conversations to discuss the evidence and argument of history/social studies sources.

| California Department of Education

3

What is Close Reading?

Close reading practices:• Focus on text meaning • Minimize background preparation/explanation • Students must do the reading/interpretation • Teacher asks text-dependent questions to guide

analysis • Extend time commitments to both short and long

texts with purposeful rereading


4

Multiple Reads in History/Social Studies

“When historians read primary documents, they read at many different levels. They simultaneously pay attention to argument, purpose, context, content and credibility."

• Bernard Faithfull, Mentor Teacher, 2013

• Read “Four Reads: Learning to Read Primary Documents” by Faithfull.


5

Inquiry-Based Instruction for Close Reading in History/Social Studies

• Using a central inquiry question to organize instruction:– Promotes close reading of primary sources– Develops students’ historical literacy skills– Promotes 21st century skills of critical thinking and problem

solving– Addresses standards (for example):

• CA HSS Analysis: Research, Evidence, Point of View, 6–8 1. Students frame questions that can be answered by historical study and research.

• CA CCSS.WHST.6-8.7: Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration.


6

College, Career, Civic Life (C3) Framework Inquiry Arc

“The C3 Framework is centered on an Inquiry Arc-a set of interlocking and mutually supportive ideas that frame the ways students learn social studies content. By focusing on inquiry, the framework emphasizes the disciplinary concepts and practices that support students as they develop the capacity to know, analyze, explain, and argue about interdisciplinary challenges in our social world" (p.6 ).

“The C3 Framework's Inquiry Arc is divided down into "four dimensions for informed inquiry in the social studies: 1) Developing questions and planning inquiries; 2) Applying disciplinary concepts and tools; 3) Evaluating sources and using evidence; and 4) Communicating conclusions and taking informed action" (p.17).

“Central to a rich social studies experience is the capability for developing questions that can frame and advance an inquiry (p. 23).

C3 Framework, 2013


http://www.socialstudies.org/system/files/c3/C3-Framework-for-Social-Studies.pdf

7

Central Historical (Inquiry) Questions

“The first step in designing history instruction around complex texts is to give students an intellectually stimulating purpose for reading. A central historical question focuses students' attention and transforms the act of reading into a process of active inquiry. Historical questions share two key characteristics: 1) they are open to multiple interpretations; 2) they direct students to the historical record, rather than to their philosophical or moral beliefs. For example, a good historical question asks, ‘Why did the U.S. drop the atomic bomb?’ rather than ‘Should the U.S. have dropped the atomic bomb?’ and forces students to support their claims with textual evidence. ‘Should’ questions, while important, too often lead students astray, and the resulting discussion leaves the text far behind….

The most important consideration when designing a central question is whether it can be answered with evidence from the document, or whether it diverts students' gaze from the textual evidence at hand.“

Reisman and Wineburg, 2012| California Department of Education

8

Central Inquiry Questions Examples

• Watch “Reading Like a Historian: Focus Questions”– http://

myboe.org/portal/default/Content/Viewer/Content?action=2&scId=508656&sciId=16171

• Read “What is an ‘Inquiry Lesson’?”• Sample Lessons:– “Japanese Segregation in San Francisco” Stanford

CA HSS Standard: 11.2– “Lincoln’s Speeches” California History-Social Science Project

CA HSS Standard: 8.10| California Department of Education

http://myboe.org/portal/default/Content/Viewer/Content?action=2&scId=508656&sciId=16171



9

More Inquiry-Based Lessons

• California History-Social Science Project: History Blueprint Units http://chssp.ucdavis.edu/programs/historyblueprint

• Stanford History Education Group:Reading Like a Historian Curriculumhttp://sheg.stanford.edu/rlh

• Picturing Modern Americahttp://cct2.edc.org/PMA/


http://chssp.ucdavis.edu/programs/historyblueprint

http://chssp.ucdavis.edu/programs/historyblueprint

http://sheg.stanford.edu/rlh

http://sheg.stanford.edu/rlh

http://cct2.edc.org/PMA/

http://cct2.edc.org/PMA/

10

Inquiry-Based Question Activity

• Read two documents about the meeting between Montezuma and Cortez in 1519– CA HSS Standards:

7.7 Students compare and contrast the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the Meso-American and Andean civilizations.

– 7.7.3. Explain how and where each empire arose and how the Aztec and Incan empires were defeated by the Spanish.

• Write a central inquiry question to guide students’ close reading of the primary sources.| California Department of Education

11

Time to Reflect

To what extent does organizing your classroom instruction around a central inquiry question support, extend, or challenge your current practices? Explain.


12

Text-Dependent Questions

“Text-dependent questions specifically ask questions that can only be answered by explicitly referring back to the text being read. It does not rely on any particular background information extraneous to the text nor depend on students having other experiences or knowledge; instead it privileges the text itself and what students can extract from what is before them."

– Student Achievement Partners, 2013


13

HSS Text-Dependent Questions for CCR Anchor Standards for Reading

1. Provide at least 2 quotes of evidence to support each claim.2. What is the central idea (main claim or thesis) of the text? What are

the author’s supporting claims or reasons?3. How does the author’s use of the word ____ emphasize the point

of the text?4. What are the author’s occupation, religion, class, etc.? How might

that affect his/her biases and ideas? What is the author’s purpose?5. Evaluate the author’s argument and claims. Is the evidence

relevant and sufficient?6. Was this source created at the time of the event, as a

remembrance, or as analysis?History Project at UC Davis


14

HSS Text-Dependent Questions Activity

• Consider the inquiry question: – How did Pope Urban II inspire Christian Europeans to join the First

Crusade? • Consider the CA HSS Standards:

– 7.6 Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the civilizations of Medieval Europe.

– 7.6.6 Discuss the causes and course of the religious Crusades and their effects on the Christian, Muslim, and Jewish populations in Europe, with emphasis on the increasing contact by Europeans with cultures of the Eastern Mediterranean world.

• Read Pope Urban II’s “Call to the First Crusade” • Use the Sample Questions to create at least two text-dependent

questions for this document. | California Department of Education

15

Author’s Point of View in Standards

Reading Standards for Literacy in HSS• RH9–10.1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary

sources, attending to such features as the date and origin of the information. • RH.6–8.6 Identify aspects of a text that reveal an author’s point of view or purpose

(e.g., loaded language, inclusion or avoidance of facts).• RH.9–10.6 Compare the point of view of two or more authors for how they treat the

same or similar topics, including which details they include and emphasize in their respective accounts.

• RH.11–12.6 Evaluate authors’ differing points of view on the same historical event or issue by assessing the author’s claims, reasons, and evidence.

CA HSS Analysis Skills: Research, Evidence, Point of View 6-8• 5. Students detect the different historical points of view on historical events and

determine the context in which the historical statements were made (the questions asked, sources used, author’s perspectives).


16

Sourcing to Unpack Point of View

Sourcing asks students to consider who wrote a document as well as the circumstances of its creation. Who authored a given document? When? For what purpose? These questions remind students what to ask before reading a document:• Who wrote this? • What is the author's perspective? • Why was it written? • When was it written? • Where was it written? • Is this source reliable? Why? Why not?"

Reading Like a Historian| California Department of Education

17

Sourcing Video

• Watch: Reading Like a Historian: Sourcing– http://

www.myboe.org/portal/default/Content/Viewer/Content?action=2&scId=508656&sciId=16178

– Gulf of Tonkin LessonCA HSS Standard: 11.9.3


http://www.myboe.org/portal/default/Content/Viewer/Content?action=2&scId=508656&sciId=16178



18

The Importance of Context

“Primary source texts-including poetry and literature from previous eras-do not exist in a vacuum, ready to release universal truths to the careful reader. They are embedded in two crucial contexts that teachers must address to help students derive meaning from what they read."

"The first context is literary (the missing text from a document that is excerpted)…

"The second context is historical. Primary sources are typically drawn from a world that differs from students' own time or place-or both."

Dave Neumann, 2012| California Department of Education

19

Context: The Foundation of Close Reading of Primary Texts

• Read Neumann’s article, “Context: The Foundation of Close Reading of Primary Source Texts” found on pages 5–6 of The Source: Point of View/Perspective (California History-Social Science Project, Fall 2012).”

Read and Discuss:• What are Neumann’s suggestions for providing

context? Which suggestions will you try to implement in your classroom?


20

Contextualization Questions

Contextualization asks students to locate a document in time and place and to understand how these factors shape its content. The following questions guide students in the practice of contextualization:

• When and where was the document created?

• What was different then? What was the same?

• How might the circumstances in which the document was created affect its content?

• Watch “Reading Like a Historian: Contextualization”

– http://www.myboe.org/portal/default/Content/Viewer/Content?action=2&scId=508656&sciId=16181

– Colonial Independence Movement Lesson (CA HSS Standard: 10.4.3 & 4)| California Department of Education




21

Historical Point of View/Perspective Continued

• Sourcing and contextualization helps to analyze the author’s background and the time and place in which the author lived (context) to better understand the point of view, meaning, and argument of a primary source.

• This historical perspective, defined as “attempting to see through the eyes of people who lived in times and circumstances far removed from our present-day lives.”

Sexias and Morton (2013)


22

Guideposts for Historical Perspective

• Read “5 Guideposts for Historical Perspective” by Kathleen Kipp on pages 9–10 of The Source: Point of View/Perspective (California History-Social Science Project: Fall 2012).

• Watch “Historical Perspective” by Critical Thinking Consortium.– http://






23

Evidence, Claims, Arguments

• Emphasis on evidence, claims and arguments throughout CA HSS Analysis Skills and CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy (Reading Standard 1 and 8)

• Reading Like a Historian’s strategy:– Close reading helps students evaluate sources and analyze rhetoric by

asking them:

– What claims does the author make?

– What evidence does the author use?

– What language (words, phrases, images, symbols) does the author use to persuade the document's audience?

– How does the document's language indicate the author's perspective?


24

Claims and Evidence Activity

• Read “A Vindication on the Rights of Woman” by Mary Wollstonecraft

Read, Reflect, Discuss:• What claims does Mary Wollstonecraft make? What

evidence does she use?• What language does Wollstonecraft use to persuade

the document’s audience? How does the document’s language indicate the author’s perspective?


25

Corroborating Multiple Documents

Corroboration asks students to consider details across multiple sources to determine points of agreement and disagreement. These questions are helpful guides to students when corroborating documents:• What do other documents say? • Do the documents agree? If not, why? • What are other possible documents? • What documents are most reliable?

Watch “Reading Like a Historian: Corroboration”• http://


• March on Washington Lesson Materials (CA HSS Standard 11.10)| California Department of Education




26

Supporting English Learners with Historical Texts

• Watch “Text Complexity, the Common Core, and ELLs” by Lily Wong Fillmore. – http://


• Read “Understanding Language: What Does Text Complexity Mean for English Learners and Language Minority Students”





27

Supporting English Learners with Historical Texts Continued

• Read “The Grammar of History Textbooks Part II: Questioning the Text”

• 5 Recommended Questions for Language Support:1. Who or what is doing or being something?

2. What are they doing or being?

3. What are the relationships between ideas in the passage?

4. Can we determine the author's perspective?

5. How does this information help us answer the larger investigative question?

Read and Discuss:• How can you use these ideas to help your English learners with

language and content?


28

Text Organization for English Learners

• Historical Texts are often organized in a few patterns:– Chronology/change over time

– Cause and effect

– Description/definition

– Compare and contrast

– Argument/Thesis/Claim and evidence

• Read “English Learners and Reading Comprehension: Text Organization in History” by Phyllis Goldsmith and Tuyen Tran.

Read and Discuss:• What suggestions from the article can you use to help address the

CA CCSS with your EL students?| California Department of Education

29

Academic Language and Vocabulary in the Reading Standards for HSS

Reading Standard 4• RH.6–8.5 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including

vocabulary specific to domains related to history/social studies.

• RH.9–10.5 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary describing political, social, or economic aspects of history/social studies.

• RH.11–12.5 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including analyzing how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term over the course of a text (e.g., how Madison defines faction in Federalist No. 10).

Language Standard 6• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.L.6 Acquire and use accurately a range of general academic

and domain-specific words and phrases sufficient for reading, writing, speaking and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when encountering an unknown term important to comprehension or expression.


30

Teaching Academic Vocabulary in History/Social Studies

• Read “Reframing English Language Development,” by Shannon Carey

• Read “Teaching Vocabulary,” by Lisa Meyers, on pages 13-14 of The Source: Teaching the Common Core (California History-Social Science Project: 2013).

Reflect and Discuss:• What strategies or ideas from the articles could you

implement in your classroom to aid the development of students’ academic language and vocabulary?


31

Supporting Students with Learning Disabilities in Reading Primary Sources

Teaching History to Support Diverse Learners recommendations: • Establish Purpose

– Provide essential questions with background knowledge about the documents. – Provide the documents in multiple formats, allowing students to hear, read, observe, or

experience these concepts.• Evaluate Sources

– Provide text-dependent questions to support students’ recognition and strategic learning, both principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL).

– Guide exploration of digital materials that support recognition and strategic learning as well as students’ affective learning, another UDL principle, as they offer students choices and multiple paths of exploration.

• Corroborate Sources– Embed scaffolds to aid in synthesizing multiple perspectives across conflicting sources.– Provide a graphic organizer to record and organize answers using a digital environment

where they can highlight, sort, or otherwise annotate information.National Center for Technology Innovation and Center for

Implementing Technology in Education (CITEd), 2007| California Department of Education

32

Document-Based Whole Class Discussion

Speaking and Listening Standard 1• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.S.1: Prepare for and

participate in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

• Read “Document-based Whole Class Discussion”– Texas Independence Lesson: CA HSS Standard 8.8.6– Refer to “Seven Teacher Moves” handout


33

Supporting All Students in Collaborative Conversations

Recommended Reading• “

Extending English-Language Learners' Classroom Interactions Using the Response Protocol”

• “Kagan Structures for English Language Learners,”

• “Principle 2: Provide Multiple Means of Action and Expression.” Guideline 5.


http://www.readingrockets.org/article/26871/

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/26871/

http://www.kaganonline.com/free_articles/dr_spencer_kagan/279/Kagan-Structures-for-English-Language-Learners



http://www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl/udlguidelines/principle2

http://www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl/udlguidelines/principle2

34

Unit 2 Summary

• Close reading requires active involvement in the text: drawing understanding, inferences, and meaning directly.

• Close reading can help address the CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy, the CA HSS Analysis Skills, and the CA HSS Standards.

• Students need to be explicitly taught how to find textual evidence to answer questions and support inferences from the text.

• History/social science inquiries around inquiry questions is an effective way to engage close reading of primary and secondary sources and meet the Reading Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies.

• Thoughtfully planned text-dependent questions, aligned to the CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy, also promote students to develop disciplinary skills in history/social studies.

• Assisting students with the common structure and academic language of history/social studies texts can aid English Learners and struggling readers access and analyze the reading.

• History/social studies teachers can also address the Standards for Speaking and Listening by establishing protocols for whole-class discussion of primary sources and incorporating support for English Learners and students with disabilities. | California Department of Education

| California Department of Education35

Learning Objectives Revisited• Understand how the practice of close reading can be used to address

the CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy, the CA Historical and Social Sciences Analysis Skills, and the CA History-Social Science Standards.

• Explore how to use central, inquiry-based questions to guide students’ close reading of history/social studies sources.

• Examine several ways to direct students to use text-dependent questions to analyze the evidence of primary and secondary sources.

• Consider approaches to aiding English Learners and students with disabilities in accessing and analyzing text in history/social studies.

• Explore a process for guiding students in collaborative conversations to discuss the evidence and argument of history/social studies sources.


Talk about…

• Some of the new ideas you have gained in this introductory unit

• Questions you have

• Some of the challenges that you anticipate as you prepare to support your students in their use of the CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy in history/social studies lessons


Think about…

• How will you teach history/social studies so that students may engage in the CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy?

• How will you provide opportunities and support for all students to meet the CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy in history/social studies instruction?

common core state standards professional learning module series

Documents

reading standards

close reading practices

practice of close reading

textdependent questions

guiding students

direct students

text meaning

ca ccss