Lethal Combination: Research and Close Reading

I recently merged information I gathered from two wonderfully written resources together to lift the level of learning in my classroom.  I have to thank Christopher Lehman and Kate Roberts for their work with research reading and writing, as well as, with close reading.

                                   

By combining the lessons from Energize Research Reading and Writing and Falling in Love With Close Reading, my students have been able to authentically write using their own voice from research they have done.  They have also been able to closely read both fictional and informational texts to gather evidence to guide their thinking.

My students read fictional stories related to themes of human rights.  They closely read these texts and developed inquiry questions.  From these questions they researched the issues and closely read to determine what information was valid.  They then began closely reading persuasive and argumentative texts using multiple lenses to ensure they were finding patterns to support their ideas.  Once they were fully immersed in persuasive texts, they wrote using the research they gathered and the techniques they saw authors using to complete a persuasive piece.

I cannot that the author's enough for the research they did to help me and my students grow as readers and writers.