Teacher Commentary

I never like to set the primary purpose for a first close reading of a text as filling out a claims-evidence chart. I’ve found that when they do that, they tend to focus more on filling out the chart instead of reading closely. Also, they record significantly fewer annotations when they are reading a text for the first time and simultaneously filling out a chart. Instead, I usually make the chart something we return to periodically, review the texts we’ve read recently, and add to the chart after we’ve already read the texts closely. Because students are so familiar with the texts at this point, the second re-reading is more like skimming to look for evidence to support claims, and they can do this with several texts in a relatively short amount of time. Keep in mind that students are always paying attention to evidence that supports claims about their essential questions whenever they are reading texts, and noting that evidence in their annotations, so when we bring out the claims-evidence chart, it’s a chance for them to consolidate the claims they are developing across texts. It’s also useful to do this with a few texts at a time, because students can start to notice that some claims are supported by evidence from multiple sources.