Title of Close Reading Text: Something Old, Something New
Learning Intention: I am learning to use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning and to evaluate texts so that I can better understand texts that I read.
Success Criteria:
• I can answer questions requiring literal responses
• I can make inferences based on information in a text
• I can identify how authors use story tension
• I can understand how to use speech punctuation
• I can examine language features in a text
Reading
1st Reading What it says.
Key ideas and details
Text-Dependent Questions
Examine the first two illustrations that accompany the story. How can you infer the character is feeling based on his facial expressions in each illustration? (Image 1: scared, worried, image 2: confused)
View the remaining illustrations. What do you predict will happen in the story?
What did Max expect the space-time-zapper to do when he turned the dial? (He expected to be zoomed to the past)
What happened instead? (A triceratops was zapped into Max’s garden)
What was Max’s backyard set up for? (His sister’s wedding)
How did Max expect his sister to react to the triceratops? (He apologises to her as he thinks she will be upset)
Outcome:
EN2-RECOM01 | AC9E4LY05
2nd Reading
How it says it.
Craft and Structure
How does his sister react? (She is delighted as she thinks having the triceratops in their photos will cause them to be the social media event of the century)
Teaching note: Story tension makes readers feel suspense, anticipation and fear about the character achieving their goal.
What is Max’s goal before anyone else sees the triceratops? (To keep it away from the guests and his sister)
How does the author increase the story tension on page 15? (The loud toot of the horn of the wedding car could be heard, which meant any moment the guests will move to the garden where the triceratops is, and the triceratops starts to head in the direction of the wedding cake, making the main character fear the dinosaur will eat the cake)
Examine the following example of how to punctuate quoted speech:
‘Oh dear,’ said Max, looking at the massive triceratops. ‘This is bad.’
Note that the speech marks are only used around the exact words the character says.
The speech punctuation has been removed from the following extract from the story,. Decide where it should be placed.
Ohdear!saidMaxagain.Thisis really bad. (‘Oh dear!’ said Max again. ‘This is really bad.’)
3rd Reading
What it means.
Language features, sentence structures, visual components, text cohesion, repetitions devices
Teaching note: similes compare two things, using words such as ‘like’ or ‘as’. Identify the meanings of each of the following similes from the story:
It sounded a bit like a steam train about to take off. (Students’ responses may vary but could include loud and nasal sounding)
EN2-UARL-01 | AC9E4LY03
EN2-UARL-01 | AC9E4LE02
and language features.
General follow up questions for each of the readings:
Instead, it was sniffing the air, as if sniffing some nice vegetation to eat. (Students’ responses may vary but could include happily and distractedly)
She seemed as stunned as a mullet. (Note: ensure students know that a mullet is a type of fish) (Students’ responses may vary but could include a gaping wide open mouth, flapping like a fish)
Teaching note: context clues are words or phrases that are included in the sentence and that enable readers to decipher the meanings of unknown words.
What context clues are included to assist with identifying the meaning of the word ‘carnivores’ (page 14)? (‘They were plant-eaters, not carnivores’ allows readers to infer carnivores are the opposite of plant eaters, so they are meat eaters)
Why do you think the author included the following description of the triceratops:
But still, this one was massive about eight metres long and more than two-and-a-half metres high. Its two biggest horns (above its eyes) were each more than a metre in length. (To emphasise how much damage it could do)
Teaching note: onomatopoeia is a literary device of using words that sound like what they are describing, for example, zapper. Find further examples in the text. (Zoomed, zooming, zapped, toot, snapped, time- zapper)
Why do you think the author has used onomatopoeia in the story? (To provide interest, to make the story exciting and to make the action feel as though it is happening in real time)
The School Magazine
How do you know this? What evidence do you have to support that? Why do you think this? What examples can you find in the text?
The School Magazine