# data[].attributes.body
What do you notice? Think? Wonder?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
GAA G5 - Session 4 Supporting Research Skills

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Your Research-based Guide to Developing Skilled Readers. 300+ strategies with learning progressions support 13 reading goals, with each strategy cross-linked to skills, teacher tips, prompts, research, and reading levels—everything from fluency to literary analysis.

# data[].attributes.body
Jennifer Serravallo

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
jen shows how small groups increase time for meeting individual students’ needs. You’ll work closelt with more readers each day using assessment

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
You and your students will fall for close reading. Chris and Kate help you empower students through close reading to not merely analyze texts but to admire the writer's craft, study favorite songs and videogames, and challenge peers in evidence-based discussions.

"Love brings us in close, leads us to study the details of a thing, and asks us to return again and again. These are the motivations and ideas that built this book."
-Chris Lehman and Kate Roberts

You and your students will fall for close reading. In Falling in Love with Close Reading, Christopher Lehman and Kate Roberts show us that it can be rigorous, meaningful, and joyous. You'll empower students to not only analyze texts but to admire the craft of a beloved book, study favorite songs and videogames, and challenge peers in evidence-based discussions.

Chris and Kate start with a powerful three-step close-reading ritual that students can apply to any text. Then they lay out practical, engaging lessons that not only guide students to independence in reading texts closely but also help them transfer this critical, analytical skill to media and even the lives they lead.

Responsive to students' needs and field-tested in classrooms, these lessons include:

strategies for close reading narratives, informational texts, and arguments

suggestions for differentiation

sample charts and student work from real classrooms

connections to the Common Core State Standards

a focus on viewing media and life in this same careful way.

"We see the ritual of close reading not just as a method of doing the academic work of looking closely at text-evidence, word choice, and structure," write Chris and Kate, "but as an opportunity to bring those practices together to empower our students to see the subtle messages in texts and in their lives." Read Falling in Love with Close Reading and discover that the benefits and joy of close reading don't have to stop at the edge of the page.

Read a sample from the book to learn more about Chris and Kate's close-reading ritual for students and for an annotated text that shows how it works.

(click any section below to continue reading)

Contents

1. Close Reading, A Love Story
2. The Essence of Understanding: A Study of Text Evidence
3. A Way with Words: A Study of Word Choice
4. If You Build It: A Study of Structure
5. Through Your Eyes: A Study of Point of View
6. The Family Tree: Closely Reading Across Texts
7. I Believe in You: A Vision of Independence

Companion Resources

Download an infographic about the book: perfect for book study in groups or by yourself.

Download the Falling in Love with Close Reading study guide.

Watch highlights from Chris and Kate's webchat with Penny Kittle.

Reviews

"Nothing compares to seeing the success of the students. I informed them they are scholars and reminded them that this was hard work and they accomplished it! So many times, students are described as having trouble connecting their reading and ideas into their writing. But not today! Students I had planned on needing to provide extra support during the written response didn't need it. Honestly, I have never seen a group of students work so diligently and persevere through the lesson."
-Kara DiBartolo (@dibartolok)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
You and your students will fall for close reading. Chris and Kate help you empower students through close reading to not merely analyze texts but to admire

# data[].attributes.body
Debbie Miller

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Introduction: We Can Do This

Asking Beautiful Questions

Paying Attention to What Doesn't Feel Right

Asking, "What If?": Creating Space for Possibility

Chapter One: What If Each Day's Teaching Focused on Children's Agency?

Finding Our Way to a Beautiful Question: The Disengaged Child

What's the Best That Could Happen? Agency Fosters Engagement

Imagining New Possibilities for a Child

Conferring to Support Access and Choice

Paying Attention During Independent Work Time

Conferring to Inquire and to Offer Community

Postscript

Chapter Two: What If We Made What Children Make and Do Our Priority?

Finding Our Way to a Beautiful Question: Workshop Planning

What's the Best That Could Happen? Meaningful Work

Planning for What Children Will Do First

Planning for What Teachers Will Do During Work Time

Figuring Out What to Teach

Playing with the Sequence

Taking Ownership

Chapter Three: What If Our Classroom Environment and Routines Offered Choice?

Finding Our Way to a Beautiful Question: Frustration over Supplies

What's the Best That Could Happen? Managing Their Own Work

Being Intentional in Our Language

Cocreating Routines

Designing Agentive Environments

Chapter Four: What If We Owned the Units We Are Asked to Teach?

Finding Our Way to a Beautiful Question: The Units We're Given

Are These the Right Goals?

Which Texts Work Best?

How Will We Know When We're Done?

How Can This Happen Within Daily Workshop?

What's the Best That Could Happen? Perfection in Imperfection

Chapter Five: What If Read-Aloud Sustained Children's Independent Thinking?

Finding Our Way to a Beautiful Question: The Wisdom in Children's Thinking

Expecting Brilliance

Finding Time for Read-Aloud

Reading Aloud for Joy

Teachers and Children Thinking Aloud

What's the Best That Could Happen? Being Inspired to Act

Conclusion: In Pursuit of Beautiful Questions

We all have difficult moments in our teaching, and without a question to drive us forward, we can get stuck. But that difficult moment might be the question we need to ask ourselves. Questions can bring a positive attention, creating a presence in the moment. When I ask children, "Are you the kind of kid who...?", I'm inviting them to imagine a new possibility for themselves, one in which they have more power than they did before. I want those new possibilities for teachers, too. Are you the kind of teacher who is ready to try something new, something that will make your students stronger, more joyful readers and bring you greater joy in your work? I think you are.

Asking questions leads to opportunities-it's about growth, openness, and a willingness to change, which top-down models don't allow. It's a way for us to focus our thinking and be present in the lives we've chosen to live. Asking the question is the essential behavior of teaching. It's not a perfect call-and response but a messy business of wondering, stumbling, and figuring things out. It requires bravery and commitment, but that's what teaching is. It's a joyful, creative, purposeful profession. If you feel you've lost even some of your passion for teaching, I would love to help give it back to you. So, in this book, we'll talk about creating beautiful questions about the teaching of reading. To help you take on the process of asking beautiful questions, I'll share how I got to some beautiful questions about teaching reading and what I did with them as I worked with teachers in classrooms across the country.

This book is about owning our teaching and making decisions based on who we are and what's best for the children in our classroom today. That all sounds ambitious and brave... and the work is-teaching is-but it happens in so many small and simple ways. My wish is for you to think about what you do and ask your own beautiful questions, so that you and your children can thrive and view yourselves and each other as valuable, idea-filled, creative, and contributing humans who own your teaching and learning. Be open and receptive to possibilities! Think: "What if we did it this way?"

"A one-of-a-kind book, full of wisdom and heart. Debbie Miller inspires educators to step back and question everything-challenging us to rethink and reinvent the ways we teach. What's the best that could happen? Read this book and it will help you find your own answer to that beautiful question."

-Warren Berger, author of A More Beautiful Question and The Book of Beautiful Questions
"Debbie Miller is a magician with children, and in What's the Best That Could Happen? she hands us her magic wand. With honesty, humility, and optimism, she shares her thoughts and actions about teaching and learning. Run-don't walk-to conjure up this essential book!"
-Stephanie Harvey, coauthor of The Comprehension Toolkit series, From Striving to Thriving, and Strategies That Work
"Debbie Miller is suggesting something revolutionary. She is suggesting the way to ensure all students learn is to intentionally and persistently expect not just capability but brilliance from them."
-Gretchen Morgan, author of Innovative Educators: An Action Plan for Teachers

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"One of the great joys of teaching is anticipating children's brilliance." In What's the Best That Could Happen?, Debbie Miller confronts a challenge all

# data[].attributes.body
Harvey, Ward, Hoddinott, Carroll

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Intervention Reinvention | The Scholastic Teacher Store

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Expanding on the research, theory, and practice featured in From Striving to Thriving, this book builds a case for voluminous independent reading as a vital component of all children's growth pathways. The authors offer an easy-to-use guide that begins with foundational actions for increasing volume and, from there, diagnostic questions, instructional options, and targeted practices for launching students into the virtuous cycle of reading success.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The version of the browser you are using is no longer supported. Please upgrade to a supported browser. Dismiss

# data[].attributes.body
Strategy Group Planner

# data[].attributes.body
Text Level Intro Planner

# data[].attributes.body
Next Gen GR
Guided Reading Planner (Template)
Guided Reading Planner Example

# data[].attributes.body
Small group read aloud structure

# data[].attributes.headline
Note-taking Checklist:                       Do I have notes that...                    Hold onto larger ideas & key details?Are organized?Show thinking?Keep track of sources?Collect & develop vocabulary understanding?         

# data[].attributes.subject
Note-taking Checklist:                       Do I have notes that...                    Hold onto larger ideas & key details?Are organized?Show thinking?Keep track of sources?Collect & develop vocabulary understanding?         

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Strategy Group Planner - GAA G5 Reading NF & Notetaking

# data[].attributes.body
Strategy Group Planner