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English · Grade 9

Close Reading and Evidence

Learners practice reading a short passage three times with sharper questions each time, separating what a text states from what it suggests. They choose the strongest and most thorough evidence for a claim, weave quotations into their own sentences honestly, and write commentary that explains how the evidence proves the claim. An original story and a short public-domain excerpt from Jack London's “To Build a Fire” are the practice texts; the quiz uses a passage learners have not seen.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 120 minutes
  • Close reading check: 9 questions
  • Ways to answer: fill in the blanks, choose an answer, highlight a text, match pairs, put in order and sort into groups
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What learners will discover

  • Distinguish what a passage states directly, what a reader can reasonably infer from it, and what the passage does not support.
  • Select the strongest and most thorough textual evidence for a claim: relevant, specific and drawn from more than one place when needed.
  • Integrate quotations into your own sentences using signal phrases, embedding, ellipses and brackets without changing the author's meaning.
  • Write commentary that explains how specific words in the evidence support a claim, rather than summarizing the quotation.

Lessons

  1. Says, suggests, matters 7 steps3 practiceabout 25 min
  2. Strong and thorough evidence 7 steps3 practiceabout 30 min
  3. Weave quotations into your sentences 6 steps4 practiceabout 25 min
  4. Commentary that explains 5 steps3 practiceabout 25 min
  5. Close reading check 9 questions at the end

Keep exploring

More 9th grade reading

Guide for grown-ups