A Close-Up on Close Reading

Close Reading Experience 2

Close Reading Experience 2 Program Transcript

NATALIE MALM: So what did you learn about the key ideas and the main ideas in the passage?

FEMALE STUDENT: I think the key idea is that germs killed the Martians. That's what I got out of the whole thing.

NATALIE MALM: OK.

FEMALE STUDENT: Is that what you got?

MALE STUDENT 1: Yes, absolutely.

NATALIE MALM: Then what specifically in there told you that?

MALE STUDENT 2: His statement that there's no bacteria in Mars-- so just that through evolution that we've built immunities to these natural microbes or whatever, and the aliens, or the Martians had not.

NATALIE MALM: OK. Did you have any other specific examples?

MALE STUDENT 1: I highlighted microscopic allies. I thought that was clever. And it really got to the point that it was coming from-- they were being overthrown from within.

NATALIE MALM: OK. Any others?

FEMALE STUDENT: He mentions the bodies scattered about, in the second paragraph. And that sort of supported that everybody had passed.

MALE STUDENT 1: And I highlighted "the virtue of natural selection of our kind," so kind of like those that are innately weak have succumbed, just like I said, through evolution, through the duration of time. So we have these resistances just built up within us.

NATALIE MALM: So those specific examples gave you would the big idea, the main concepts behind it-- good. Now it's time to read the text again. Focus on the craft and structure of the text, including word choice. Underline the ideas with a different colored pen than you used for our first read.

Look for the following as we read. Which words or phrases catch your attention in this passage? What do you notice about them as you re-read them? And how did the author describe the martian death scene? Please begin reading.

©2014 Laureate Education, Inc. 1

Close Reading Experience 2

Close Reading Experience 2 Additional Content Attribution

Music:

Creative Support Services Los Angeles, CA

Dimension Sound Effects Library Newnan, GA

Narrator Tracks Music Library Stevens Point, WI

Signature Music, Inc Chesterton, IN

Studio Cutz Music Library Carrollton, TX

©2014 Laureate Education, Inc. 2