A Close-Up on Close Reading

Close Reading Experience 3

Close Reading Experience 3 Program Transcript

NATALIE MALM: So which words or phrases caught your attention in this passage?

FEMALE STUDENT: I highlighted "for it had come about." And that caught my attention right away. I wanted to know what had come about. And then as he went on to set the context, telling you the Martians were there, and then they introduced the germs. And then the description, "They were irrevocably doomed, dying, and rotting and scattered about," so his powerful words, powerful visual image there.

NATALIE MALM: OK, great. What did you notice as you re-read them?

MALE STUDENT 1: I picked up on how many times dead came through. I didn't realize that the first time. It just didn't register, but maybe because I was being introduced, as opposed to revisiting.

MALE STUDENT 2: Then the phrase "overtaken by a death," that was like it just sprang upon them or surprised, and it was the least expected for them.

NATALIE MALM: Good. How did the author describe the Martian death scene?

MALE STUDENT 1: Almost Biblical.

MALE STUDENT 2: Yeah.

FEMALE STUDENT: Yeah, you're right.

MALE STUDENT 2: Yeah, he did use that imagery there, particularly the Angel of Death and the reference of-- you really saw the Old Testament.

MALE STUDENT 1: Repented, God, Angel of Death, slain--

NATALIE MALM: So that would be the specific passage that represented that?

MALE STUDENT 1: Right.

NATALIE MALM: Any others, or just that?

MALE STUDENT 2: It makes the destruction of Sennacherib-- and I'm not familiar with that location or where that is. But it sounds like, oh, that's in the Old Testament somewhere, so yeah.

FEMALE STUDENT: And the wording "irrevocably doomed," doomed.

©2014 Laureate Education, Inc. 1

Close Reading Experience 3

NATALIE MALM: Right. Now we're going to read the text for a third time. And we're looking for what author's message is. As you read, circle any text that can be used as evidence to support the responses to these questions.

What is the author's message? What words or phrases support the text that your thinking? So now you can begin reading for the third time.

Close Reading Experience 3 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