Reading Chris Van Allsburg Closely

This week, Culinary Court readers are revisiting some of the key concepts and important stories in our Chris Van Allsburg author study before we conclude our unit of study.

One of the ways our readers are revisiting a favorite story, The Stranger, is through a "close reading" activity.  In a close reading, readers revisit a text they've already read.  This time, readers are focused on looking deeper into the text to deepen their understanding in a predetermined way.  For instance, this week our readers focused on the effects of the setting in The Stranger.

In partners, students reread the story, looking for evidence in the text and illustrations to help them answer a list of guiding questions.  This time was also spent discussing with their partners the importance of the evidence they located.

After this guided conversation, readers took time to independently write a concluding paragraph explaining their thoughts and new understandings about this story and its setting. Was the setting of The Stranger critical to the plot?

Readers, what did you find challenging about this activity?  What did you find was the easiest part?