This year the fourth through eighth grade ELA teachers went through three days of training in text dependent analysis. The general idea is that students read through lenses in order to notice patterns and come to a new understanding.
In the reading workshop, students choose the lenses they are using to notice and note while reading their independent reading novels and book club books. As a result of the training, we have begun to put together menus of lenses and types of understandings that best work with each of the units.
Here is an example of a basic menu of lenses and understandings for one particular unit. As teachers model additional lenses, these too are added as options.
In content areas such as social studies, students can read historical fiction through some of these same lenses in order to get to a new understanding such as theme to determine our takeaways as readers– what we now know, think, feel, or believe as a result of what we notice in historical fiction.
Students choose two lenses to actively read.
For example, what do I notice about the psychological setting (lens #1) and the actions (lens #2) of the characters.
Students jot what they notice while reading or at the end of reading depending on preference.
Students use their notes to look for patterns within the lenses they are noting. Maybe a character acts differently in different settings depending on who is there or the mood the setting creates.
By looking at what they’ve noticed and the patterns they are seeing in their observations, students can use that to come to a new understanding such as theme by asking themselves, what does the author want me to know, think, feel, or believe about that?
The same work can be done with nonfiction text using lenses that are specific to that genre. Below are examples of the lenses and types of understanding that can be used with nonfiction text.
Below is an example of my notes while looking through the lens of word choice while reading an article.
Specific lenses and understandings can be used for historical fiction reading in the social studies classroom. See some examples below.
Below is a short story annotated using the lenses of character actions and speech.
When students cannot write directly on the text, they can stop and jot in their notebook as seen below.
Much like discussions, noting is driven in student choice. Students in one book club can each choose two from a menu. There may be some overlap, and that it okay. After a few days to a week, students can switch out and read through new lenses, too.
By actively reading through lenses in order to notice patterns that lead to a new understanding, students are thinking deeply about what they are reading, able to have better discussions, and have the evidence to cite in writing.
Wonder Twin Workshop 
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