I thought my CSLP went very well. Honestly, it went exactly as I had hoped it would. Of course there were some people off-task, as in any classroom, but the majority of the students were engaged in the activity - it really made me feel as though I was the teacher in a real classroom. The only way this lesson could be improved is by giving the full class period to do it, and obviously having the whole class read the text before the activity.
This strategy could easily be adapted for other texts when doing a close reading. Also, it could adapted to find specific elements in a text: for example, the left column lists a series of symbols present in the text, and the students must find examples of the symbol being used and write it in the middle column, then they must analyze what the symbol means in the right column. This is a great activity to get students to examine textual elements closer and/or to help start an independent assignment.
I'm glad you are working with close reading. This is a major shift for ELA instruction and your future colleagues will benefit from your knowledge in this area!
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