Bright Ideas
"Sheryl's Close Reading Triangle has changed the way I teach my English class. The CRT is a close reading method that students understand and enjoy, and it can easily be adapted to any lesson to enhance annotation and comprehension skills. It is simply brilliant."
Carol Fasick - English Teacher -
Northside High School, Columbus, Georgia
The biggest and brightest idea Sheryl can share with teachers is her Close Reading Triangle. It is a powerful and effective tool that allows teachers to "see" students thinking as they read complex texts. The tool also allows teachers to have a visible, conceptual method of taking students through the thinking process about reading. So simple, yet revolutionary, the CRT can be adapted for ANY grade, ANY child, ANY class. It has been proven to work in elementary, middle, and high school ELA classes, AND across curriculum lines in science, social studies, and yes, even math! What you see below is the basic concept, but in order to fully understand how the CRT helps English teachers teach close reading, you've got to get Sheryl into your classroom or buy her book.
The Close Reading Triangle blends perfectly with a writing extension. This concept, as expressed in the graphic below, uses the ideas of John Hattie, Douglas Fisher, and Nancy Frey's Visible Learning for Literacy to challenge students to read and write "deeply". Sheryl's CRT used in tandem with her Writing Triangle fills a void English teachers often feel in their classrooms. They become tools that innately blend the powerful skills of close reading and writing. If you want to learn more about how the triangles work, you'll have to get Sheryl into your school...or buy her book.
