Closer Reading For Deeper Learning - Carol Jago

Closer Reading
          For Deeper Learning
	
  
                   Grades 3-5
       Wisconsin State Reading Association
                February 5, 2015

                  Carol Jago
             cjago@caroljago.com

              	
  

A Bat Is Born
By Randall Jarrell	
  
	
  
A bat is born	
  
Naked and blind and pale.	
  
His mother makes a pocket of her tail	
  
And catches him. He clings to her long fur	
  
By his thumbs and toes and teeth.	
  
And then the mother dances through the night	
  
Doubling and looping, soaring, somersaulting—	
  
Her baby hangs on underneath.	
  
All night, in happiness, she hunts and flies	
  
Her sharp cries	
  
Like shining needlepoints of sound	
  
Go out into the night and, echoing back,	
  
Tell her what they have touched.	
  
She hears how far it is, how big it is,	
  
Which way it’s going:	
  
She lives by hearing.	
  
The mother eats the moths and gnats she catches	
  
In full flight; in full flight	
  
The mother drinks the water of the pond	
  
She skims across. Her baby hangs on tight.	
  
Her baby drinks the milk she makes him	
  
In moonlight or starlight, in mid-air.	
  
Their single shadow, printed on the moon	
  
Or fluttering across the stars,	
  
Whirls on all night; at daybreak	
  
The tired mother flaps home to her rafter.	
  
The others are all there.	
  
They hang themselves up by their toes,	
  
They wrap themselves in their brown wings.	
  
Bunched upside down, they sleep in air.	
  
Their sharp ears, their sharp teeth, their	
  
quick sharp faces	
  
Are dull and slow and mild.	
  
All the bright day, as the mother sleeps,	
  
She folds her wings about her sleeping child.	
  
	
  
	
                                                    2	
  

Readers’ Theater Script: “A Bat Is Born”

Reader #1:         “A Bat Is Born” by Randall Jarrell

Reader #2:         A bat is born naked and blind and pale.

Reader #3:        His mother makes a pocket of her tail and catches
him. He clings to her long fur, by his thumbs and toes and teeth.

Reader #4:       And then the mother dances through the night,
doubling and looping, soaring, somersaulting— Her baby hangs on
underneath.

All:   All night, in happiness, she hunts and flies

Reader #1:         Her sharp cries like shining needlepoints of sound go
out into the night and, echoing back, tell her what they have touched.

Reader #4: She hears how far it is, how big it is, which way it’s
going: She lives by hearing.

Reader #3:             The mother eats the moths and gnats she catches in
full flight; in full flight the mother drinks the water of the pond she
skims across. Her baby hangs on tight.

All: Her baby drinks the milk she makes him in moonlight or starlight,
in mid-air.

Reader #2: Their single shadow, printed on the moon
Or fluttering across the stars, whirls on all night; at daybreak the tired
mother flaps home to her rafter.

All:   The others are all there.

Reader #1:       They hang themselves up by their toes, they wrap
themselves in their brown wings.

Reader #4:         Bunched upside down, they sleep in air.

Reader #3:        Their sharp ears, their sharp teeth, their quick sharp
faces are dull and slow and mild.

All: All the bright day, as the mother sleeps, she folds her wings
about her sleeping child.	
  

	
                                                                       3	
  

LANGUAGE STUDY

From “A Bat Is Born”

Their sharp ears, their sharp teeth, their

quick sharp faces

Are dull and slow and mild.

Text-dependent questions

       1. Why didn’t Randall Jarrell just write “Their ears, teeth, and faces
          are dull, slow, and mild.”? What is lost?

       2. What difference does the adjective sharp make? Why do you
          think he repeated the word?

       3. What effect does the second and have on the line? (Slows the
          reader down, echoes second line of the poem “Naked and blind
          and pale.”)

From Bat Loves the Night

Now she unhooks her toes and drops into black space.
With a sound like a tiny umbrella opening, she flaps her wings.
Bat is flying.

Text-dependent questions

       1. What does the verb drops tell you about where the bat starts her
          flight?

       2. Why is the adjective black important here?

       3. What does the simile “like a tiny umbrella” help you to do?

	
                                                                          4	
  

CROSS TEXT COMPARISON
Over bushes, under trees, between fence posts, through the tangled
hedge she swoops untouched. Bat is as at home in the darkness as a
fish is in the water. She doesn’t need to see—she can hear where she
is going.

Text-dependent questions

       1. What does the verb swoops suggest to you about the bat’s
          movement?

       2. How is a bat in the darkness like a fish in water?

       3. Find lines in the poem “A Bat Is Born” that describe similar bat
          facts.

       RESEARCH TASK

       Choose an animal whose habits you would like to learn more about.

       Research your animal and come to class prepared to present what
       you have learned. Make a list of your sources of information.

          Other ideas

             •   Write a poem about your animal
             •   Create a book about your animal
             •   Read your classmates’ poems and books

	
                          	
  

	
                                                                           5	
  

From My Life with the Chimpanzees by Jane Goodall	
  

	
             Every	
  morning	
  I	
  got	
  up	
  when	
  I	
  heard	
  the	
  alarm	
  clock	
  at	
  5:30	
  a.m.	
  I	
  
ate	
   a	
   couple	
   of	
   slices	
   of	
   bread	
   and	
   had	
   a	
   cup	
   of	
   coffee	
   from	
   the	
   Thermos	
  
flask.	
  Then	
  I	
  set	
  off,	
  climbing	
  to	
  where	
  I	
  thought	
  the	
  chimps	
  might	
  be.	
  
	
             Most	
   often,	
   I	
   went	
   to	
   the	
   Peak.	
   I	
   discovered	
   that	
   from	
   this	
   high	
  
place	
  I	
  had	
  a	
  splendid	
  view	
  in	
  all	
  directions.	
  I	
  could	
  see	
  chimps	
  moving	
  
in	
  the	
  trees	
  and	
  I	
  could	
  hear	
  if	
  they	
  called.	
  At	
  first	
  I	
  watched	
  from	
  afar,	
  
through	
  my	
  binoculars,	
  and	
  never	
  tried	
  to	
  get	
  close.	
  I	
  knew	
  that	
  if	
  I	
  did,	
  
the	
  chimps	
  would	
  run	
  silently	
  away.	
  
	
             Gradually	
  I	
  began	
  to	
  learn	
  about	
  the	
  chimps’	
  home	
  and	
  how	
  they	
  
lived.	
   I	
   discovered	
   that,	
   most	
   of	
   the	
   time,	
   the	
   chimps	
   wandered	
   about	
   in	
  
small	
  groups	
  of	
  six	
  or	
  less,	
  not	
  in	
  a	
  big	
  troupe	
  like	
  the	
  baboons.	
  Often	
  a	
  
little	
  group	
  was	
  made	
  up	
  of	
  a	
  mother	
  with	
  her	
  children,	
  or	
  two	
  or	
  three	
  
adult	
   males	
   by	
   themselves.	
   Sometimes	
   many	
   groups	
   joined	
   together,	
  
especially	
   when	
   there	
   was	
   delicious	
   ripe	
   fruit	
   on	
   one	
   big	
   tree.	
   When	
   the	
  
chimps	
  got	
  together	
  like	
  that,	
  they	
  were	
  very	
  excited,	
  made	
  a	
  lot	
  of	
  noise,	
  
and	
  were	
  easy	
  to	
  find.	
  
	
             Eventually	
   I	
   realized	
   that	
   the	
   chimps	
   I	
   watched	
   from	
   the	
   Peak	
  
were	
   all	
   part	
   of	
   one	
   group	
   —	
  a	
   community.	
   There	
   were	
   about	
   fifty	
  
chimps	
   belonging	
   to	
   this	
   community.	
   They	
   made	
   use	
   of	
   three	
   of	
   the	
  
valleys	
   to	
   the	
   north	
   of	
   the	
   Kakombe	
   Valley	
   (where	
   our	
   tent	
   was)	
   and	
  
two	
   valleys	
   to	
   the	
   south.	
   These	
   valleys	
   have	
   lovely	
   sounding	
   names:	
  
Kasakela,	
  Linda,	
  and	
  Rutanga	
  in	
  the	
  north,	
  Mkenke	
  and	
  Nysanga	
  in	
  the	
  
south.	
  
	
             From	
  the	
  Peak	
  I	
  noted	
  which	
  trees	
  the	
  chimps	
  were	
  feeding	
  in	
  and	
  
then,	
  when	
  they	
  had	
  gone,	
  I	
  scrambled	
  down	
  and	
  collected	
  some	
  of	
  the	
  
leaves,	
   flowers,	
   or	
   fruits	
   so	
   they	
   could	
   be	
   identified	
   later.	
   I	
   found	
   that	
  
the	
   chimps	
   eat	
   mostly	
   fruits	
   but	
   also	
   a	
   good	
   many	
   kinds	
   of	
   leaves,	
  
blossoms,	
   seeds,	
   and	
   stems.	
   Later	
   I	
   would	
   discover	
   that	
   they	
   eat	
   a	
  
variety	
  of	
  insects	
  and	
  sometimes	
  hunt	
  and	
  kill	
  prey	
  animals	
  to	
  feed	
  on	
  
meat.	
  
	
             During	
  those	
  months	
  of	
  gradual	
  discovery,	
  the	
  chimps	
  very	
  slowly	
  
began	
   to	
   realize	
   that	
   I	
   was	
   not	
   so	
   frightening	
   after	
   all.	
   Even	
   so,	
   it	
   was	
  
almost	
   a	
   year	
   before	
   I	
   could	
   approach	
   to	
   within	
   one	
   hundred	
   yards,	
   and	
  
that	
   is	
   not	
   really	
   very	
   close.	
   The	
   baboons	
   got	
   used	
   to	
   me	
   much	
   more	
  
quickly.	
  Indeed,	
  they	
  became	
  a	
  nuisance	
  around	
  our	
  camp	
  by	
  grabbing	
  
any	
  food	
  that	
  we	
  accidentally	
  left	
  lying	
  on	
  the	
  table.	
  	
  

	
                                                                                                                                  6