Close Reading of Informational Text — Print · Grade 12 English

Chapter: Informational Reading & Media

Close Reading of Informational Text

Learning goals

Readings for this unit

Before this unit

Summarize a short passage accurately, locate a relevant detail, and write a complete sentence. For grammar tasks, identify the subject and verb first.

Session 1 (35–45 minutes): read the selection, study two short explanation sections, and work through one example. Session 2: try one practice set and explain the exit check. Use a separate session for the chapter workshop; do not try to finish a long book or essay in one class.

A central idea states what a nonfiction text develops about its topic. Supporting details explain, illustrate, qualify, or challenge it.

Write an objective summary by keeping the main idea and important connections while leaving out your judgment and minor examples. Attribute a disputed claim to its source.

A strong summary preserves qualifications. Replacing “some respondents” with “students” can turn an accurate report into an unsupported generalization.

A practical method: read once for literal understanding, mark a relevant detail, write a tentative response, then test it against another detail. In a language task, identify the intended meaning before changing the sentence. In a research task, record what each source actually establishes before synthesizing.

For Grade 12, the application expectation is: Develop an independent, qualified interpretation, test a rival reading, and acknowledge a limit in your evidence. Plan a response of about 300–450 words when a task calls for a developed paragraph; a sentence-editing task may need much less. These lengths guide planning rather than replace the success criteria.

This unit connects to the course reading library. The story “Terms of Use” develops this grade’s inquiry into complex texts, independent inquiry & public voice. The argument packet includes differently situated sources; distinguish fictional exercise evidence from historical records in your book study.

Build your understanding

Work through the four parts across two sessions, pausing at each check to explain the distinction in your own words before reading the answer. Use a third session for the whole-unit application, independent practice, revision, and the exit check. The parent plan assigns the reading and writing itself.

Part 1 · Ask what kind of record you are holding

Informational reading begins with a classification, not an opinion. The course essay puts it directly: ask whether the record contains a count, an observation, a statement, or an interpretation. A photograph shows a visible condition at one time and cannot by itself explain its causes; a memory reports what someone recalls. Different kinds of record support different kinds of claim.

Getting this wrong produces confident errors. A satisfaction rating of 4.4 out of 5 is a count of opinions, not a measure of whether a display is accurate — and treating it as the latter is not a difference of interpretation but a category mistake.

Pause and explain

Why is a rating of 4.4 out of 5 for attractiveness not evidence that a display is accurate?

Check your reasoning after answering

It records viewers' impressions of appearance, which is a count of opinions about one property. Accuracy is a different property, about the relation between the display and what speakers said, and no number of favourable impressions bears on it.

Part 2 · Separate the method from the tone

A persuasive purpose does not make a source unreliable, and a neutral tone does not make one trustworthy. A petition aims to persuade and may still contain accurate attendance figures; a measured report may rest on a method that cannot support its conclusion. Inspect how a claim was produced rather than how it sounds.

In the source packet, the contractor's brief is openly advocating and discloses its sample: 120 visitors asked, 30 completing a voluntary survey. The disclosure is what makes the brief assessable. A source that argues and shows its method is more useful than one that sounds impartial and shows nothing.

Pause and explain

What makes the contractor's brief assessable despite being advocacy?

Check your reasoning after answering

It discloses its method — 30 of 120 visitors completing a voluntary survey — so a reader can judge what the figure supports. Advocacy with a visible method can be checked, while a neutral tone with no method cannot.

Part 3 · Identify who is missing from the record

Every sample describes the people in it. Thirty volunteers from among library visitors describe those thirty, and the people who declined or never came are not represented. The essay's formulation is worth memorising: a voluntary survey of people already using a library describes those respondents, not necessarily every student.

The practical move is to name the absent group and say what their inclusion might change. Those who found the wall unwelcoming are the least likely to be standing in front of it completing a survey about it, which means the design of the sample and the question at issue are related — not independent problems.

Pause and explain

Why does the missing group matter especially in the listening-wall survey?

Check your reasoning after answering

Because those most likely to object are least likely to be present at the display to be surveyed, so the sampling method systematically under-represents the view at issue. The absence is not random; it bears directly on the question the survey is being used to answer.

Part 4 · Mark the line between record and inference in your own sentences

Writing about sources requires visible seams. "The memo records three staff hours each week" reports; "this suggests the pilot is affordable" infers. Readers can only evaluate an argument when they can see which is which, and a few words of signalling do the work.

Keep a three-column journal while reading: what the source says, what you infer, what you still need to check. The third column is the one students skip and the one that most improves the writing, because it generates the sentence that marks your argument's limits.

Pause and explain

Rewrite "the pilot is affordable" so that record and inference are visible.

Check your reasoning after answering

Something like: the staffing memo records an estimated three hours each week and states that an eight-week pilot fits the current budget if reviews replace one optional event, which suggests affordability on the memo's own assumptions. The record is attributed and the inference is marked as conditional on it.

Apply the whole unit · Classify and weigh three sources

Use the three-part source packet "A Listening City?" and the course essay "From Records to Reasons".

Your task

For each of the three sources, state what kind of record it is, what it can support, and what it cannot. Then identify the one factual claim on which two sources genuinely conflict, and say what additional information would settle it.

What your response should show

  • Complete the assigned task using the supplied text, quoting or citing precisely.
  • Explain how a specific choice of language, structure, or evidence produces the effect you claim.
  • Keep a significant qualification rather than flattening it, and say what your reading does not establish.
Response guidance — after your attempt

  1. Classify each source: count, observation, statement, or interpretation — several may be mixed.

  2. For each, write one claim it supports and one it is wrongly used to support.

  3. Find the point of genuine conflict rather than a difference of emphasis.

  4. Name the specific record that would resolve it.

Source A mixes a count with an interpretation: it supports the claim that visitors who responded found the wall attractive, and cannot support the claim that engagement increased, since no before-and-after measure is offered. Source B is a statement of position with one case attached; it supports the claim that at least one speaker's qualification was omitted, and cannot support a claim about how often omission occurs. Source C is an estimate of operational cost; it supports the claim that review is feasible within budget on stated assumptions, and cannot support a claim about whether review is effective. The genuine conflict is over withdrawal: A implies display decisions are reversible enough, while C records that screenshots cannot be recalled although library files can. What would settle it is a record of what is actually retained and where — a retention schedule for the display, the recordings, and any third-party copies.

Parent / teacher teaching notes

The classification step is the one to insist on, because it prevents most of the errors that follow. The three-column journal is worth adopting for the rest of the year, including in the science and history courses, since the habit transfers directly. When your child reports a conflict between sources, ask whether it is a real disagreement about fact or a difference in emphasis; the distinction is the hardest part of this unit.

The key idea

A central idea states what a nonfiction text develops about its topic. Supporting details explain, illustrate, qualify, or challenge it.

Worked examples

Example 1 · Read and reason

State the central idea and give a two-sentence summary.
  1. Establish what the source explicitly says.
  2. Write an objective summary by keeping the main idea and important connections while leaving out your judgment and minor examples. Attribute a disputed claim to its source.
  3. Select the detail that supports the response and test its limit.
Answer: School gardens can support learning when maintenance is planned. The article contrasts two gardens to show how vacation care affects whether that opportunity lasts.

Example 2 · Apply to a different case

Summarize without expanding the finding.
  1. Read the new source without assuming the first answer transfers unchanged.
  2. A strong summary preserves qualifications. Replacing “some respondents” with “students” can turn an accurate report into an unsupported generalization.
  3. Explain the relationship between the detail and your conclusion.
Answer: Most interviewed users wanted a later route. The report recommends a trial but cannot show demand among people who were not interviewed.

Example 3 · Find and repair the mistake

“The article proves that gardens are the best way to learn science.”
  1. Identify the claim, sentence, or inference that does not fit the task.
  2. The article supports a conditional benefit, not a comparison with every method. Preserve the maintenance condition and avoid “proves” when the evidence does not justify it.
  3. Check the revision against the original source.
Answer: The article supports a conditional benefit, not a comparison with every method. Preserve the maintenance condition and avoid “proves” when the evidence does not justify it.

Example 4 · Grade 12 reading-to-writing model

Apply close reading of informational text to the assigned selection. Explain a supported reading with two details, and test one limitation. Use the complete selection or book where a short excerpt is insufficient.
  1. Identify the model’s main claim and its qualification.
  2. Return to the assigned text and record the evidence needed to test it.
  3. Develop an independent, qualified interpretation, test a rival reading, and acknowledge a limit in your evidence.
Answer: The contractor’s attractiveness rating does not establish faithful representation; the coalition identifies a possible distortion without measuring its frequency. The staffing memo supports a bounded review pilot with costs and limits clearly stated. Support this interpretation with precisely located details from the selection; recognize what the ending leaves unresolved.
Check the reasoning

A model answer is one supported route through a task. Evidence-based alternative readings are acceptable.

Avoid these mistakes

Check your understanding

State the central idea and give a two-sentence summary.

Discuss the answer

School gardens can support learning when maintenance is planned. The article contrasts two gardens to show how vacation care affects whether that opportunity lasts.

What makes the mistaken response inaccurate?

Discuss the answer

The article supports a conditional benefit, not a comparison with every method. Preserve the maintenance condition and avoid “proves” when the evidence does not justify it.

Words to know

evidence
A detail, observation, or source used to support a claim.
interpretation
A reasoned account of meaning, supported and tested against a text.
qualification
A condition or limit that makes a claim more accurate.

In the real world

Use this skill to understand public messages, communicate clearly, and verify what your own evidence supports.

Exit check

Without notes, explain one useful method from this unit and apply it to a fresh detail or sentence. Name a mistake it helps you avoid.

Check your explanation after answering

A central idea states what a nonfiction text develops about its topic. Supporting details explain, illustrate, qualify, or challenge it. A valid response gives an actual application and explains the detail or revision. Avoid this mistake: “The article proves that gardens are the best way to learn science.”

Explain your reasoning without notes. If a key idea is missing, revisit the lesson and try again.

Problem 1

Summarize without expanding the finding. Give a detail and explain its relevance.
Answer and explanation

Most interviewed users wanted a later route. The report recommends a trial but cannot show demand among people who were not interviewed.

Use the criteria to compare your reasoning, not to copy the model’s wording. A supported alternative interpretation may earn full credit.

Response criteria

  • Make an accurate, focused claim or revision.
  • Use a relevant detail or a clearly explained language choice.
  • Explain the relationship and recognize a relevant limit.

Problem 2

A learner writes: “The article proves that gardens are the best way to learn science.” Explain the problem and produce a better response.
Answer and explanation

The article supports a conditional benefit, not a comparison with every method. Preserve the maintenance condition and avoid “proves” when the evidence does not justify it.

Use the criteria to compare your reasoning, not to copy the model’s wording. A supported alternative interpretation may earn full credit.

Response criteria

  • Make an accurate, focused claim or revision.
  • Use a relevant detail or a clearly explained language choice.
  • Explain the relationship and recognize a relevant limit.

Problem 3

Compare what you must inspect in these two cases. What can transfer, and what must be checked again?
Answer and explanation

A central idea states what a nonfiction text develops about its topic. Supporting details explain, illustrate, qualify, or challenge it. The method transfers, but the particular detail, scope, and context must be read again. Most interviewed users wanted a later route. The report recommends a trial but cannot show demand among people who were not interviewed.

Use the criteria to compare your reasoning, not to copy the model’s wording. A supported alternative interpretation may earn full credit.

Response criteria

  • Make an accurate, focused claim or revision.
  • Use a relevant detail or a clearly explained language choice.
  • Explain the relationship and recognize a relevant limit.

Problem 4

Using an assigned reading or one exercise source, write a developed response applying close reading of informational text. Aim for 300–450 words; name the reading or reproduce the sentence you revise.
Answer and explanation

School gardens can support learning when maintenance is planned. The article contrasts two gardens to show how vacation care affects whether that opportunity lasts. A complete response supplies context, a focused claim, a brief supporting detail, explanation, and a relevant qualification. Do not simply repeat this model.

Use the criteria to compare your reasoning, not to copy the model’s wording. A supported alternative interpretation may earn full credit.

Response criteria

  • Make an accurate, focused claim or revision.
  • Use a relevant detail or a clearly explained language choice.
  • Explain the relationship and recognize a relevant limit.

Problem 5

Write two specific feedback comments on a response to this unit: one on accuracy or meaning and one on evidence or language. Then state a revision priority.
Answer and explanation

Check whether the response explains a central idea states what a nonfiction text develops about its topic. supporting details explain, illustrate, qualify, or challenge it. Ask for a relevant detail and the reason it supports the conclusion. Prioritize the mistaken assumption shown here: “The article proves that gardens are the best way to learn science.”

Use the criteria to compare your reasoning, not to copy the model’s wording. A supported alternative interpretation may earn full credit.

Response criteria

  • Make an accurate, focused claim or revision.
  • Use a relevant detail or a clearly explained language choice.
  • Explain the relationship and recognize a relevant limit.

Problem 6

Choose a fresh sentence or detail from the assigned selection. Explain how this unit’s method applies, and identify one uncertainty or limitation.
Answer and explanation

The contractor’s attractiveness rating does not establish faithful representation; the coalition identifies a possible distortion without measuring its frequency. The staffing memo supports a bounded review pilot with costs and limits clearly stated. The response must supply its own precise detail and explain it; copying the model without fresh evidence is insufficient.

Use the criteria to compare your reasoning, not to copy the model’s wording. A supported alternative interpretation may earn full credit.

Response criteria

  • Make an accurate, focused claim or revision.
  • Use a relevant detail or a clearly explained language choice.
  • Explain the relationship and recognize a relevant limit.

Problem 7

Record what the source explicitly states before interpreting it.
Answer and explanation

A report says that 14 of 20 interviewed bus users wanted a later route. It recommends a trial, noting that nonusers were not interviewed. These are the supplied words; conclusions about motives or causes need additional reasoning.

Use the criteria to compare your reasoning, not to copy the model’s wording. A supported alternative interpretation may earn full credit.

Response criteria

  • Make an accurate, focused claim or revision.
  • Use a relevant detail or a clearly explained language choice.
  • Explain the relationship and recognize a relevant limit.

Problem 8

Give a plausible alternative response and explain which source detail would help choose between responses.
Answer and explanation

Most interviewed users wanted a later route. The report recommends a trial but cannot show demand among people who were not interviewed. A different conclusion needs a source detail it explains at least as well; identify what would confirm or challenge it.

Use the criteria to compare your reasoning, not to copy the model’s wording. A supported alternative interpretation may earn full credit.

Response criteria

  • Make an accurate, focused claim or revision.
  • Use a relevant detail or a clearly explained language choice.
  • Explain the relationship and recognize a relevant limit.

Problem 9

Explain one choice in the model answer that makes it more accurate than the mistaken answer.
Answer and explanation

The article supports a conditional benefit, not a comparison with every method. Preserve the maintenance condition and avoid “proves” when the evidence does not justify it. The improved answer matches the source’s scope and meaning.

Use the criteria to compare your reasoning, not to copy the model’s wording. A supported alternative interpretation may earn full credit.

Response criteria

  • Make an accurate, focused claim or revision.
  • Use a relevant detail or a clearly explained language choice.
  • Explain the relationship and recognize a relevant limit.

Problem 10

Write a first response, obtain or generate a focused feedback question, and revise. Explain what changed and why.
Answer and explanation

Most interviewed users wanted a later route. The report recommends a trial but cannot show demand among people who were not interviewed. Record an original draft and a revision. A useful change clarifies the claim, adds evidence, or corrects meaning rather than merely swapping synonyms.

Use the criteria to compare your reasoning, not to copy the model’s wording. A supported alternative interpretation may earn full credit.

Response criteria

  • Make an accurate, focused claim or revision.
  • Use a relevant detail or a clearly explained language choice.
  • Explain the relationship and recognize a relevant limit.

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