In my last post, I wrote about the concept of “lily pads” in text—the idea of stopping at key moments in a complex passage to pull students out of the “deep end,” stand together, and do deep, modeled reading and thinking. The goal is to give students the tools and schema they need to “swim on” with far more independence.
The concept resonated, but without a model, even practices we believe in are hard to implement. So, I made a model.
Of the many things I have tried in the classroom, none have produced better results than this practice (a claim I don’t make lightly) and I did a version of it nearly every day of the year.
Before I share it, a few quick notes on the work:
A few defaults exist in classrooms where this works. Students are operating with pencil and paper; the teacher has done intensive intellectual preparation with the text and knows where the “heart of the heavy lifting” lies; and there is a strong culture of “board = paper” in the room.
This kind of work doesn’t leave much room for distraction, but it does require intentional breaks—turn and talks, brief share-outs, or other structures that allow students to interact with the text rather than only listen.
Depending on the authorial craft you’re trying to uncover, you may focus on entirely different aspects of the text. Most of all, explicit instruction requires a great deal of uncovering of explicit meaning. You may be surprised by how much of the work ends up being establishing meaning rather than analyzing it. It can feel elementary at first, but it’s the most reliable way to free up student thinking for “the good stuff” later.
Most lily pad moments function best when you target either a passage that requires significant comprehension work (what Reading Reconsidered calls establishing meaning) or a moment that is emotionally resonant or plot-shifting—such as Jonas watching the video of his father completing a “release” in The Giver. The goal of this model is to help students see the tonal frame Bradbury places around the technology in the opening paragraphs and to give them the schema they need to read the next ~20 paragraphs independently. (For reference, my next lily pad would likely come on page 3, when Mr. Travis begins, “We don’t want to change the future.”)
No two paragraphs require the same approach, and I don’t advocate for consistently required markings or annotation patterns (such as always using ? for “I have a question”).
Depending on my aims, students might work on questions like these either during the model or afterward:
Establishing Meaning
Fill in the following chart with detail from the text.
Looking at the machine, Eckles sees:
Looking at the machine, Eckles hears:
Establishing and Analyzing Meaning:
The machine sounds like a “gigantic bonfire” because…
The machine sounds like a “gigantic bonfire” but…
The machine sounds like a “gigantic bonfire” so…
Analyzing Meaning:
How does Bradbury use imagery to pack motion into the description of the machine?
How does the description of the machine build on the ominous tone of the opening paragraphs?
How does the simile in paragraph 6 showcase the machine’s power?
(after finishing the story) How did Bradbury foreshadow that the machine was too powerful for man to control in paragraph 6?
The goal of a lily pad isn’t to slow students down indefinitely or to keep them tethered to the teacher. It’s the opposite. When students leave these moments with shared language, clarified meaning, and a sense of how an author is working, they are far better equipped to read forward on their own.
Done well, this kind of modeling doesn’t replace independent reading—it makes it possible.
Let me know what you think, and if you found this kind of modeling useful. I’d love to keep giving the document camera a workout!
