Close Reading Without Reinventing the Wheel

By Jamie Guillaume

Close reading has been a topic of discussion in both the elementary and Jr.-Sr. high schools recently.  It is a skill that can be practiced and used in text of all subject matters. The Common Core’s focus on students gathering evidence, knowledge, and insight from what they read across the curriculum has reinforced the importance of this skill.

Sometimes the hardest part about teaching close reading is finding quality, complex texts to read, re-read, think about, and respond to in writing and in conversation.  

Last week I had the opportunity to attend a workshop that outlined the big picture of close reading and gave tips and suggestions for passage selections as well as accompanying questions to develop and practice this skill.  The presenter, Shauna Findlay, recommended a site that I have used in the past, readworks.org, which reaffirmed its usefulness.  This site has quality lesson plans organized by Skill & Strategy, Comprehension, Novel Study and Reading Passages.

The graphic below was pulled from readworks.org.  As you can see there are a variety of passages organized by grade, Lexile, domain (subject), text type and strategy. 

Another site that houses rich text is achievethecore.org  This particular site has a section dedicated strictly to close reading!  Full lesson plans along with text excerpts are all included! 

The below screen shot is an example of one of the many available lessons.  Once downloaded, you have access to all of the documents needed for the lesson described.   There are multiple close reading lessons geared towards all grade levels available.

Although the above sites give passages designed to foster close reading, many teachers have passages they are familiar with and prefer to use.  Below are tips for questions and discussions that can be used to promote close reading lessons.

Questions and Discussions:

• Can only be answered with evidence from the text
• Can be literal, an understanding check, but must also involve analysis, synthesis, and/or evaluation
• Focus on a word, sentence, and/or a paragraph, as well as larger ideas, themes or events.
• Focus on difficult portions of text in order to enhance reading proficiency.
• Can also include prompts for writing and discussion questions.

As you continue to focus on close reading within your classroom, consider the above sites to pull resources.  We are all busy and if we can find material using free, quality resources, why reinvent the wheel more than needed?