Smekens Education Access logo

Literacy Retreat 2014

SECRET SITE

Planning & Facilitating a Close Reading

Research on Close Reading

Kristina shared many statistics about students’ inability to handle complex text. Each of the expert quotes and/or statistics cited in this download are attributed to their original source.

Leading experts on close reading, Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey, have dozens of classroom videos posted on YouTube. There are numerous close-reading lessons recorded in a variety of grade levels and content areas.

Two professional must-reads include Text Complexity: Raising Rigor in Reading and Rigorous Reading: 5 Access Points for Comprehending Complex Texts.

Although close/analytic reading was initially a middle school, high school, and college-level reading skill, it is appropriate for the elementary classroom with some modifications. Read “Close Reading in Elementary Schools” by leading experts Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey.

Introduce Close Reading to Students

Prepare students for the fact that there will be days you will read hard, complex text and days you will read simpler, just-right text. Tell them that this is normal–this is what readers do.

For the complex text, they will need to read it multiple times, gaining a deeper understanding of author ideas with each reading.

  1. Reveal the eye glasses icon. Initially, readers comprehend on a surface level. They read to paraphrase/retell specific details, summarize the important concepts, and determine the main ideas. 
  2. Reveal the microscope icon. During a closer look, readers zoom in to analyze the text and evaluate author decisions about word choice, organization, and purpose.
  3. Reveal the telescope icon. With a deeper comprehension of the text, readers zoom out and integrate new understanding from the text with other texts and bigger ideas.

After discussing each of the different reading purposes per phase, bring it all together. Introduce them
to the process or framework of close reading and its three phases.

STEP 1: Determine what text to read.

You don’t read everything closely. There are different reads for different needs.

Apply the marathon analogy of days to push and grow versus days to recover and take it easy. There should be times we push students to grow with harder texts, and times that we work to throw a larger quantity of texts that are easier to read. The marathon analogy also reminds us that every day or every week is not harder than the previous one. It’s not a constant crescendo, but a spiral of experiences where we grow with hard texts and recover with easier texts. 

Since teachers are to determine text complexity themselves, an assessment tool is essential. Kristina built rubrics for Literature and Informational Text that measure all three factors of Text Complexity. NOTE: The rubric prints on legal paper (8 1/2 x 14).

Utilize Appendix A (pp2-22) and Appendix B within the CCSS for text complexity examples. NOTE: These are NOT required reading lists per grade level. 

STEP 2: Plan 3 phases of text-dependent questions.

Develop effective questions that require students to delve into a text to find answers.

Kristina revealed several close-reading lesson planning tools, depending on your available technology and personal style.

Another technique would be to color-code your questions per reading/phase.

  • PHASE-1 QUESTIONS–blue
  • PHASE-2 QUESTIONS–green
  • PHASE-3 QUESTIONS–red

STEP 3: Reveal text & establish a purpose.

One of the most surprising features of a close-reading lesson is the near lack of pre-reading. All texts do not need the same level of frontloading. Do not engage in lengthy conversations about the meaning of the text or what students should expect to find in the text in advance of the reading. Let the author do the talking.

During a close-reading experience, minimize (or omit) the following practices:

  • Previewing the text’s features.
  • Contextualizing the text.
  • Exploring students’ background knowledge and personal experience (e.g., text-to-self connections).
  • Identifying every vocabulary word students may not know, especially if the words are defined within the passage explicitly or implicitly via context clues.

We want to make the text the most important thing within a close-reading lesson.

However, it’s likely you will need to build some background knowledge or frontload 1-2 essential vocabulary words. Accomplish this not through teacher lecture but rather through reading. Provide students simpler text on these terms or concepts. Layer their background knowledge with shorter texts they can more easily access. This prepares them for the knowledge demands of the more complex text
you will tackle next.

Assessing & Scaffolding a Close Reading

STEP 4: Read/Reread & annotate.

Annotation is a note of any form made while reading a text. It slows down the reader in order to deepen understanding.

Teach students a single annotation skill, one at a time.

STEP 5: Discuss & collaborate.

After giving students an opportunity to read (Step 4) and discuss in smaller, more intimate scenarios (e.g., pairs, small groups), facilitate whole-class discussions using this Turn & Talk graphic.

Download a variety of floor plans for structuring text-based conversations. (NOTE: These are some of the ideas Courtney Gordon shared during the 2013 Literacy Retreat.)

Watch how an elementary classroom lesson incorporates whole-class and small-group conversation into this close-reading experience. (Notice how the teacher is frequently reminding students to support their inferences with text-based evidence.)

Follow this flowchart of guided instruction. If students answer a question inaccurately or incompletely, then we should guide them toward discovering the correct information–rather than just giving them the answer. For more information on how to prompt and cue students, read “Guiding Learning: Questions, Prompts, and Cues” by Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey.

STEP 6: Identify the after-reading task.

The culminating task after a close reading should relate to the core understanding and key ideas of the text. A coherent sequence of text-dependent questions will scaffold students toward successfully arguing a big idea and supporting it with textual evidence. Such tasks can be oral activities, although most end up with a written product. They can include:

DECISION TASKS–Select the best alternative from many possibilities, using the text to locate evidence for your choice.

Primary students might return to their first statements (regarding what the text was about) and make new ones. More than a literal retelling, students can be taught to determine the main idea and even the author’s message/theme. Check out the progression of thinking that Maria Bachuchin walked her kindergartners through after reading Mouse’s First Valentine.

JUDGMENT TASKS–Make a prediction about a future event based on what they have read so far.

PROBLEM TASKS–Resolve conflicting information in order to determine a decision path that will lead to a desired outcome.

Each of the tasks above can be accomplished with a Conversation Roundtable. (Notebook version available.)

Students use a single corner to note their individual thinking.
A small group discusses their individual thinking, and, in the other three corners of the handout, listeners can jot down relevant points made by their peers.
Students resume working independently to draft a written response in the middle, pulling on ideas shared during their roundtable conversation.

“Let it Go” Close-Reading Resources

Additional Close-Reading Resources

Access passages and corresponding text-dependent questions for the following: