2. What is close reading?
It involves:
--analysis of a text
--at word, phrase level
--at sentence, paragraph level
--identify author’s central idea
--identify key details

3. Common Core Standards
CC Themes
What students should be able to do…
Key ideas and details
Students should be able to determine what texts
say explicitly and be able to summarize them
(including central ideas/themes, how ideas and
characters develop and interact), making logical
inferences, and citing textual evidence.
“What did the text say?”
Craft and Structure
“How did the text say it?”
Integration of knowledge and
ideas
“What does the text mean?
What is its value?”
Range and level of text
complexity
Students should be able to interpret the
meanings of words and phrases and the
structure of texts to determine how they affect
meaning or tone, and how points of view and
purpose shape content and style.
Students should be able to synthesize and
compare information from print and digital
sources, and critically evaluate the reasoning
and rhetoric of a text.
Students will be asked to read more challenging
texts.

4. Close Reading
• Focus on MEANING
• Minimize background preparation
• Students must do the interpretation
• Teachers ask text dependent questions
• Purposeful re-reading (not practice—separate
journeys)
• Short reads

5. Skills Needed
Tapping prior knowledge of text structure
Tapping prior topical and vocab knowledge
Setting a purpose
Self-monitoring for meaning
Determining what is important
Synthesizing

6. Example of Close Reading
• http://www.engageny.org/resource/close-readingstrategies-with-informational-text-by-expeditionarylearning

7. Planning texts for
Close Reading
Planning
• 1. Select a high quality text
worth reading and
rereading
• 2. Teachers MUST
read/reread the text and
apply close reading
techniques in advance
• 3. Teachers should generate
text-dependent questions
• 4. Determine areas that
would be difficult in the text
(vocabulary, structure…)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Supports
Complexity of
ideas/content, sentences?
Complex vocabulary?
Presupposed prior
knowledge?
Genre familiarity?
Subtlety of author’s tone?
Sophistication of literary
devices?
Fluency challenge?

8. Why we re-read a text?
First Read: Determine what the
text says
Second Read: Determine how
the text works
Third read: Evaluate quality of
content and make connections

9. Pre-Read Strategy-THIEVES
THIEVES Bookmark

10. Pre-Read Strategy TELL
Title
What does the title tell us about the topic or central idea of
the text?
Examine
Examine the text features. What clues do the features
provide about the topic or central idea of the text?
Look
Look at bold words or words in italics. Use these words
to make a prediction about the topic or central idea.
Look
Look up and predict what the text will be about overall.

11. Determine what the
text says
• Cake Analogy:
o Brainstorm ingredients of a
cake with a plus sign in
between each
ingredient=cake
o “What we have to do to read
strategically is think about all of
the ingredients or elements the
author has included, like the
headings and
subheadings, the captions and
photographs, and the main
text. As we think about the
ingredients, we can begin to
determine the author’s central
idea. When we do that, it’s like
stirring together and baking the
cake.

13. Second Read:
Determine How the Text Works
Titles: indicates topic or subject
Deck: brief intro to article/chapter. Different color between title and main text.
Attracts interest.
Headings/Subheadings: clue the reader on what will be happening next in the
text
Photographs/Illustrations: visual info to the reader.
Captions and labels: describe the photographs

14. Second Read Activity—
feature hunt
• 1. Introduce a set of informational texts
• 2. Students browse through them
• 3. Engage students in a feature hunt and hold up
particular features (photo, sidebar, bold-face)
• 4. Identify the purpose of the feature and visually
project the example
o Prompts include: What feature did the author decide to use? Why?
o What do you notice in the feature? What are we
learning from the feature? How did we figure that out?

15. Self-monitoring while
reading
• Coding Method:
o Consider the following questions as she/he reads
• “Is this new information for me?”
• “Is this information I already knew?”
• “What do I not understand about this information? Or what are my
questions?”
• “Wow, this is really cool stuff!”
?
+
This is new
information
*
I already
knew this
information
I
wonder…or
I don’t
understand..
!
Wow!

17. Thinking Notes
• https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/studentannotated-reading-strategy
• In what ways do “thinking notes” require students to
track their response to a text and engage in more
thoughtful reading?
• What other reactions might you have students track
when reading?

18. Synthesis-Frame Analogy

20. Text Structure Types
Description
Comparison
Sequence/Time
Order
Cause-effect

21. Synthesis: Suggestions for
Coaching
Scenario
Prompt
Students have not yet
started.
“Tell me a bit about what you are thinking.”
“What are you thinking about the author’s
motives or reasons for writing this text?”
“Tell me more”
Student has identified central “What information was in the text that made
idea, but not supporting
you think of this?” or “Why do you think so?”
details.
“How can you write that into your response?”
Student has stated the
“What do you think the author’s central idea
author’s central idea in terms means for you or the rest of the world?”
that are too literal.
“What is one word we could use to describe the
author’s central idea?”
Student has details-but they
are general.
“What words could you revises or change to
create a more vivid picture?”
“Let’s see what happens if we change one of the
words you mentioned.”

22. http://www.teachingthecore.com/nonfreaked-out-common-core-writing-part-06/

23. http://www.teachingthecore.com/nonfreaked-out-common-core-writing-part-06/

24. References
• Most of the ideas come from--http://www.shanahanonliteracy.com/
http://www.achievethecore.org/
http://www.teachingthecore.com/nonfreaked-out-common-core-writing-part06/
http://www.engageny.org/