Close Reading

Close reading is a careful, purposeful, re-reading of text for the purpose of connecting with the author’s purpose and deepening your own own understanding.

You can check out this quick video from Dr. Fisher…a leading authority on close reading!

In my classroom, we close read often.

There are times when I’ll break down a complex text over several days and I analyze it for story elements and even phonetic patterns.

I will offer this caveat…with emergent readers, when it comes to text analysis, I think it’s best to just allow them to learn how to read first.  They can learn to think about important concepts in the text through a read aloud.

With students who are reading and comprehending you can start to really dig into the text! 🙂

This is a sample of a text I might use in my own class for close reading.

In my room, I like to use text that are right around my student’s independent reading level.

This particular text has a GLE of 2.9–(second grade, ninth month).

Each day, I would have the students read the text for a one minute timing, then read it completely through just for understanding.  I would talk with them about the question of the day and answer one question from the text coding section.  I wrote the questions to scaffold throughout the text.

On the last day, I allow the students to use their computer time to research the ‘internet question’.  They love to learn on their own! 🙂  I give a list of suggested sites for them to look at–after I’ve previewed them, of course!

I have this particular close reading text as a freebie on my blog.

If you want to download it and try it out in your small group reading time with some of your learners,

Please click HERE! 🙂

If you would like to check out other close reading passages in this same style, I have several freebies in the files section of my blog, and some paid products in my store.  Look for Differentiated Fluency for Seconds! 🙂