Strategies for close reading are a game changer in the classroom. Close reading in 1st grade?? Are you crazy?? I know, I know! You are probably thinking, “but they can’t even read a full sentence let alone a passage.” I promise that it’s not as scary as it sounds and can be easy. I started looking into close reading strategies a few years ago and now passages for close reading are my go-to when we need to work on comprehension practice.
What Are Strategies for Close Reading
What the heck does strategies for close reading mean anyway? The close reading definition is a thoughtful, critical analysis of a short text. It focuses on significant details or patterns in order to develop a deep, precise understanding of the text’s form, craft, meaning, etc. It is a key requirement of the Common Core Standards and directs the reader’s attention to the text itself.
I often try to imagine that I have just read a passage on an iron-based catalyst that can convert carbon dioxide into fuel. Now honestly, if you did one quick read through of this article would you fully comprehend it? I know I wouldn’t. It’s easy to think of the topics we have our students read such as the first Thanksgiving, recycling, or the plant life cycle and conclude that the information is easy and they will have no problem understanding it. When considering close reading strategies, it’s important to note that for most students reading through that plant life cycle passage is just as complex to them as the carbon dioxide passage would be for us.
Strategies for Close Reading for Elementary Students
When doing a close reading for elementary students involves short passages and excerpts and allows the reader to dive right into the text with limited pre-reading activities. Instead of just one quick read through where students don’t know half of the words so they just skip right over so they can get to the end, a close read allows them to be able to hear and see a lot more! Passages for close reading allow the student to dig deeper and learn so much more.
Passages for close reading focus on the text itself and require rereading deliberately. Students will take the time to notice things that are confusing and will be given the opportunity to discuss the text with others through options such as think-pair share or turn and talk……which are always my students’ favorites! Using a close reading strategies poster with discussion prompts will help students to accurately respond to text-dependent questions……Keep reading to grab a discussion prompt poster for your class!
What are Text Dependent Close Reading Questions
Questions for close reading are often called text-dependent questions. These are questions that can only be answered with evidence from the text. They can be literal (checking for understanding), but must also involve analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. These types of questions require the student to answer based only on the text and not from personal experiences. This means students are continuously returning to the text to support their answers which challenges them to think at deeper levels.
Text-dependent questions will focus on a word, sentence, or paragraph, larger ideas, themes, or events as well as difficult portions of text in order to enhance reading proficiency.
One way to go about creating text dependent questions is to base them on 3 readings of the text. After the very first read students should be answering literal-level questions such as who the main characters are. This helps the students become familiar with the main idea of the passage.
After the second reading, move on to deeper thinking questions that focus more on vocabulary, text structure, and the author’s purpose. Some examples would be how does the character solve the problem, or how does the vocabulary used help explain what happened in this paragraph.
After the third reading, students can start to develop opinion and arguments about the text. Keep in mind since these are text dependent questions, students must use clues and evidence from the text to support their answers.
Why Kids Love Close Reading of Texts
Passages for close reading come with many benefits that include, vocabulary practice, real-life connections, cross-curriculum connections, and more. Close reading of texts allows students to read text that is over their heads. It offers them the safety net of peers during think-pair-share and turn and talk to discuss it together, causing much learning to take place. I display a “text talker” poster to give students sentence starters when they are with their partners.
Another reason I have found that my students love close reading is the annotating portion. They love to use their different color pens or colored pencils and mark all over the text with their thoughts and feelings about what they read. This is another time I will display a poster with several symbol options they can use to mark up their text.
Allowing students to read and learn from what is challenging and unfamiliar, opens up so many possibilities for them.
During my first year teaching 1st grade I remember one of my students that struggled with reading. He never wanted me to call on him to read because he knew he couldn’t read like his peers. As a whole group we were completing a close read on cheetahs. I remember him actually raising his hand and volunteering to read a paragraph. You see, with close reading students will be reading through the text several times giving them a chance to really take it in. He had read this paragraph a few times by now and had the chance to annotate it, so he was familiar with it which gave him the confidence to read it to the class. I can still picture his face glowing as he read to us!
How to Teach Strategies for Close Reading
So you may be thinking well this is great and all but I still don’t know how to teach this in my classroom. I’ve got you covered! I’m going to tell you exactly what I do in my 1st grade room.
Strategies for Close Reading Steps 1
On the first day, I give my students the passage and I read it to them VERY SLOWLY. As I read they listen and follow along. They circle any words they don’t know the meaning of and they underline any sentences that are confusing to them. I also have a close reading strategies annotations poster with different codes for them to use to annotate the passage. For example, if they have a question about something they put a question mark. If they are excited about a part they put an exclamation point.
It is important to point out that the first several times we do a close read, we do ALL of the steps together. I as the teacher do A LOT of modeling. Once they see how to do it a few times they are good to go on their own because the only thing that changes are the passages. The steps stay the same.
Strategies for Close Reading Steps 2
Now it is time to take a look at what students noted and questioned. Give them the chance to talk about their annotations and explain why they marked something the way they did. Give other students the chance to discuss each other’s annotations. If a student marked a part confusing, allow another student the opportunity to explain it before you do. This is one of the hardest parts for me. I feel like I should be the one explaining confusing or questioned areas but it is important to let the students lead the discussion with each other. During this step, it is important to talk about the vocabulary words as well. Most of the time a couple of students annotate a section with a vocabulary word, but if they don’t be sure to discuss those important words.
Strategies for Close Reading Steps 3
Now students will read the text again but this time on their own. They have heard you read it once and have had the opportunity to mark and discuss words they don’t know. So they should be ready to read on their own at this point. When close reading is still new to my class, I usually do this during small groups so that I can still give extra support where needed. They are still annotating new things as they complete this read. After they have read it once, I give them time to talk about anything new they noticed or learned from this second read.
Strategies for Close Reading Steps 4
If students need another read through of the passage allow for that. If not, it is time to answer the text-dependent questions. Before students are allowed to write an answer they have to mark where in the text they found the answer. I have them do this by writing a Q1 next to the answer for question 1, Q2 next to the answer for question 2, etc. In my classroom students are always required when writing an answer to write it in a complete sentence. This is just good writing practice. When they answer a question that goes along with a close reading passage they must use a sentence starter from our “Be a Text Talker” anchor chart. On this chart are various ways they can start their answer to ensure their answer came from the text. Some examples from our anchor chart include according to the text, the author stated, in paragraph ____ it said____, etc. Once students do this for every question they begin to get the hang of it and don’t need even the anchor chart anymore.
How You Can Grab A Free Passage for Practicing Close Reading Strategies with Text Dependent Questions
If you want to try out passages for close reading for free you can have one sent right to your inbox. Just click the image below to get instant access.
How You Can Grab A Free Passage for Close Reading with Text Dependent Questions
If you want to try out passages for close reading for free you can have one sent right to your inbox. Just click the image below to get instant access.
Other Close Reading Ideas
Informational text passages for close reading
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