Close Reading

Hopefully your student has talked to you a little bit about Close Reading. This week we learned how to do Close Reading with the nonfiction story "America's Deadliest Disaster" by Lauren Tarshis.

Essentially, Close Reading means reading to uncover layers of meaning that lead to deeper comprehension. The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) defines Close Reading as:

• Close, analytic reading stresses engaging with a text of sufficient complexity directly and examining meaning thoroughly and methodically, encouraging students to read and reread deliberately. Directing student attention on the text itself empowers students to understand the central ideas and key supporting details. It also enables students to reflect on the meanings of individual words and sentences; the order in which sentences unfold; and the development of ideas over the course of the text, which ultimately leads students to arrive at an understanding of the text as a whole. (PARCC, 2011, p. 7)

In our room, students do a "first read" independently to get a general understanding of the text.  Their "second read" is guided by questions that ask students to reread certain parts of the text for facts and details. The next step is having students interpret their observations. I want students to move from observations of particular facts and details to a conclusion, or interpretation, based on their observations. I often have students do the Close Read in partners or small groups so they can discuss their observations about the text and form conclusions together.

This weekend I will look over the student responses to the article and offer the students feedback. Please notice I didn't say I graded the responses.  My main objective is to offer feedback so that responses improve over time. I am not grading reading and writing, I am cultivating a mindset of being Readers and Writers in Room 19!