Teaching close reading isn’t a difficult concept. It’s teaching your student to read closely and get as much meaning as possible from the text. Students will spend several days on one text, looking at the words the author uses and discussing the text’s meaning. This method of digging deeper into the text will prepare your students for independent analysis of a passage. This article is going to show you how to do a close reading lesson in your classroom starting on day one.
A close reading definition by the website “We Are Teachers” is “An interaction that involves observation and interpretation between the reader and a text.” Let’s start with some reading passages you might want to use.
What Close Reading Passages Should I Use?
Reading passages should not be too long, but rather, shorter passages rich with meaning. Look for text with rich vocabulary so your students can use context to find the meaning. Reading strategies such as compare and contrast or predicting can be skills you are looking for when choosing texts for reading.
Reading Comprehension Skills To Look For
Here are some skills to look for when choosing a text:
- Informational text: New vocabulary, sequencing, summarizing
- Nonfiction: New vocabulary, summarizing, cause and effect, compare and contrast
- Fiction: New vocabulary, predicting, story elements, inferencing
- Poetry: New vocabulary, visualization, retelling
Often, I pull out short paragraphs from popular children’s books to use as my reading passages. The text at the beginning of a book is ideal for this because they provide a “grab” for the children to want to read the book and learn more.
Of course, if you’re having a hard time finding just the right close reading passages, write your own! I wanted a collection that I could easily pull out and use each week, so I wrote this collection of monthly and seasonal reading passages and activities.
Shop Our Store For Close Reading Passages And Activities
Just one month - or the entire year - everything you need for close reading is available at LiteracyStations.com
What Close Reading Steps Should I Follow?
You are going to spend time over several days with the same text. Complex texts may require more than one reading per day, while smaller texts require less. Subsequent days can be filled with comprehension and writing activities. The more close reading activities you can use to discuss the meaning of the text the better.
Typical Week Of Close Reading Activities
Day 1
COLD READ. Avoid any background information or prior knowledge, as we want students to gather information from the text and not in your introduction. Read the passage aloud to your students and use close reading annotations to mark the text. Assign partners to your students and give them discussion topics about the text. The goal is to get “the gist” of the passage.
Day 2
WARM READ. Give students their own copy of the reading passage. Read the text aloud, with capable readers joining in. Partners have a discussion about the meaning of the text. Both you and your students will use close reading symbols to annotate the text. Discuss the vocabulary words with context clues. The goal on day 2 is to understand the meaning of the vocabulary.
Day 3
Read the close reading text with students aloud. Partners work together to complete a comprehension close reading activity. A Graphic organizer such as a Venn diagram or a list of facts is used because the goal is to understand the meaning of the text.
Day 4
Interactive Writing. Together, write a piece about the text. This can be a summary, a list, or a phonics activity, depending on the student’s needs. The goal is to extend the meaning of the passage so students can turn what they’ve learned into a new text. Here are some ideas for interactive writing.
Day 5
Wrap up and review. Review the vocabulary and information the students learned from the text. This can be done in partners or students can write in their journals. Optional: if you choose, you can show a video clip of the topic of the close read topic. The goal is to remind the students what they have learned from the close reading passage. Make sure you save this activity for the last day because you want the meaning to be gained from the text and not the wrap-up close reading activities.
What Close Reading Tools Do I Need?
You and your students need a copy of the close reading text. At first, I have my students use a pencil or a crayon to annotate their text.
Eventually, I break out the GEL PENS! I have a set that I only use for annotation, so the students know that they are important. Make sure to spend as much time as needed with pen expectations. Otherwise, you’ll have very colorful children and furniture!
Clipboards! When my students break out into partners, they use clipboards to help them write. This makes them feel “official” and helps them write neatly on their paper. Especially if they are sitting on the floor.
I always do interactive writing with a close read. You’ll need chart paper and chart markers. The sharpie chart markers are the BEST. I’m pretty picky about markers, and these last forever, the kids can use them without pushing down on the tip, and they don’t fade!
Why Should I Teach Close Reading?
Close reading varies from whole group instruction and guided reading. Having all three of these methods of literacy instruction gives your students rich practice with text and different strategies for decoding and comprehension. The more you practice, the deeper you can lead your students into the text. You will find that your students will gain a love for reading because they will be introduced to several different texts of informational text, nonfiction, fiction and poetry. The strategies they learn to interpret what they read will help them read future texts.
More Examples Of Reading Lesson Plans
If you are looking for more reading strategies, the following videos are very helpful:
Watch, learn, subscribe to the entire series
Close Reading Series
Have you struggled teaching close reading with your beginning readers? These strategies are not one-size-fits-all, and if you teach lower elementary students, it’s hard to adjust the steps for a close read lesson so your younger kiddos understand the concepts.
In this video, you’ll learn how to use close read symbols effectively. There are three tips to help your students understand what annotation symbols are and how they should be used. These tips will prevent random squiggles and doodles all over your reading passages. (Which is what happened in my classroom before I figured all of this out.)
Do you spend your entire planning time trying to find the right reading passages? Plus, if you’re teaching a close read lesson each week, you’ll need plenty of passages available for your students.
After you watch this video, you’ll know what levels your reading passages should be and how long you’d like them. Once you have your “just right” passages, you’ll be able to continue your lessons.
Teaching close reading to beginning readers takes some adjustment. You’re not able to use the same strategies for that older students use. These strategies are not one-size-fits-all, so knowing how to teach a reading lesson to elementary students is important. You might be tempted to skip teaching it altogether, but you’ll be missing out on the benefits that these reading lessons gives to your young readers.
Teaching close reading to beginning readers is hard. You probably only know strategies that fit with older students. But your kiddos are young readers, and this is not one-size-fits-all. When I first started teaching a close read lesson a million years ago, I did such a poor job that most of the time I just skipped it entirely.
After you watch this video, you’ll learn what NOT to do. This will stop you from having a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad experience. It will also help you realize that you’re not a terrible teacher (teacher guilt is REAL, my friend) and will lead you to see that you are phenomenal at teaching your students to read.
What do you do if you can’t find close reading passages for your beginning readers? Take what you are already teaching and write your own text. Teaching reading is hard enough when you’re trying to adapt the a close read lesson to elementary students. So instead of wasting your time searching for the right texts, write your own.
After you watch this video, you will learn:
– Why you should write your own reading passages.
– How to take what you’re already teaching and write text for that topic.
– Which vocabulary words or phrases should you include in your passages.
– How to write both fiction and nonfiction text without taking twice the time.
– How long should your reading passages be?
– What your published text should look like.
– What an effective writing process looks like.
– How to organize your reading passages when you’re done creating.
This sounds daunting, but it’s so worth it to write your own passages. You can add your student’s names into the text to give them ownership. You can take the topic that you don’t have a lot of time to cover and touch on it during a reading lesson. Because who has time to cover a topic the way you want to anymore!
Vocabulary development is vital for beginning readers. One of the best ways that I found time to teach my students new and unfamiliar vocabulary words and phrases was during a close reading lesson.
Because who has time to do it all? Teach vocabulary and everything else in your lesson plan book? Not only that, we’re learning that vocabulary should not be taught in a vacuum. Instead, best practices say that vocabulary should be taught in context for the most understanding.
This video gives you five great ideas to make vocabulary instruction work for your students. You’ll learn how to lead your students in a discussion about their new vocabulary words that is more than just memorization. The new words will be meaningful to them. Do you know your students who don’t memorize things well? This is going to give them a whole new approach to learning and retaining the meaning of new words.
You’ve taught a good close reading lesson and you’ve read your reading passages… now what? Looking at reading comprehension skills based on your text is going to help your students look deeper into the meaning of the passages, instead of just the surface level.
After you watch this video, you’ll get an idea of how much time to spend reviewing your reading passages and asking leading questions to help your students understand what is going on in their text.
You have taught a close reading lesson. Now what? It’s time to get creative. Take the topic from your reading passages and do an interactive writing activity. Interactive writing differs from a writer’s workshop because your students will be doing the work on your chart with you as their guide.
If your students ever have trouble coming up with something to write about, this is a perfect solution. You’ll be taking a topic and showing your class how to write in different genres and styles. And this video shows you how.
Or, if your students have trouble with a particular writing skill, use interactive writing to help them practice that skill. You’ll be there to assist and help them, but they’ll be doing the writing themselves.
After your reading lesson, take the topic from the passage and find a reading strategy, a spelling skill, or even a math word problem and use that for your interactive writing.
It is the last day of your close reading lesson. Want to have some fun? Here are some great ideas to review your reading passages that are hands-on and memorable. Your students will still be reviewing the topic of your text, but they’ll also enjoy the activities you’re providing.
This is also a good way to use your passages and review a topic that you didn’t get to throughout the week. Maybe you had a three-day weekend, so you only had four days to teach reading. Use the last day to combine the topic of your text with a craft, an experiment, or a class project.
After you watch this video, you’ll see how to use the reading passages to create a really fun review activity. Your kiddos will be learning and reviewing, but having a great time doing it.
Want to know how to build hype for next week’s reading lesson? Watch this video!
What close reading tools do you have already in your classroom? When you’re teaching a close read lesson, it’s hard enough to remember all the steps. And also try to find all the supplies you need in your cabinets. You probably don’t want to spend a lot of money on supplies either. I mean, c’mon, you’re already so generous for your classroom. All of that, and who has the time to search for the right kind of tools each time you begin teaching reading?
After you watch this video, you’ll see which tools you’ll want to use each time you teach a close read lesson. You’ll learn how to keep your supplies organized, and you’ll realize that a lot of these materials are probably already in your classroom.
Do you teach close reading? Part of your reading strategies can be assigning your reading passages to partners in your classroom. Especially with so much digital learning, your kiddos probably need some classroom management with their activities. This will help your students learn to talk to each other and communicate about their reading passages.
After you watch this video, you’ll learn some important classroom management strategies like how to help your students find a partner, how to teach them to speak to each other, and how to help them listen to each other.
Have you ever had your students partner up only to see them off task the whole time? This video helps you see what you can do to keep your students focused on their reading passages.
Or, have you watched partners struggle with what to say about their text? In this video, you’ll see some steps for partner work that helps your students have conversations about what they’re learning.
Teaching close reading is hard, especially if you have beginning readers. It’s important to keep your students on task, but how? When you’re introducing a reading text, how do you keep your students motivated?
After you watch this video, you’ll learn how to build hype for your reading passages. You’ll see how to keep your students motivated throughout their reading lesson. And you’ll learn some classroom management strategies that you can use for any lesson you teach.
This FREE guide will teach you the close reading strategies that will make a close read lesson successful.
As an elementary teacher, it’s hard to adapt close reading successfully for younger readers. I didn’t have a manual when I began, but I wish I had an easier start. So I wanted to give teachers like you a head start when you’re teaching close reading to beginning readers.
With this free guide, you’ll know what to do to keep your kiddos engaged all week.
You will learn what supplies and materials you need for a successful close reading lesson. You’ll learn what to do on each day during your week of close reading. This was another struggle for me.
I read through the text passage with my students, NOW WHAT?
You’ll have vocabulary ideas to boost your students’ mastery of words and phrases, imagine how great it would be to have time for vocabulary instruction! I’ll show you how it works!
Comprehension is hard for younger readers. They learn to decode words and now they have to understand what everything together means too?
With how much we have to teach in a week, the idea of “Fun Fridays” went out the window years ago. At least it did for me. I didn’t have time to do the fun crafts and activities that first-graders love and frankly deserve to do! I always thought this was so sad, and I wanted to bring it back somehow. So I devoted the last day of close reading to a fun extension activity about the topic of our close reading passage. I’ll show you how to find time for a fun activity, where your students are still learning in the FREE guide for close reading!
I also added the best classroom management tips I used during our close reading week, so you can actually teach your students, rather than correcting unwanted behavior or trying to keep your kiddos attention.
And best of all? I’ve added two close reading passages WITH lesson plans to get you started.
When you download the FREE Guide For Teaching Close Reading To Younger Readers, you’ll learn:
- How to teach your students to annotate.
- Which supplies you need and which ones you don’t!
- What you need to know about the best reading passages for close reading.
- What to teach on each day of a close reading week.
- How to improve your student’s vocabulary with close reading.
- Techniques to improve your student’s reading comprehension skills.
- Extension activities that take the topic of your close reading passage further.
- Classroom management during close reading, including partner activities and effective transitions.
You’ll also get two close reading text passages with TWO WEEKS of lesson plans!
9 Responses
It’s very difficult to do annotations because my students aren’t allowed to mark up the books even in pencil. If I need to type out a simple book myself in lieu of using the real text, I can’t take the time to import pictures and I am working with children who need that support.
Suggestions?
Totally difficult when you’re limited. Can you photocopy parts of the book? (check for copyright first?) If that’s not a possibility, maybe take a clear page like the old school overhead transparency and cover the books and they can mark with a dry erase marker? I hope that helps.
Suggestions for Gr. 8 on annotating the book, Refugee?
Thank you!