If you’re teaching close reading to your elementary students and it’s not going well, you might be making some of the mistakes I made when I was first starting to teach a close reading lesson. In this blog and with this FREE teacher guide, I’m going to show you how to teach close reading effectively for younger readers.
You can download the guide here and get started with all the close reading strategies today, but make sure you finish reading this article first so you know which mistakes to avoid!
How To Teach Close Reading
1. Don’t Skip Close Reading Annotation
I know, I know, marking a text, taking notes on a reading passage, and using close reading symbols isn’t what you thought of when you imagined teaching close reading.
Annotation marks are important because it allows your students to show what they are thinking and why it’s important to the meaning of the passage. It also helps with remembering details. Do you ever write something down on a sticky note not need to look at it again? Our brains are wired to have better recall when we write something down.
It might be tempting to skip annotating. But don’t! I wrote an article that covers exactly why you should use annotation marks, and there are some great tips to teach your students to use close reading symbols effectively. Why should you use annotation marks with first graders?
2. Reading Passages
It’s important to have the right kind of reading passages.
You’re a bit like Goldilocks trying the three bear’s porridge here. Too easy and you won’t keep your student’s attention span. Too difficult and you’ll see a lot of frustration and giving up.
And how do you know if they are the right passages? I cover it in more detail in another article, How To Choose the Best Reading Passage, here. You’re looking for passages that are above their independent reading level.
Close reading is not independent reading, and you want it to be challenging so your readers will learn to understand difficult passages and vocabulary. Speaking of vocabulary, you’ll want new words and phrases that your students have not seen before.
Learning to understand unfamiliar words and phrases is a big help when it comes to close reading. You’ll see this carry over into other reading lessons. Choosing a passage that is best for your students gets easier the more you teach close reading. But in the meantime, here are some more things to consider.
3. Vocabulary
Back in the day, we would have more time to teach what words meant, how to use them in new sentences and contexts, but presently, these kinds of lessons get pushed aside for something else. Probably testing, right?
Vocabulary instruction is important for beginning readers. When a student becomes comfortable reading, their vocabulary grows along with their reading stamina. Students who are not read to at home or struggle with reading have a lower vocabulary. But you don’t have a lot of time to teach vocabulary.
When you teach close reading, vocabulary is PART of the reading instruction. And if you follow the close reading strategies in the guide here, you’ll see how vocabulary instruction should be student-led with you as the coach, asking leading questions! In other words, don’t tell your students the word and definition, and then think that they will now use the word in new and masterful ways!
4. Fun Extension Activities
The more years I taught, the less fun things I did in my classroom.
I was always so bummed when we couldn’t do a weekly craft or fun activity. Even if it matched the topic of what we were learning, we usually ran out of time. Such a shame!
These are little kids who want to come to school and have fun. They also probably need a lot of motor control practice with scissors, too! On my last day of a close reading week, I add in an extension activity. It wraps up and reinforces what they’ve learned and gives them a chance to have fun!
5. Teach and reinforce your expectations
Classroom management is important during close reading. You’ll be working with partners, so communication and cooperation is important for your students. You will be providing opportunities for your students to get up and move around in your classroom, so transitions are important to practice.
You’ll need to figure out what routines and behaviors you want to see from your students and teach these expectations to them. You’ll also want to practice this throughout the year if you see unwanted or off-task behaviors.
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.
How Do I Get The Free Close Reading Guide?
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!
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