Close reading strategies help students develop deep understanding of a text. Close reading relies on critical analysis of the writer’s craft, the content of the text, synthesis of information and connections among multiple texts.
These resources, developed in Maine and by others outside the state, are provided as a courtesy to schools and districts implementing the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts/Literacy (CCSS for ELA/Literacy) and are not an endorsement of any one method or approach.
Close Reading: More Than Comprehension
- Literacy Links—January 2013 Edition. This Maine Department of Education newsletter focuses on text-dependent questions and close reading.
- Close Reading Protocol in Elementary School. This PowerPoint presentation is provided by Timothy Shanahan of University of Illinois at Chicago.
- Close Reading and the CCSS Videos. Watch a brief interview with Dr. Douglas Fisher about close reading and the CCSS.
- Closing in on Close Reading. The three practices discussed in this article from ASCD may help educators bring close reading to the lower grades.
- Implementing the CCSS: A Primer on "Close Reading of Text." From the Aspen Institute Education and Society Program.
- Achieve the Core Sample Lessons. Many of these sample lessons on close reading have accompanying assessment questions.
Developing Text-Dependent Questions
The CCSS expect students to use evidence from texts to present careful analyses, well-defended claims and clear information. A central tool to help students develop these skills is text-dependent questions: questions that can only be answered by referring back to the text.
- Achieve the Core Sample Lessons. Teachers can find tools to help write and evaluate text-dependent questions, as well as a link to lesson materials with examples of text-dependent questions included.
- Basal Alignment Project. A library of more than 300 revised lessons for common Basal reading series (third through fifth grades), each carefully aligned to the CCSS. Each new lesson includes quality text-dependent questions, improved tasks and a focus on academic vocabulary.