[ms. m]

When/how do you do close reading? I've been out of the classroom for a few years and missed the switch to Common Core/close reading and I feel so confused! How do you fit it in when reading novels and teaching everything else? How often do you close read? Any tips/tricks are appreciated!

[bubbleepink]

I was thinking of teaching the skill in a language block, then giving it as bell work. I would love to hear what others do also.

[twinmom95]

I started using the book Notice and Note last year which is a form of close reading I use with read alouds, picture books, and novels. It is not the "mark up your book/paper" reread 3 times type you might do with a page long article, etc. It teaches about 6 "signposts" and an anchor question for each for students to look for and the stop and Notice it and make Note of what it can mean. I taught one signpost a week at the beginning of the school year. There is even a group on Facebook where lots of teachers share ideas, ask questions, and even the co-author Kylene Beers will chime in once in a while. They are also working on a nonfiction version that is coming out in the summer hopefully.

[dianemcq]

I agree that Notice and Note is a wonderful resource. I only taught two of the lessons (lack of time) but it's wonderful and there's a group on FB dedicated to sharing the signpost tips and resources. I just taught a wonderful poetry lesson with a deeper reading process that I will also use for short passages. It's free on the teacherspayteachers website and it's called "Common Core Lesson: Teaching Deeper Thinking with Poetry".

I basically enlarged a poem and glued it to large chart paper while students pasted a small version into their reader's notebooks. They spent individual time jotting down what they noticed about the poem and what they wondered about after reading it. We then broke into groups to expand the discussion and add more bullets to the reader's notebooks. I jotted their ideas on the chart paper surrounding the poem and we had a great discussion about theme, poetic elements, whether it was written in first or third person, etc. You can follow this with students writing a paragraph or another activity. I really like that it's based on a short reading passage or poem.

Honestly, close reading is just the new buzzword for what we've always had students do: rereading the text focusing on some particular aspect of it!