Close Reading Strategies S.C.O.U.T. and 3T

What is Close Reading? It requires the reader to get truly involved with the text they are reading. The purpose is to teach students to notice features and language used by the author.

Strategy 1 – S.C.O.U.T. S: Specifics C: Comparisons O: Organization U: Unusual T: Theme Examples

Specifics Locations Characters Time Words (Syntax) Choice of Details

Comparisons Symbols Metaphors Imagery Allusions

Organization Sequential Spatial – Syntax What comes first and what comes last What was important enough to present first? What impact does leaving the last fact have on the overall piece? Spatial – Syntax Repetition Contrast Questions like, “Why is this paragraph or sentence so short or so long in comparison to others?”

Unusual Noticing when things are different than you expected them to be Glitches in the matrix that are the breadcrumbs that lead down a potentially interesting rabbit hole.

Theme Examples What adds to the development of or examples of theme? Quotes Symbols Plot events Motifs Characters

“This is Just to Say” 1. I have eaten the plums that were in 2. the icebox 3. and which 4. you were probably 5. saving 6. for breakfast 7. Forgive me 8. they were delicious 9. so sweet 10. and so cold

SCOUT Practice

3 T TOPIC TONE THEME

Topic Basic comprehension (Lit and Art): Vocabulary Setting Situation Choice of Details Characters Subject Color Line

Tone Tone: the author’s attitude towards the subject and the audience Examples: Tongue-in-cheek Playful Ironic Despondent Leaves the audience with a palpable emotion

Theme There is a thesis made, a push back by the audience and society, and then a synthesis of understanding Topic is what the story is about, but Theme is what the story is REALLY about The difference between the denotation and connotation

“The Young Who Want to” by Marge Piercy 4.The reason people want M.F.A.'s, 
take workshops with fancy names 
when all you can really 
learn is a few techniques, 
typing instructions and some-
body else's mannerisms 

5.is that every artist lacks 
a license to hang on the wall 
like your optician, your vet
proving you may be a clumsy sadist
whose fillings fall into the stew
but you're certified a dentist.

6. The real writer is one
who really writes. Talent
is an invention like phlogiston
after the fact of fire.
Work is its own cure. You have to
like it better than being loved. 1.Talent is what they say 
you have after the novel 
is published and favorably 
reviewed. Beforehand what 
you have is a tedious 
delusion, a hobby like knitting. 

2.Work is what you have done 
after the play is produced 
and the audience claps. 
Before that friends keep asking 
when you are planning to go 
out and get a job. 

3. Genius is what they know you 
had after the third volume 
of remarkable poems. Earlier 
they accuse you of withdrawing, 
ask why you don't have a baby, 
call you a bum.

Practice