Close Reading Strategies Gen. Ed. Literature Orientation

When To Teach Close Reading:  Early in the semester teach the basics of close reading  Reinforce close reading throughout the semester  Help students become good close readers in class discussions and in essay writing  Model close reading early by choosing a few practice passages from one of the first texts on your syllabus

Selecting Passages:  Select the first passages your class uses to practice close reading  Ideal passages have both notable content and literary devices  Ideal passages highlight themes or topics that appear in the text as a whole  Ideal passages occur at critical interpretative moments in the text

A Good Man Is Hard To Find  Example 1: “The grandmother didn't want to go to Florida. She wanted to visit some of her connections in east Tennessee and she was seizing at every chance to change Bailey's mind. Bailey was the son she lived with, her only boy. He was sitting on the edge of his chair at the table, bent over the orange sports section of the Journal. ‘Now look here, Bailey,’ she said, ‘see here, read this,’ and she stood with one hand on her thin hip and the other rattling the newspaper at his bald head. ‘Here this fellow that calls himself The Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida and you read here what it says he did to these people. Just you read it. I wouldn't take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn't answer to my conscience if I did.’”

A Good Man Is Hard To Find  Example 2: “‘I call myself The Misfit,’ he said, ‘because I can’t make what all I done wrong ft what all I gone through in punishment.’ There was a piercing scream from the woods, followed closely by a pistol report. ‘Does it seem right to you, lady, that one is punished a heap and another ain’t punished at all?’ ‘Jesus!’ the old lady cried. ‘You’ve got good blood! I know you wouldn’t shoot a lady! I know you come from nice people! Pray! Jesus, you ought not to shoot a lady. I’ll give you all the money I’ve got!’”

Activity Ideas: Discussion  Practice close reading a new passage in a small group, using a provided handout  Notice-Something-New Challenge: let students get competitive about their observational skills by having them brainstorm close reading observations on a passage and see which group can generate the most  Mark up a passage as a whole class, using the Doc Cam

Activity Ideas: Writing  Content and Form Writing Exercise: have students individually list all their observations about the content of a passage, and all their observations about the literary devices that appear in a passage  Literary devices handout  Literary devices search…find examples in an early short story or poem  Connecting a literary device to the content…find examples from an early text in which a literary device affects your understanding of the plot or the character

Resources for Students  You’ll refer back to close reading throughout the semester, so it’s great to give students resources on close reading that they can continue to use  Handout, copies and on the Gen. Ed. Lit. ICON site

Modeling Close Reading  Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz”

How Will You Use Close Reading?  Group brainstorm with the people next to you  Questions?