1. Renewed Interest in Close Reading
In 2010, more than 40 states signed onto the Common Core State Standards (CCSS)
A basic premise of those standards is that students need to learn to engage in close reading
Now, 8 years later, even non-CCSS states are encouraging close reading
Close reading was a major reading approach advocated by high school English classes in the 1950s-1960s before it fell from favor—thus, this new emphasis represents a renewal of interest

2. Unfortunately, close reading is not a well understood concept

3. One reason for this is the standards themselves
Big emphasis on close reading, even though barely listed in standards
This is the only mention of it in the standards (and it doesn’t even come in the portion of the standards most focused on close reading):
“Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to
make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence
when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn
from the text.”

4. Defining Close Reading
Close reading is a goal or a desired outcome: we want our children to be able to read text closely
The term close reading is a term of art only in literature (it also has wide colloquial use in other fields of study)— though it is used somewhat differently by practitioners from various disciplines)
Close reading is…

5. Key elements of close reading?
☐ Short texts ☐ Literal recall ☐ Literary texts ☐ Logical inferences ☐ Informational texts ☐ Emphasis on prior knowledge ☐ Citing text evidence ☐ Rereading ☐ Text-dependent questions ☐ Text annotation ☐ Craft and structure ☐ Nature of evidence ☐ Author-centered reading ☐ Reader-centered reading

6. Purpose of Presentation
To explain the concept of “close reading”
To identify features that are specific and unique to close reading, that are relevant to close reading (but not specialized to it), or that are antithetical to it
To guide your thinking about how to teach students to be close readers

7. Where Does Close Reading Come From?
It starts with the Protestant Reformation 500 years ago
Martin Luther dueled with the Church about whether people could read the Bible themselves or whether such reading required priests because of their special background knowledge
This argument again emerges in the s in college English Departments
Professors had been teaching the meaning of texts
New Criticism (I.A. Richards, C. Brooks & R. P. Warren, etc.): The meaning is in the text and the text must be read closely to get it to give up its meaning—the meaning is both in what the text says and how it says it

8. What It Is and What It’s Not
Close Reading:
What It Is and What It’s Not
Synonyms
Not Synonyms
Deep reading
Careful reading
Analytical reading
Thorough reading
Critical reading
Literal reading

9. Key elements of close reading?
☐ Short texts ☐ Literal recall ☐ Literary texts ☐ Logical inferences ☐ Informational texts ☐ Emphasis on prior knowledge ☐ Citing text evidence ☐ Rereading ☐ Text-dependent questions ☐ Text annotation ☐ Craft and structure ☐ Nature of evidence ☐ Author-centered reading ☐ Reader-centered reading

10. Key elements of close reading?
☐ Short texts ☐ Literal recall ☐ Literary texts ☐ Logical inferences ☐ Informational texts ☐ Emphasis on prior knowledge ☐ Citing text evidence ☐ Rereading ☐ Text-dependent questions ☐ Text annotation ☐ Craft and structure ☐ Nature of evidence ☐ Author-centered reading ☐ Reader-centered reading

11. Close Reading and Teaching
Close reading is not a teaching strategy—it is an approach to text
We don’t teach close reading lessons (in the sense that we teach guided reading or DR-TAs or other methods for presenting texts)
Close reading is something we want kids to do

12. What are the key elements of close reading?
☐ Short texts ☐ Literal recall ☐ Literary texts ☐ Logical inferences ☐ Informational texts ☐ Emphasis on prior knowledge ☐ Citing text evidence ☐ Rereading ☐ Text-dependent questions ☐ Text annotation ☐ Craft and structure ☐ Nature of evidence ☐ Author-centered reading ☐ Reader-centered reading

13. What are the key elements of close reading?
☐ Short texts ☐ Literal recall ☐ Literary texts ☐ Logical inferences ☐ Informational texts ☐ Emphasis on prior knowledge ☐ Citing text evidence ☐ Rereading ☐ Text-dependent questions ☐ Text annotation ☐ Craft and structure ☐ Nature of evidence ☐ Author-centered reading ☐ Reader-centered reading

14. Many versions of close reading
In all versions of close reading the meaning is hidden in the text and needs to be acquired through careful and thorough analysis and re-analysis (texts don’t just give up their meaning)
In close reading, the meaning has to be drawn from the text (not from the historical period, not from the author’s history, not from information about the text from outside the text)

15. What are the key elements of close reading?
☐ Short texts ☐ Literal recall ☐ Literary texts ☐ Logical inferences ☐ Informational texts ☐ Emphasis on prior knowledge ☐ Citing text evidence ☐ Rereading ☐ Text-dependent questions ☐ Text annotation ☐ Craft and structure ☐ Nature of evidence ☐ Author-centered reading ☐ Reader-centered reading

16. What are the key elements of close reading?
☐ Short texts ☐ Literal recall ☐ Literary texts ☐ Logical inferences ☐ Informational texts ☐ Emphasis on prior knowledge ☐ Citing text evidence ☐ Rereading ☐ Text-dependent questions ☐ Text annotation ☐ Craft and structure ☐ Nature of evidence ☐ Author-centered reading ☐ Reader-centered reading

17. What are the key elements of close reading?
☐ Short texts ☐ Literal recall ☐ Literary texts ☐ Logical inferences ☐ Informational texts ☐ Emphasis on prior knowledge ☐ Citing text evidence ☐ Rereading ☐ Text-dependent questions ☐ Text annotation ☐ Craft and structure ☐ Nature of evidence ☐ Author-centered reading ☐ Reader-centered reading

18. Adler & Van Doren’s Close Reading
Great books (challenging books) need to be read and reread
Each reading should accomplish a separate purpose
The first reading of a text should allow the reader to determine what a text says
The second reading should allow the reader to determine how a text works
The third (or fourth) reading should allow the reader to evaluate the quality and value of the text (and to connect the text to other texts)

19. Close Reading (cont.)
Close Reading is really built into the structure of the standards
Key ideas and details
Craft and structure
Integration of knowledge and meaning

20. What are the key elements of close reading?
☐ Short texts ☐ Literal recall ☐ Literary texts ☐ Logical inferences ☐ Informational texts ☐ Emphasis on prior knowledge ☐ Citing text evidence ☐ Rereading ☐ Text-dependent questions ☐ Text annotation ☐ Craft and structure ☐ Nature of evidence ☐ Author-centered reading ☐ Reader-centered reading

21. What are the key elements of close reading?
☐ Short texts ☐ Literal recall ☐ Literary texts ☐ Logical inferences ☐ Informational texts ☐ Emphasis on prior knowledge ☐ Citing text evidence ☐ Rereading ☐ Text-dependent questions ☐ Text annotation ✓ Craft and structure ☐ Nature of evidence ☐ Author-centered reading ☐ Reader-centered reading

22. What are the key elements of close reading?
☐ Short texts ☐ Literal recall ☐ Literary texts ☐ Logical inferences ☐ Informational texts ☐ Emphasis on prior knowledge ☐ Citing text evidence ✓ Rereading ☐ Text-dependent questions ☐ Text annotation ✓ Craft and structure ☐ Nature of evidence ☐ Author-centered reading ☐ Reader-centered reading

23. Close Reading Instruction
All focus on text meaning—not on strategies, techniques, etc.
Minimize background preparation/explanation (and text apparatus)
Students must do the reading/interpretation independently
Teacher’s major role is to ask questions that guide student attention towards text points they should pay attention to (and that allows them to do the thinking)
Multi-day commitment to texts (annotation)

24. What are the key elements of close reading?
☐ Short texts ☐ Literal recall ☐ Literary texts ☐ Logical inferences ☐ Informational texts ☐ Emphasis on prior knowledge ☐ Citing text evidence ✓ Rereading ☐ Text-dependent questions ☐ Text annotation ✓ Craft and structure ☐ Nature of evidence ☐ Author-centered reading ☐ Reader-centered reading

25. What are the key elements of close reading?
☐ Short texts ☐ Literal recall ☐ Literary texts ☐ Logical inferences ☐ Informational texts ☐ Emphasis on prior knowledge ☐ Citing text evidence ✓ Rereading ✓ Text-dependent questions ☐ Text annotation ✓ Craft and structure ☐ Nature of evidence ☐ Author-centered reading ☐ Reader-centered reading

26. What are the key elements of close reading?
☐ Short texts ☐ Literal recall ☐ Literary texts ☐ Logical inferences ☐ Informational texts ☐ Emphasis on prior knowledge ☐ Citing text evidence ✓ Rereading ✓ Text-dependent questions ☐ Text annotation ✓ Craft and structure ☐ Nature of evidence ☐ Author-centered reading ☐ Reader-centered reading

27. Close Reading Instruction (cont.)
Purposeful rereading (not repetitive practice, but separate journeys)
Short reads
Emphasis on text evidence (how do you know?)
No emphasis on reader’s emotional reaction to text

28. What are the key elements of close reading?
☐ Short texts ☐ Literal recall ☐ Literary texts ☐ Logical inferences ☐ Informational texts ☐ Emphasis on prior knowledge ☐ Citing text evidence ✓ Rereading ✓ Text-dependent questions ☐ Text annotation ✓ Craft and structure ☐ Nature of evidence ☐ Author-centered reading ☐ Reader-centered reading

29. What are the key elements of close reading?
☐ Short texts ☐ Literal recall ☐ Literary texts ☐ Logical inferences ☐ Informational texts ☐ Emphasis on prior knowledge ✓ Citing text evidence ✓ Rereading ✓ Text-dependent questions ☐ Text annotation ✓ Craft and structure ☐ Nature of evidence ☐ Author-centered reading ☐ Reader-centered reading

30. What are the key elements of close reading?
☐ Short texts ☐ Literal recall ☐ Literary texts ☐ Logical inferences ☐ Informational texts ☐ Emphasis on prior knowledge ✓ Citing text evidence ✓ Rereading ✓ Text-dependent questions ☐ Text annotation ✓ Craft and structure ☐ Nature of evidence ☐ Author-centered reading ☐ Reader-centered reading

31. What are the key elements of close reading?
☐ Short texts ☐ Literal recall ☐ Literary texts ☐ Logical inferences ☐ Informational texts ☐ Emphasis on prior knowledge ✓ Citing text evidence ✓ Rereading ✓ Text-dependent questions ☐ Text annotation ✓ Craft and structure ✓ Nature of evidence ☐ Author-centered reading ☐ Reader-centered reading

32. What are the key elements of close reading?
☐ Short texts ☐ Literal recall ☐ Literary texts ☐ Logical inferences ☐ Informational texts ☐ Emphasis on prior knowledge ✓ Citing text evidence ✓ Rereading ✓ Text-dependent questions ☐ Text annotation ✓ Craft and structure ✓ Nature of evidence ☐ Author-centered reading ☐ Reader-centered reading

33. Teaching Close Reading
Select high quality/high value text that is worth reading and rereading
Literary texts: layers of meaning, double meanings, symbols, irony, repetition, details that express characters as well as advancing plot, meaningful juxtapositions or contrasts
Informational texts: rhetorical devices, appeals to emotion, logic, evidence
Teach students to identify and interpret these kinds of features
Ask text dependent questions that require students make sense of these features

34. What are the key elements of close reading?
☐ Short texts ☐ Literal recall ☐ Literary texts ☐ Logical inferences ☐ Informational texts ☐ Emphasis on prior knowledge ✓ Citing text evidence ✓ Rereading ✓ Text-dependent questions ☐ Text annotation ✓ Craft and structure ✓ Nature of evidence ☐ Author-centered reading ☐ Reader-centered reading

35. What are the key elements of close reading?
☐ Short texts ☐ Literal recall ☐ Literary texts ☐ Logical inferences ☐ Informational texts ☐ Emphasis on prior knowledge ✓ Citing text evidence ✓ Rereading ✓ Text-dependent questions ☐ Text annotation ✓ Craft and structure ✓ Nature of evidence ☐ Author-centered reading ☐ Reader-centered reading

36. What are the key elements of close reading?
☐ Short texts ☐ Literal recall ☐ Literary texts ☐ Logical inferences ☐ Informational texts ☐ Emphasis on prior knowledge ✓ Citing text evidence ✓ Rereading ✓ Text-dependent questions ☐ Text annotation ✓ Craft and structure ✓ Nature of evidence ☐ Author-centered reading ☐ Reader-centered reading

37. Teaching Close Reading
Timothy Shanahan
University of Illinois at Chicago