Renewed Interest in Close Reading

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 1920-1930s 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. Close Reading: What It Is and What It’s Not

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 www.shanahanonliteracy.com