Center for Standards, Assessment, and Accountability

Resource Library

Close Reading

The goal of close reading is to enable students to deeply engage with high-quality, challenging texts so that they will achieve key goals of College and Career Ready Standards by being able to read, comprehend, and evaluate increasingly complex text independently. This Spotlight centers on the CSAI produced resource, Supporting Students in Close Reading. It also includes examples, multi-media tools, and further reading on the subject of close reading.

 

Supporting Students in Close Reading

This resource is one in a series produced by CSAI to assist teachers and those who support teachers to plan teaching and learning of College and Career Ready Standards for diverse learners. It guides teachers in a systematic planning process to engage students in close reading.

 

Supporting Students in Close Reading: Selecting Text Tool

Text selection is an important step in planning for close reading. The Selecting Text Tool displayed here, also found in the close reading resource, guides teachers in the process of selecting texts that provide appropriate levels of challenge for their students. Factors to consider include: age appropriateness, student interest level, complexity of ideas, text and sentence structure, vocabulary difficulty, and length of text.

Shanahan on Literacy

This popular blog by well-respected professor Dr. Timothy Shanahan provides information for teachers and parents on teaching and assessing reading, writing, and literacy. It includes many easily accessible and practical articles on implementing close reading, including What is Close Reading?.

Achieve the Core

Achieve the Core has many resources to support teachers in implementing close reading lessons aligned to shifts in the new ELA standards. For example, the website includes model lessons, sample assessments, and a lesson-planning tool. The lesson-planning tool provides helpful information for teachers at each stage in the lesson-planning process to support professional learning about the new standards, the components of a close reading lesson, and how to support learners at various levels.

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Organization

Center on Standards and Assessment Implementation

Keywords

Curriculum and Instruction

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