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Close Reading for Upper Elementary, You must have heard about close reading, but do you know what it exactly is? Well, Close Reading for Upper Elementary is a great way to help students understand the purpose of the text by reading it multiple times.
Students can have rich discussion and reflection, allowing themselves to grow as analytical, critical readers. In this blog post, we will discuss the close reading strategies and how it improves students’ engagement. Let’s take a look!
Advantages of Close Reading for Upper Elementary
Here are the main benefits of close reading on student engagement and comprehension:
- A better understanding of text structure and analyze why the author chose one arrangement over another.
- Students learn to understand the author’s choice of words and the purpose behind their choice.
- It helps students handle complicated and detailed texts so they can learn new information.
Close Reading for Upper Elementary Strategies and Steps
You can change these Close Reading for Upper Elementary strategies based on how much time you have for a close reading chapter. It’s best to read the passage at least twice. When I use a writing prompt with a passage, Students must read it a third time to make sure they understand the prompt.
It does not have to be completed in one sitting; it can be spaced out over several days or weeks. It can be done in a large or small group setting. It would help if you had different levels of the text to accommodate all of the pupils in the course.
- Choose Relevant Text – Select a book with complex and above grade-level text. Also, make sure the text you choose is engaging, as students will read it several times to have a better understanding.
- Pre-reading – Ensure that students read all of the related questions to boost their thoughts. Also, create some predictions according to the tile and images as well as allow them to number the paragraphs.
- First Read – In first-time reading, ask students to read the text and focus on the words. They must mark up the text by using “Mark It Up” symbols printable. Make surface-level questions extracted from the reading for brainstorming of students.
- Second Read – Once they read the text for the first time, have them re-read it. As they already know what the text says, ask them to focus on the expression of the text. Again, mark up the text the same way they did in the first-time reading. Create in-depth questions from the reading and have a discussion about the author’s purpose, inferencing, text structure, and additional thoughts.
- Third Read – They might get annoyed but ask them to read the text for the third time. Since they know what and how of the text, they can now focus on its meaning. Help them connect to different text ways, and ask them to use the “Mark It Up” symbols printable for annotating the text.
- Write and Respond – Ask students to respond to a text-dependent writing prompt using certain information from the text.
We hope that applying these Close Reading for Upper Elementary strategies to your classroom will help students have a deeper understanding of the text they read.
