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Close reading is thoughtful, critical analysis of a text that focuses
Rationale. The Close Reading Protocol strategy asks students to carefully and purposefully read and reread a text. When students “close read,” they focus on what the author has to say, what the author’s purpose is, what the words mean, and what the structure of the text tells us.
The goal of any close reading is the following: an ability to understand the general content of a text even when you don‘t understand every word or concept in it. an ability to spot techniques that writers use to get their ideas and feelings across and to explain how they work.
Close reading is deep analysis of how a literary text works; it is both a reading process and something you include in a literary analysis paper, though in a refined form. … Close reading is a process of finding as much information as you can in order to form as many questions as you can.
Teaching our students to become close readers is important because it helps them become independent readers who interpret the text and ultimately connect with it on a deeper level, bringing their own ideas and perspectives.
Close reading is an uber-strategy that helps students independently comprehend increasingly challenging texts. Students need to develop the habits of mind and the skills necessary to unpack the deep, embedded meanings found in complex, challenging texts in order to become college and career ready.
Through close reading, students gain a better understanding of a text by recognizing the author’s purpose, analyzing the use of language and word choice, and gaining the ability to make comparisons to other texts, concepts, and ideas.
Close reading is the instructional practice of having students critically examine a text, especially through multiple readings. It has been utilized most commonly at the secondary and college levels, usually within the context of rhetorical reading and writing courses.
By learning how to close read a poem you can significantly increase both your understanding and enjoyment of the poem. You may also increase your ability to write convincingly about the poem. The following exercise uses one of William Shakespeare’s sonnets (#116) as an example.
Close reading requires students to analyze, evaluate, and think critically about a given text. Close Read Passages help students practice close reading skills through multiple readings of the text.
Close reading involves carefully examining and analyzing elements of a literary work. You could perform a close reading of a whole text or just a few passages. Closely reading a work can help you interpret and critique the text and, when done well, can provide you with valuable insights about a work.
A successful close reading lesson will scaffold student learning and focus on text-dependent questioning and interpretation. … It should encourage students to synthesize and apply information from the text. Overall, close reading is a strategy that tackles a range of complex reading comprehension skills.
The act of close reading requires students to re-read in order to have meaningful dialogue and to answer text-dependent questions. By giving students the opportunity to read complex texts closely, they are prepared to answer more complex questions using evidence to support their thinking.
Close reading, then, is about pausing, and looking at the precise techniques, dynamics, and content of the text. It’s not reading between the lines, but reading further and further into the lines and seeing the multiple meanings a turn of phrase, a description, or a word can unlock.
Look Closely at Diction. When reading a poem, you should always look up words you do not know, but sometimes it can help to look up words that you do know when they have more than one meaning, too.
Reading increases knowledge
When you have a strong knowledge base, it’s easier to learn new things and solve new problems. Reading a wide range of books will help expand your general knowledge. Specific knowledge can be acquired by taking a deep-dive on a subject or topic.
Reading books allows us to dive into another world and enjoy the story of a book. Through reading we are able to develop our creativity and imagination as we use our imaginations to build the picture being created by the writer at the same time as enjoying ourselves!
The brain-stimulating activities from reading have shown to slow down cognitive decline in old age with people who participated in more mentally stimulating activities over their lifetimes. It also has shown a slower rate of decline in memory and other mental capacities.
In literary criticism, close reading is the careful, sustained interpretation of a brief passage of a text. A close reading emphasizes the single and the particular over the general, effected by close attention to individual words, the syntax, the order in which the sentences unfold ideas, as well as formal structures.
To do a close reading, you choose a specific passage and analyze it in fine detail, as if with a magnifying glass. You then comment on points of style and on your reactions as a reader. Close reading is important because it is the building block for larger analysis.
Underlining, highlighting, or circling the text to dissect and better understand what you’re reading. …
Do you read a lot of nonfiction, other than newspapers and magazines? … Yes, I have annotated and closely read a nonfiction text, and it helped me in the following ways: I was able to locate important information in the text quickly. I could identify the central idea of the text.
Consequently, students can become discouraged with and disinterested in reading all together. But learning to annotate important selections as a part of close reading difficult texts can instill encouragement and confidence—two precursors to reading success– in reluctant readers.
Close Reading ensures that students are able to glean specific and comprehensive understanding from even very difficult texts. Second, Close Reading is the tool that allows students to read text that is over their heads—one of the fundamental experiences of attending (or preparing for) college.