I have recently been reading a professional development book that suggests that high school English teachers are sending their students off to college unprepared for the amount, frequency and difficulty of college reading. While our students will often skate on the reading outside of class, we can spend time in class using close reading exercises that will help them at least discern what it is important in that reading.
What is Close Reading?
Close reading simply put is rereading. Close reading results in a deeper understanding of the text. It is the idea that you read a text once for meaning and additional times to analyze it. Reading a second, third or even fourth time allows students to pick up on the other important aspects of the text.
In literature courses, close reading will focus on meaning followed by analysis of author’s craft. And the best strategies for close reading with high school students is daily practice. Because close reading involves rereading not just once, but multiple times, it is important that students do not try to close read entire texts. (Unless they are really short like flash fiction. For more, read about Flash Fiction Bootcamp.)
Close reading should focus on shorter passages. Passages that are under 800 words work best, but even shorter passages can be truly advantageous in teaching high school students how to do close reading.
Three Close Reading Exercises to Use Every Day
The easiest way to insure that students are practicing the steps to close reading everyday is to provide them with daily opportunities to practice.
Use Warm Ups for Close Reading Exercises
My favorite way for students to do daily practice of close reading is through warm ups or bell ringer activities. (For more on how to use bell ringers in high school English class, check out this post.)
We use the same poem or passage each day for a whole week. As a result, in these close reading exercises, students are almost forced to reread because it will have been 24 hours since we last discussed the text. Since these passages are not intended to be the focus of class times, they should be very short. The target length for poems is under 25 lines and the target for prose passages is 250 words (give or take 50).
For more on using Poem of the Week, check out Teaching Poem Analysis through Poem of the Week.
Use Targeted Passages from Longer Texts
When your class is working on a longer text, it is really important that you take time to target passages for close reading exercises. If you were to try to close read an entire text (like Hamlet, for example) you would setting your students up to write their dissertations. They are simply not ready for that level of reading. Therefore, it is your job as the teacher to decide which passages to focus on.
Because these passages can be the focus of a whole class lesson, they can be a little longer. But you will still want to choose passages for close reading exercises that are between 500-800 words. Anything longer will bog down the process. (Trust me on this one.)
There are several ways to decide what to target for close reading of longer texts.
Close Reading: How to Choose Passages
- Choose passages to focus on character development: choose 3-5 passages that help to establish how the character changes over the course of the text. This works great with novels and short stories. An easy way to do this with a play by Shakespeare is to focus on the soliloquies.
- Pick passages to help students see the themes. One of the last steps for close reading is to identify the theme. However, you can help students see how an author develops the theme of a text by selecting passages that focus on the same topic or abstract idea so at the end, they can pull them together to write a theme statement.
- Choose passages to teach students to use the lenses of literary criticism. Teaching students to use the lenses of literary criticism (like psychological, archetypal, historical) can be challenging. If you select passages to target specific lens, it is easier for students to focus. Again, Hamlet comes to mind. Use those soliloquies to focus in on Hamlet’s mental state. Or use dialogues between Hamlet and Ophelia. Use Lady Macbeth to help students do a feminist reading (Enter Lady Macbeth Close Reading).
The great thing about pulling passages from a longer text is that is unnecessary for every student to read every passage. You can use groups to jigsaw or present to entire class.
Have Students Pick their own Close Reading Passages
I began this post by discussing the fact that students are heading to college unprepared for (close) reading at a college level. So it is important that we work toward letting students select their own passages for close reading.
Once you have given them opportunities to see how you choose passages, you can let them choose their own. You can use the same guidelines for selecting a passage. Have them choose passages to show character development, related to an overarching topic (this will help them to determine them on their own) or using a lens.
These are great activities to do when students are working in book clubs. In my Reading Like a Professor Book Clubs, students use choice boards to select passages for double entry journals based on the lessons from Thomas Foster’s book How to Read Literature Like a Professor.
Additionally, you could have students select passages to lead discussion (for more on this, check out this post) or to write double entry journals (for more on this, check out this post).
Why these Close Reading Exercises Work
Close reading works because it allows students to focus their attention. These strategies for close reading work because they are varied and allow for daily practice. And as I always tell my students (and my own children), the only way to get better at anything is through practice and using these close reading exercises are just the ticket..
Related Resources
Need Bell Work ideas for English? The Great Bell Ringer List for High School English
Get all the details about Teaching Poem Analysis through Poem of the Week.
Close Reading for Poetry: 4 Simple Solutions to Teach Poetry Analysis
Give them steps they can use every time: 5 Strategies for Better Close Reading
Try two column responses: 11 Brilliant Strategies for Dialectic Journals to Better Close Reading
Shop This Post
Use Poetry for Close Reading Warm Up: Daily Poetry Close Reading Exercises
Get them doing their own close reading: Reading Like a Professor Book Clubs
Try using the schools of Literary Criticism Anchor Chart Bundle
