4 Steps to Boost Students Close Reading Skills

Close reading is a crucial skill for students to have in their toolbox in order to 

succeed. At every grade level-whether students are hearing a text read aloud in

the early grades or reading it themselves- text-dependent questions serve as a 

scaffold for students, helping them break down complex texts and start talking

about their meanings and this will help them in their writing as well. 

Here are four consecutive phases that teachers should follow when developing

text-dependent questions, coming up with several questions for each phase. As

soon as students demonstrate mastery within a given phase, the teacher should

move onto the next one.

1. Ask Literal questions. To start, literal questions help gauge whether or not students understand the text's basic subject matter, At this point, you're simply trying to make sure that students understand what the text says, literally; this is the entry-level phase of close reading. What's the overarching subject matter of the text? What are some of the key facts and details that indicate what the author is saying? Teachers tend to linger in this phase, but as soon as it's clear that students understand on a basic level what's going on in the text, it's time to move on the next step. So, if you have four or five text-dependent questions for this literal stage, you may mot need to ask all of them, if the students demonstrate a clear understanding early on. 

2. Encourage them to consider text structure. Once students understand the text on a literal level, you want to ask questions that will encourage them to think about structure. What techniques is the author using to communicate his or her point? These may include: vocabulary,literary devices, narration, genre and the like. Questions in this phase should help students understand the internal structure of the text. 

3. Lead them to make deeper meaning of the text. At this phase, questions should help students make deeper inferences about the meaning of the text based on what they have learned in the first two phases. Can they make an argument or a claim about the text? How would they compare it to other texts they've read? At this point, students are moving away from the text to do their own thinking, but they are still using the text as a resource to support their thinking. 

  

4. Challenge them to take action with the text. In this phase, once students have a grasp of the text's meaning, we invite them to take action based on the text. What is it that the text inspires them to do? They could research write, debate, present or discuss, as examples. Collaborative conversations are important when it comes to understanding compels texts, so at this level your questions should encourage students to discuss the text with each other and work together to take action based on the text. 

  

"The goal is for students to practice and

internalize this process and start developing text dependent

questions themselves and take

ownership of this questioning process"

https://www.amplify.com/viewpoints/4-steps-to-boost-students-close-reading-skills