Close Reading of Text
What do we mean by the term “close reading”?
Close reading involves the reading and rereading of a text in order to locate evidence in the text (facts and specific details and features of the text) that allow the reader to reach a warranted conclusion about the meaning of the text.
As illustrated in Figure 1, when close reading for meaning, readers look for details or features in a text, including such elements as word choice or diction, structure and syntax, rhetorical devices, figures of speech, point of view or perspective, historical and/or cultural references or allusions, and, of course, patterns or repetitions of details or features. Close reading is a process of inductive reasoning, of moving from the evidence that can be observed in a text to a warranted conclusion or an interpretation based on this evidence; and these details or features comprise the evidence readers use to reach their warranted conclusions or interpretations of a text.
When first learning to close read, students often benefit from following specific steps or processes with short passages of text. These steps/processes may first be facilitated by the teacher asking text dependent questions before moving on toward the goal of having students close read independently or with scaffolding via a graphic organizer or list of steps that they can follow on their own.
A number of close reading exemplars that illustrate the initial teacher-led process are available from Student Achievement Partners at www.achievethecore.org/. Click “Steal these tools,” then scroll down to “Close Reading Exemplars.”
Most close reading practice will begin with the students reading the selected text silently, followed by the teacher reading the text aloud. This is then followed by the teacher posing text dependent questions, beginning with specific or confidence building questions such as “What do you see/hear when you read this text?—What jumps out at you?” or “What does the word ____ mean in the context of the first sentence.” Teachers should build to more difficult questions as students as students gain confidence in the process. Student Achievement Partners provides a Guide to Creating Questions for Close Analytic Reading at www.achievethecore.org/. Click “Steal these tools,” then scroll down to “Text dependent questions.”
Once students become more confident with the process of close reading, they should be given tasks that require them to work with larger sections of a text. For example, they may be asked do one of the following:
1. Reread and annotate the text.
a. Underline or highlight key words and phrases.
b. Make notes in the margins or on sticky notes to indicate
i. surprising or unexpected details;
ii. words or ideas that seem to repeat;
iii. questions that arise;
iv. inconsistencies or shifts in ideas, perspective, tone, etc.
2. Reread the text to look for patterns, such as
a. Words that repeat or words with similar meanings that repeat;
b. images or symbols that recur;
c. structural repetitions or repetitions of syntax—paragraphs or sentences that begin with the same words or phrases for example.
3. Reread the text to make note of vocabulary or word choice/diction, such as
a. words that may have multiple meanings;
b. words that may be metaphorical rather than literal;
c. words that work together to form patterns;
d. words that may indicate perspective or bias;
e. words or phrases that provide historical or cultural context;
f. words that need defining.
Regardless of the specific process, the emphasis should always be on using the evidence located in the text to determine the explicit or implicit meaning of the text, a warranted theme, or a central idea.
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Activity 1: A close reading example.
Text: A passage from Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness
. . . And from right to left along the lighted shore moved a wild and gorgeous apparition of a woman.She walked with measured steps, draped in striped and fringed cloths, treading the earth proudly, with a slight jingle and flash of barbarous ornaments. She carried her head high; her hair was done in the shape of a helmet; she had brass leggings to the knee, brass wire gauntlets to the elbow, a crimson spot on her tawny cheek, innumerable necklaces of glass beads on her neck; bizarre things, charms, gifts of witchmen, that hung about her, glittered and trembled at every step. She must have had the value of several elephant tusks upon her. She was savage and superb, wild-eyed and magnificent; there was something ominous and stately in her deliberate progress. And in the hush that had fallen suddenly upon the whole sorrowful land, the immense wilderness, the colossal body of the fecund and mysterious life seemed to look at her, pensive, as though it had been looking at the image of its own tenebrous and passionate soul.
1. Read the passage silently.
1. Appoint someone in the group to read the passage aloud to everyone.
2. Reread the passage individually and underline the key words the author uses to depict the woman. Circle any unfamiliar words or words you don’t understand.
3. Individually, annotate the text by making notes to indicate any patterns formed by the words the author uses to describe the woman. Note any inconsistencies or contradictions, as well as any words or phrases that may provide an historical or cultural context. Do these words/phrases create a specific tone in the passage? Is this tone consistent or does it shift within the passage?
4. Now, as a group, share your annotations.
5. Next, individually, write a one sentence conclusion about this woman that you can support using the evidence you have discovered in the text.
6. Finally, share your conclusions in your group and discuss the reasoning that led you from the specific evidence in the text to the conclusions that you reached. Are your conclusions warranted? Do they logically follow from the evidence in the text? Is more than one warranted conclusion possible?