Are video games sports? Pupils investigate this question as well as various nonfiction selections to learn more about claims and the support that defines them. All of the selections mimic the rigor on state tests and encourage close...

How have educational standards evolved? Educators of adults examine expectations in the 10th workshop out of 15 to better determine how standards have grown. Participants respond to a variety of sample questions to determine how they...

This strategy guide focuses on planning and implementing close reading of complex text in the primary grades which fosters progressively deeper thinking as students become more responsible for their own learning. It offers a step-by-step...

During this lesson, students will use close reading strategies to analyze aspects of the setting in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. [7:57] CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.10, RL.11-12.10a/b Text Complexity

This interactive worksheet provides 10 questions: each includes a reading passage which students read and select the patterns of organization used in each passage. RI.11-12.3 Text development

Teachers will learn about the importance of close reading. Teachers will learn how to implement close reading; measure progress of close reading; and find research to support close reading. A list of close reading activities are also...

Provides a number of questions that students can ask themselves about a literary passage when doing a "Close Reading" and following this with an organized piece of writing. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.5

This is a strategy guide to determine if reading material is complex and therefore, worth a close reading. It offers a list of quantitative, qualitative, reader characteristics/task consideration measures of text complexity.

Learn and practice close reading strategies to help increase your understanding of how to approach challenging and complex texts.

[Free Registration/Login Required] These paired texts "Kareem's Playdate" and "Luisa Builds a Model" both have representations of physical space. A reading comprehension question set for each separately, a set for the two together, and...

[Free Registration/Login Required] This paired text focuses on the theme of Discovery; it includes two reading passages, "Jack's Lost Kite" and "The Treasure Map," comprehension questions for each passage, and a combined set of questions...

[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] Learn how to synthesize and make logical connections between ideas within a text and across two or three texts representing similar or different genres and support with...

This activity focuses on close reading, the careful, sustained reading of a text. One strategy to help you read closely is to ask yourself questions such as What is your overall impression of the passage? What mood does the passage...

A brief explanation of the tasks involved in doing a close reading in preparation for writing. This writer breaks the process into three steps which involve annotating the text, looking for patterns, and asking questions of the text.

As you read through the texts in this lesson, you will practice close reading strategies to help you understand a writer's tone. You'll be examining the writer's choice of diction, details, and irony to identify the writer's attitude.

This strategy guide focuses on writing text-dependent questions which require the student to reread the text to support their answers. It offers a list of what to do to create these questions that progress from establishing general...

Read carefully in order to identify allusion, imagery, metaphor, and symbolism and to evaluate their impact on the meaning of a text. RL.9-10.9 alllusions to other works.

This instructional video demonstrates ways to incorporate "close reading" with complex text. [56:53]

This guide is written for college students, but should be very useful for upper level high school students as well. The writer first describes fourteen steps to take in doing a close reading, then provides six pieces of advice on how to...

This professional development video is instructed by the National Reading Consultant, Marisa Russo. She provides explanations about what makes a complex text, why text complexity is important, and techniques to help student access...

In this short video, the strategies of summarizing, clarifying, and asking-answering questions are used. These instructional tools will help teachers show students how to access complex texts. [5:54] CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.10

Describes a reading strategy where students must respond to text by supporting their ideas with text-based evidence. Lists different categories of questions the teacher can prepare based on the text chosen, with examples for each.

This guide discusses how to approach analysis of a literary text, with the main focus being on the poem "Design" by Robert Frost. It explains how to examine the subject, the form, word choice or diction, and the theme. In each section,...

In this lesson, students will learn some ways that writers reveal the complexity of their characters. By closely analyzing one author's characters, they will come to see how their words, actions, and interactions with one another can...