Close Reading

This set of bookmarks will help your student remember how to use the highlighting system while reading, no matter what type of content.

Oh, close reading, you temptress. How could I resist your charms? Who gets tempted by close reading? I mean, seriously, who? Me, actually. I love task cards. Really, I do. Task cards are awesome, and they will always have a special place in my heart. I am not in any way abandoning them - really, I'm not. I'm just taking a little break. Here's the

Questions good readers ask

FREE labels for Close Reading Highlighters! - Such a motivating way for students to really express their thinking!

One of the reasons I like close reading so much is that it forces encourages students to record their thinking. When students annotate their reading it gives them a purpose for reading, and it also allows teachers to get an inside look at student thinking. I started off teaching students to annotate with lots of modeling. I would model highlighting and annotating by copying pages in our current read aloud (this way students were familiar with the text). As I read the passages, I would stop…

Anchor chart write in the margins

Teaching Theme Using Close Reading 4.RL.2 5.RL.2 6.RL.2

Sketchnoting (or visual note-taking) ( Click here for a presentation called "Sketchnoting for Beginners". Click here to see my sketchno...

Why Students Hate Annotating (and What to Do About It)

Aloha! It's Nicole from Teaching With Style! The entire State of Hawaii adopted the McGraw-Hill Reading Wonders basal program this year. I'm now waist deep trying to figure out whole group, small group, technology, and how this all relates to the Common Core. I recently read this article 5 Things Every Teacher Should Be Doing to Meet the Common Core State Standards. The article outlines these 5 practices as the biggest shifts in teaching CCSS: Lead high-level, text-based discussions Focus on…

I feel awful. I feel as though I have failed my students. Over the past few weeks, I have been experimenting with self-directed learning. This takes the form of them working at their own pace through the curriculum with deadlines and markers set by me to make sure they stay on track. When they come to class, we do the warm-up together, maybe I do a small mini-lesson, and then I set them to do their work. When they complete a task, they bring it to me to be checked off. Here's the problem: I…

Hey guys! I’ve received so many questions about reading textbooks and taking notes on that, so I am going to share with you how I do it. I like to write on the margins. Not highlight. I don’t use a special color coding technique to separate my comments from key terms from titles from definitions.Read more

I truly believe that the main reason many students don’t do the assigned readings they are given is because they find it difficult to comprehend everything they are reading. Reading a textboo…

Close reading idea/assessment: Copy text page but delete certain headings/subheadings. Delete the intro paragraph or the conclusion and have students write in the headings or paragraphs to show they understand how it is set up! (picture only)