This document provides information about implementing close reading strategies with students. It discusses using post-it notes and guided highlighted reading when doing a close analysis of texts. Examples are given of setting a purpose for reading, doing an initial independent reading, and then revisiting the text through a teacher-led discussion using text-dependent questions. The goal is to help students engage deeply with texts through multiple exposures and discussions.

1. Jennifer Evans
Assistant Director ELA
St. Clair County RESA
Evans.jennifer@sccresa.org
http://www.protopage.com/evans.jennifer#Untitled/Home

2. Danielson
Framework
Questioning
Daily 5 Questioning
Using Bloom’s with
Close Reading
Strategies
Close reading
Strategies: Post-It
Notes and Guided
Highlighted Reading
Implementing Close
Reading Strategies
With Current
Materials

4. 
Using Questioning and Discussion
Techniques

5. Comprehensio
n
Accuracy
Fluency
Expand
Vocabulary

7. 
Strategy:
◦ Ask Questions Throughout the Reading Process
(Café)
◦ Think along questioning – example from story
“Fire!”
comprehension card 21
◦ Question – Answer – Relationship (QAR) (STARS)
 Three Types of Questions:
Right There (The answer is in the text,
easy to find.)
Think and Search (The answer is in the
story, but you need to put together
different story parts to find it.)
On My Own (The answer is not in the
story. You use your own experience to
answer the question.)
- Request, Thick and Thin, Nonfiction, Openended
- Socratic Circles http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDP75I1b5Do

8. The use of questioning routines, such as
QAR, questioning the author, or
Bloom’s, is effective for developing textdependent questions.
Regardless of the system used, the
questions should be developed in advance
of the lesson to ensure that the discussion
regularly guides students back to the text.
( p 119 Text Complexity by Douglas
Fisher)

9. 1. Post-it
Notes
2. Guided
Highlighted
Reading

10. Independent reading of the text is
supported through a series of
instructional moves including:
setting the purpose, teacher
modeling, guided instruction, group
work, and independent tasks.

11. 
Set Purpose: To engage 4th grade students
in a close reading of an excerpt from an
informational book on the history of the
development of “Post-it Notes.”
◦ Purpose is to discover how a familiar office product
was initially thought to be a failure and to trace its
development as a useful item.

Strategy Handout

12. Invite students to read it first to
themselves
Have them write on a
sticky note any words
or phrases they do not
know.
Also have students take
notes on sticky notes
listing major events.
Give extra support to
those students you
know will need it during
independent reading.
This will need to be
modeled the first time
you do it.

13. After students have
finished reading, have
them turn and talk to their
partner to describe one
surprising fact that they
learned about the invention
of Post-it Notes.
Write your amazing fact on
a sticky note to be used in
the discussion.
To start, use this language
frame: “I was amazed to
learn that _________!”

14. Take notes or record an
anchor chart listing the
amazing facts the
students share.
Recorded
responses will be
used to determine
what will be
modeled.
Record unfamiliar
or unclear words or
phrases and how
they attempted to
understand them.

15. Explain to students
that you will read
parts of the text
together, and from
time to time, you will
explain your thinking
to them.
Start by orienting the
students to the correct
part of the text you
wish to address:
For example, in
Paragraphs 7 and 8:
• “Fry used some to
coat his markers.”
After finishing the
shared reading,
transition students to
a discussion using a
series of textdependent questions.

16. Keep in mind that the purpose of textdependent questions are to prompt
rereading, encourage the use of textual
evidence to support answers, and deepen
comprehension.
Initial questions should be designed to
highlight the explicit meaning of the text.
However, do not stop there, but progress
toward more challenging questions.

17. 1. Post-it Notes began as an idea that didn’t work but then became a very useful
product. Using evidence from the text, describe the sequence of events that led to
this invention?
2. The author tells you twice when Spencer Silver first invented the adhesive that
would be used in the Post-it Notes. The first time is in the fourth paragraph, when
she tells us it was 1970. Then, she tells us the same information again later in a
different way. How did you figure out the answer?
3. Do you believe the author has a positive or a negative view of Post-it Notes and
its inventors? What words or phrases lead you to believe that?
4. What were some of the qualities of the inventors that you can infer from this text?
What passages helped you draw these conclusions?

18. 



Students gather their Post-it Notes to use for
a journal or essay writing activity.
Prompt: What does it take to be an inventor?
Students will write a short summary of the
invention of Post-it Notes.
Students will identify at least two
characteristics of inventors, using at least two
quotations from the text.

19. 







Frog and Locust
Set Purpose
First Reading
First Discussion
Second Discussion
Second Reading – Teacher led read aloud and
think aloud strategies
Third Discussion
Journal Writing

20. 

Set Purpose: To engage 2nd grade students
to understand what a folktale is and why
people in the Southwest might have a folktale
about rain.
Strategy Handout

21. Invite students to read it first to
themselves
Have them write on a
sticky note any words
or phrases they do not
know.
Also have students take
notes on sticky notes
listing major events.
Give extra support to
those students you
know will need it during
independent reading.
This will need to be
modeled the first time
you do it.

22. After students have
finished reading, have
them turn and talk to their
partner to describe one
surprising fact that they
learned about the Pueblo
folktale.
Write your amazing fact on
a sticky note to be used in
the discussion.
To start, use this language
frame: “I was amazed to
learn that _________!”

23. Take notes or record an
anchor chart listing the
amazing facts the
students share.
Recorded
responses will be
used to determine
what will be
modeled.
Record unfamiliar
or unclear words or
phrases and how
they attempted to
understand them.

24. Explain to students
that you will read
parts of the text
together, and from
time to time, you will
explain your thinking
to them.
Start by orienting the
students to the correct
part of the text you
wish to address:
For example, in
Paragraph 3, “The
frog croaked – “ Did
the frog really die?
After finishing the
shared reading,
transition students to
a discussion using a
series of textdependent questions.

25. 1. What happened after the frog sang by himself?
2. Describe the setting of the folktale.
3. Do you believe the author has a positive or a negative view about
folktales?
4. What were some of the qualities of the folktales that you notice from
this text?

26. 



Students gather their Post-it Notes to use for
a journal or essay writing activity.
Prompt: Why would people in the Southwest
have a folktale about rain?
Students will write a short summary of Frog
and Locust.
Students will use at least two examples from
the text providing evidence of what lack of
rain will do.

27. 

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/enh
ance-student-note-taking (5th grade Brewer)
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/stu
dent-annotated-reading-strategy (9th grade)

28.  Chips
In Activity:
◦ How would you use this strategy in
preparation for a performance-task?

29. Is text driven and meaning-based
Focuses students on the context of text
Guides students to read for one reading purpose at a time
Invites and guides students to revisit the text more than once
Guides students to return to the same text for multiple purposes
Targets the acquisition of skills needed for close and critical reading
Builds fluency and stamina in readers
Uses multiple senses: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic

30. 1. Select Text
2. Identify vocabulary
that needs to be taught
in advance
3. Determine a context
for the information that
could frame it for the
students’ prior
knowledge
4. Consider what kind of
discussion you want to
come from the reading
of the text
5. Select the appropriate
information to be
highlighted based on the
goal for the discussion
6. Map out the text
paragraph by paragraph
with prompts to
highlight the information
7. Students use a
highlighter and follow
directions to highlight
the text requested by the
prompt
8. Students compare
their highlighted text
with one another

31. 1. Read the
Preamble of the
United States
Constitution
2. Highlight as
directed (p 74)
3. Review other
activities (p 7581)
4. What
discussion of this
content might
take place? (turn
and talk)

32. Frog and Locust
In line #1, find and highlight the length of time without rain
In line # 6, find and highlight what was left at the bottom of the canyon
In line #7, find and highlight what happened to the puddles
In line #13, find and highlight what would happened to the frog’s puddle and
the frog if it didn’t rain soon
In line #15, find and highlight what the frog did to bring rain
In line #20, find and highlight what lived on the top of the mountain

33.  How
would you use this strategy
in preparation for a performancetask?
(Turn and Talk)

34. 1. Look at your next story
2. Decide on a Close Reading Strategy to
use (Post-It Notes or Guided Highlighted
Reading)
3. Create at least 3 questions, at various
levels, you would like the students to
answer
4. Plan when to implement the lesson