LITERACY

Close Reading 101: How to Help Students Read Deeply and Think Critically

4 March 2025/ By Zineb DJOUB

The ability to comprehend what is read is essential for students’ professional success. However, comprehension goes beyond simply decoding words—it requires analyzing the author’s intent and engaging deeply with the text. That’s where close reading comes in.

Close reading is a powerful strategy that enhances students’ critical thinking and transforms them into independent, confident readers capable of tackling complex texts. This post explores what close reading is and provides essential strategies to help teachers implement it effectively in their classrooms.

What is close reading?

Close reading is a reading strategy that involves focusing on a text closely to gain a deeper understanding of its structure, determine what’s important, and gain a deeper understanding of the author’s purpose.

This process requires close attention to the text, mainly to unexpected, confusing, or contradictory elements, so the reader needs to pause, take notes, think carefully, reread, and analyze.

Hence, close reading is not merely about scrutinizing the text (literal comprehension) while ignoring personal connections.

Instead, it bridges the gap between the text and the reader, fostering deep engagement by encouraging readers to draw upon their knowledge and experiences to interpret meaning (inferential comprehension).

In close reading, meaning is created not purely and simply from the words on the page, but from the transaction with those words that takes place in the reader’s mind (Beers & Probst, 2013).

Close reading characteristics

• Rereading short passages and excerpts with limited pre-reading activities to focus on comprehension and analysis.
• Paying close attention to detail, including words, sentence structure, and the sequence of events or ideas.
• Examining text structure to understand how the organization of ideas contributes to meaning (e.g., chronological, cause-effect, problem-solution).
• Identifying the author’s purpose and perspective by analyzing tone, argument, and rhetorical devices.
• Annotating the text by highlighting important ideas, or jotting down interpretations or questions.
• Drawing upon prior knowledge and making connections to understand, while reflecting on what the author is trying to convey.
• Discussing the text in pairs, small groups or the whole class to explore different perspectives.
• Responding to text-dependent questions.

 

Classroom strategies for a successful closed reading lesson

For a successful closed reading lesson, here are the most essential classroom strategies:

#Select the right text

Close reads are meant to be challenging. If students easily dive into a text, understand its meaning, and its author’s purpose and cite evidence without deeper analysis, then there is no reason to do a close read with that text.

Selecting the right text is the first step in ensuring a successful closed-reading lesson.

While text selection is often dictated by curriculum requirements, teachers still have room to differentiate and make adjustments when necessary to support students’ learning.

Choose rigorous texts (i.e., with complex vocabulary, syntax or text structures) that capture students’ attention and foster their critical thinking while aligning with curriculum goals.

Since short texts are key features of close reading, selecting brief but rich excerpts allows students to analyze structure, meaning, and literary elements within a single lesson. Unlike a long passage that would take days or weeks to find the deeper meaning.

Further, text selection should be guided by purpose. Define the purpose behind your selection(e.g., to analyze argument structure, explore figurative language, or examine an author’s perspective). Setting a purpose before reading will further enhance students’ understanding of the text.

#Provide necessary background information (If Needed)

Students need to have some background knowledge of the text. By connecting new text information with their existing background knowledge, they can engage more with the text and expand their understanding.

However, close reading is meant to develop independent readers, so pre-reading activities should not give away the text’s meaning in advance. Instead, they should encourage students to explore and interact with the text on their own. You can discuss briefly relevant aspects such:

• The topic of the text
• The text’s organization and features (i.e., the period it’s concerned with).
• The historical or cultural context.

 

Is pre-reading always necessary?

Not necessarily. This depends on the kind of text you’ve selected.

As Beers and Probst (2013) have stated “We know that the resources students bring to a text affects their understanding… we leave it to [the teachers] to know when the text offers adequate information so that additional background knowledge is not needed” (p. 36).

#Engage students in multiple readings

Close reading involves multiple readings of a text, each with a different purpose; moving from understanding basic meaning to analyzing deeper elements such as the author’s craft, structure, and themes.

First reading: basic understanding

• Set a purpose for reading (e.g., to get its main idea, story elements, or key details).
• Have students read the text independently or in pairs.
• Involve them in Think-Pair-Share to assess their understanding from the first reading.

 

Second reading: Analysing the text

• Select a portion of the text and have students reread it while using annotation.
• Address text-dependent questions that require students to analyze word choice, structure, or author’s intent.
• Encourage students’ discussion in pairs or small groups to explore deeper meaning.

 

Third reading: Synthesizing and evaluating

• Guide students to synthesize information, connect ideas across different parts of the text, or compare with other texts or media.
• Use sticky notes, graphic organizers, or a thinking sheet to help them organize their thoughts.
• Have students discuss their ideas with their teacher and peers.

 

#Encourage annotating

As Boyles (2012) states: “Authors play with words to get you to see a text their way,” (p. 41).

For students to understand the text, annotation is necessary. Annotation involves marking up the text to track understanding, highlight key ideas, and clarify confusing points by:

• Underlining important phrases or sentences.
• Circling or using symbols for unknown words and confusing ideas.
• Writing notes or questions in the margins.

 

Why is annotation important?

• Deepens comprehension by encouraging students to pause, reflect, and analyze.
• Reveals the author’s purpose and writing techniques.
• Promotes critical thinking, making students active readers.
• Provides insight for teachers into students’ thought processes, helping inform instruction.

 

#Ask text-dependent questions

Close Reading focuses on text-dependent questions. Text-dependent questions are questions to which the answers can be found directly from evidence in the reading (Beers & Probst, 2013). This means that in a closed reading lesson, questions should:

• Relate to the text.
• Encourage students to provide evidence from that text to support their answers.
• Promote deeper analysis, focusing not only on what the author is saying but also why and how (the structure).
• You can provide students with a set of questions as they reflect on the text, such as: What does the text say? (Key details, summary, explicit information), how does the author say it? (Word choice, structure, literary devices), why does it matter? (Theme, purpose, deeper meaning).

 

Further, teaching students to ask text-based questions will help you create student-led instruction, fostering their responsibility and engagement in learning. To support this:

• Model the type of questions that should be addressed.
• Provide guided practice to help them improve their questioning process.
• Encourage discussions that extend beyond literal comprehension.

 

These strategies will help you harness the power of close reading in your classroom. Try them out and see how they work for your students! I’d love to hear your thoughts—feel free to share your feedback and experiences.

 

References

Beers, K., & Probst, R. E. (2013). Notice & Note: Strategies for Close Reading. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Boyles, N. (2012). Closing In On Close Reading. Educational Leadership, 36-41.