The Habits of Close Reading, D. Ray Reutzel, Ph.D. Whitepaper

College and Career Readiness Standards for English Language Arts
The Habits of Close Reading
Renewing our focus on the essential skills
for comprehension
A position paper describing the important role of close reading in the Common
Core State Standards, with strategies to support close reading in the classroom.
D. RAY REUTZEL, PH.D.
Emma Eccles Jones Endowed Chair
and Distinguished Professor of
Early Childhood Literacy Education,
Utah State University
D e ta il s
Big idea
Details
s
Big idea
s
o
Read trstand
Unde
Introduction:
Close g
Readin
IS
NOT
NEW
to
Readyze
The Emperor’s New Clothes
Anal
Whenever I hear about close reading, I think of the story
The Emperor’s New Clothes, the tale by Hans Christian
Andersen in which two swindlers promise to provide a
vain Emperor with a new suit of clothing. The Emperor
displays his non-existent new clothes at court and at a
public procession, where those around him pretend to
appreciate the new apparel except for a small child who
calls out, “But he isn’t wearing anything at all!”
Similarly, if we examine the concept of close reading, we can see that there
is really nothing new. Close reading in fact matches what the enterprise
of reading has always been—the use of a collection of comprehension
strategies that help students talk and think about text at deeper and deeper
levels of understanding.
Students have always had to read closely in order to understand complex
texts, and teachers of English literature in secondary schools and universities
have, for many years, employed close or analytic readings to unpack the
hidden meaning in challenging literary texts (Richards, 1929, Fisher & Frey, 2012;
Frey & Fisher, 2013).
However, today much noise and confusion surrounds the implementation
of close reading in schools, as definitions, purposes, and practices abound.
Unsurprisingly, many teachers and administrators are confused by the call
for close reading in the Common Core State Standards and other standards
like them. But they can take heart. Although close reading is figured
prominently in the new standards, it is not new and is in fact familiar to
most educators.
2
o
Read t
Write
Dr. Reutzel says:
“Close reading in fact
matches what the
enterprise of reading
has always been—
the use of a collection
of comprehension
strategies that help
students talk and think
about text at deeper
and deeper levels of
understanding.”
The Habits of Close Reading
Renewing our focus on the essential skills for comprehension
”
Defining Close Reading
o
Read trstand
e
d
Un
o
Read t
e
it
Wr
o
Read tze
ly
a
An
Close reading involves the use of a collection of
evidence-based comprehension strategies embedded
in teacher-guided discussions, planned around
repeated readings of a text in order to increase
student comprehension. Close reading can be defined
simply as repeated readings and discussions of text in
order to increase text comprehension.
Educators must also understand what close reading is not. Sometimes
teachers and students think that close reading means focusing in on or
magnifying the importance of increasingly smaller or more literal elements
of the text, similar to using a microscope to examine something too small
to be seen with the naked eye. Many reading researchers and scholars fear
that close reading will be interpreted incorrectly in this way (Pearson, 2014).
In actuality, close reading implies an ordered process that proceeds from
understanding the smallest or most literal ideas in text (word, phrase, and
sentence meanings) to understanding larger ideas (paragraphs and sections)
to understanding the organization of ideas (coherence, structure, and craft)
to integrating text information with background knowledge to interpret
what the text means.
Close reading is NOT:
starting with the big ideas
and moving to the details
Dr. Reutzel says:
“Close reading is
an uber-strategy
that helps students
to independently
comprehend
increasingly
challenging texts.”
Close reading IS:
starting with the details
and moving to the big ideas
Close reading is required in the ELA (K–12) reading standards. This
requirement is an important reason to implement close reading consistently
in today’s classrooms, but it is not the most important reason. Close reading
is an uber-strategy that helps students to independently comprehend
increasingly challenging texts. Students need to develop the habits of mind
and the skills necessary to unpack the deep, embedded meanings found
in complex, challenging texts, in order to become college and career ready.
© 2015 Curriculum Associates, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
3
TIP
Ration
e
al
Select
i
on
PD
ing
Reaedhension
r
Comp
“”
?
Building Reading Habits
that Support Comprehension
Through Close Reading
Now that we understand what close reading is and
isn’t, let’s look at how it supports the development of
to
strong reading comprehensioneskills.
ad
d to and
Readerst
Un
R rite
W
Close reading is intended to develop the reading habits that students need
d toze
for college and careers, described in Anchor Standard 1 in the
Core
ReaaCommon
ly
n
A
ELA (K–12) State Standards, which states that students are expected to:
• Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly
• Make logical inferences from their interactions with text
se
o ngtextual evidence when writing or speaking to
• Cite
Clspecific
di
support
Rea conclusions drawn from the text
IS T
NO W
NE
The theoretical and research literature on reading comprehension supports
the importance of developing these three habits of mind through close
reading (Duke, Pearson, Strachan, & Billman, 2011; Kintsch, 2013; Wilkinson & Sun, 2011).
Dr. Reutzel says,
“Reading to determine
what the text actually
says, as required in
the standards, is an
essential reading habit
that supports initial
text comprehension.”
Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly
Reading to determine what the text actually says, as required in the
standards, is an essential reading habit that supports initial text
comprehension. In practice, this means that the first close reading lessons
should focus on determining what the text says, rather than on front-loading
information for students by spending too much time on accessing, activating,
or building their background knowledge.
Students can be briefly reminded to activate their background knowledge
about a topic or theme in the text, but this practice should not replace a
focus on determining what the text itself has to offer. Students and teachers
should value the text as a rich evidentiary base to be used in constructing
knowledge and meaning (Pearson, 2014).
Teachers should not think of text as an obstacle that needs to be overcome
by front-loading information for students prior to reading. If students become
too dependent on teachers providing information to fill in knowledge gaps
that the text could provide, they will not develop the close reading habits
needed to build their own background knowledge independently from
the text. According to Pearson (2013), “As a profession we have overindulged
at the trough of prior knowledge, [but] the remedy is to balance its role,
not eliminate it.”
4
The Habits of Close Reading
Renewing our focus on the essential skills for comprehension
Make logical inferences from interactions with text
Then, as required by the standards, students need to learn how
to make logical inferences from information provided in the
text. It is important to remember that ideas are located at different
levels. Some are local to a specific section, and readers need
to understand how ideas in words, sentences, and phrases
connect to one another. Others are more global and spread
out, and readers need to understand how ideas in paragraphs
and sections are crafted and structured.
10 Types of Local
Inferences
Problem
Location or Place:
Where are we?
Setting
Problem
Goal
Agent or Actors:
Events/Attempts
Who did it?
Problem
1
3Goal
2
Goal
Time: When did
it happen?
It can help to teach students that the number of types of local
inferences that any text might require is finite (Johnson & Johnson,
1986). Research shows that systematic instruction of the ten local
inference types (shown to the right) significantly improved thirdgrade students’ abilities to make inferences from text (Reutzel &
Hollingsworth, 1988).
Settin
Setting
Events/Atte
Events/Attempts
Q A
Action: What is
happening?
Proble
Setting Problem
Resolution
Setting
Goal
Instrument: What
Problem Goal
Q A
tool or device was
Events/Attem
used to accomplish
Resolution
Problem
Events/Atte
Setting
what is happening?
Goal
Q A
When reading a text closely, students also need to learn how
to make global inferences to determine the text’s organization
or structure. Helping students reread to improve this skill is
critically important for improving text comprehension. Without
recognizing and using text structure, readers often fail to identify
the importance of key ideas represented in informational texts
or recognize how the key ideas fit together (Alexander & Jetton,
2000).
In addition, the text structure of narratives differs from the text
structure of informational texts. Narrative texts typically follow
a story’s grammar or structure, with characters, a setting (location
and time), a problem, a plan or goal, attempts to solve the
problem, and a resolution (Stein & Glenn, 1979; Mandler & Johnson,
1977). Informational texts, in contrast, can use several text
organizations individually or in combination, including description,
compare-contrast, problem-solution, cause-effect, or sequentialprocedural (Shanahan et al., 2010; Williams et al., 2007, 2009).
Setting
Setting
Resoluti
Category: What
Goal
other events is this Problem
Events/Attempts
an example of?
Q AEvents/Attempts
Object: What
person, place,
thing, or idea was
used?
Q A
Goal
Resolution
Setting
Problem
Goal
Q A
Q A
Resoluti
Cause/Effect:
What caused this
to happen?
Events/Attempts
1
2
1
Events/Attempts
3
Setting
Problem
Q A
Resolution
Goal
Resolution
Problem/Solution:
How did they solve
Q Aproblem?
their
Events/Attempts
1
2
3
Resolution
QFeelings/Attitude:
A
Resolution
Setting
How did this make
Resolution
you or someone
else in the text feel?
Problem
Goal
Events/Attempts
5
© 2015 Curriculum Associates, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Q A
When texts do not present readers with an inferable text structure
or organization, students need to be taught how to impose a
structure or organization on a text to aid their comprehension
and ability to identify key ideas (Graesser, 2007; Kintsch & Kintsch,
2005). Helping students re-represent the author’s structure or
organization visually using graphic organizers has been shown
to be highly effective (National Reading Panel, 2000). Some examples
of graphic organizers are on the right.
Example of a Story
Graphic Organizer
Setting
Sett
Problem
Cite specific textual evidence when writing or
speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text
Goal
The final set of close reading skills or habits required by the
standards calls for students to use evidence from the text, in
both writing and speaking, to support their interpretations of
the meaning and their conclusions. To help students cite specific
evidence, teachers typically teach the following comprehension
strategies:
1
Events/Attempts
2
3
Prob
• Answering text-dependent questions
• Teacher-guided discussion/dialog around the text
• Text annotation
Q A
The figure below shows an example of each using the familiar
tale of the Three Little Pigs.
Setting
Resolution
Setting
Problem
Citing Text Evidence to Support Conclusions
Drawn From Text
TextDependent
Question
TeacherGuided
Discussion/
Dialog
Problem
Goal
Goal
Events/Attempts
1
2
3
Examples of
Informational Text
Graphic Organizers
Why did the wolf think he could blow down the third
little pig’s house made of brick?
Events/Attempts
Q A
Why did the first two little pigs run to the third little
Question
& Answer
Problem
pig’s house? Let’s retell the story to our neighbor to
start. As you retell, be thinking about the answer to
our question. When each of you has retold the story
to your neighbor, share your answer using the text to
defend your answer (think-pair-share). Then we’ll get
back together as a class to discuss the answer to our
big question.
Q A
Resolution
Events/A
Goal
Resolution
Events/Attempts
Compare/
Contrast
Setting
1
2
3
Description
Setting
Problem
Setting
Then the wolf was very angry indeed, and declared he
would eat up the little pig, and that he would get down
the chimney after him.
Q A
Problem
Goal
Q A
Q A
Goal
Cause & Effect
Resolution
Events/Attempts
Goal
1
2
3
Events/Attempts
1
2
3
Events/Attempts
6
1
Setting
Simple Listing
Problem
Annotation
Go
Q A
Time Order
1
2
3
The Habits of Close Reading
Renewing our focus
on the essential skills for comprehension
Resolution
Resolution
For optimal results from close readings of text, students need to write and
speak about what they have learned. They need to combine this learning
with their background knowledge, link the new information to similar texts
they have read, and merge the new knowledge acquired from the text
into their existing network of knowledge.
This can be accomplished through a variety of evidence-based and
engaging learning activities. This can include oral presentations using
digital technologies and writing activities, which can include text summaries,
graphic novels about the text, newspaper stories about the text, and
magazine reviews of a story about the text. The figure below illustrates
the reading habits of mind students develop during close readings of text.
Dr. Reutzel says,
“For optimal results
from close readings
of text, students need
to write and speak
about what they
have learned.”
Reading Habits of Mind Developed During Close Readings of Text
CONSTRUCTION
Read text again and
combine with background
knowledge to determine
meaning
Read text to
determine what text
actually says
“”
© 2015 Curriculum Associates, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
I N T E G R AT I O N
Read text again to
make inferences
(global or local)
Read text again to
share what was learned
in writing, speaking,
or visually
7
TIPS
Selec
t
PD
Ratio
?
le
na
ion
Tips for School Administrators
and Literacy Coaches
To help classroom teachers successfully implement
close reading embedded in standards-based reading
instruction, school administrators and literacy coaches
must work together to provide teachers with the
necessary understanding, materials, conditions, and
support.
Tips for school leaders include:
Criteria of texts
that are worthy of
close reading:
• Build teachers’ capacity to select texts appropriate
readings.
to
to for use in close
Reatde
Readerstand
i
Wr and students understand the
Und
• Help teachers
Setting
Problem
Re lyze
Ana• Provide professional development so that teachers can
master how to teach a set of comprehension strategies
to construct, analyze, and integrate text understandings
at deeper and deeper levels of comprehension.
Build teachers’ capacity to select texts for
appropriate use in close readings
Not all texts are appropriate for close reading. Some are
straightforward, clearly written, and well organized, with content
that is explicitly stated and not difficult to understand. These
texts are typically not appropriate for close reading.
Other texts that strive to convey complex content are more
suitable. These texts often conceal meaning beneath layers of
rare words, complex sentence structures, missing connecting
terms, atypical paragraph organization, few or missing text
features that help signal text structure, mixed or multiple texts
structures, and the use of literary devices such as metaphor
and flashbacks.
Contain content that is
compelling, accurate,
and of interest to
readers.
Goal
rationale for repeatedly reading a text for multiple
purposes.
o
ad tcomprehension
Events/Attempts
1
2
3
Setting
Q A
Problem
Resolution
Are challenging and
don’t give up their
meaning easily via
skimming, scanning, or
casual reading.
Goal
Events/Attempts
Q A
1
2
3
Setting
Resolution
Problem
Tend to be relatively
short in length (Frey &
Fisher, 2013).
Goal
Events/Attempts
Setting
1
2
3
Problem
Q A
Are selected from a
range of genres such
as newspaper articles,
journals, encyclopedia
articles, novels, tall
tales, and almanacs.
Goal
Resolution
Events/Attempts
Q A
1
2
3
Resolution
Setting
Problem
Represent different
text structures and
contain a variety of
features such as tables
of contents, glossaries,
indices, headings, as
well as different
language constructions.
Goal
Events/Attempts
Q A
1
2
3
Resolution
8
The Habits of Close Reading
Renewing our focus on the essential skills for comprehension
Help teachers and students understand the importance of
repeated readings
Complex texts require that students unpack layers or levels of meaning.
Theoretically grounded reading comprehension instruction recognizes
this fact and acknowledges that text comprehension is a multi-leveled
process (Kintsch, 2013). Consequently, complex texts require repeated
readings to peel back multiple layers of meaning. Shanahan (2013) suggests
that close readings should address at least three levels of text comprehension:
• What does the text say?
• How does the text work?
• What does the text mean?
Provide professional development
Close reading of texts for multiple comprehension purposes requires that
students learn to use a set of multiple comprehension strategies that
teachers can practice in professional development sessions themselves.
Dr. Reutzel says,
“To help students
unpack what a text
says, teachers can
practice showing
students how to figure
out unfamiliar word
meanings, link terms
that signal relationships
among ideas, and
answer text-dependent
questions from specific
places within a text.”
To help students unpack what a text says, teachers can practice showing
students how to figure out unfamiliar word meanings, link terms that signal
relationships among ideas, and answer text-dependent questions from
specific places within a text. They can practice helping students peel back
additional layers of text meaning and show them how to use text features
like headings, subheadings, captions, glossaries, indices, metaphorical
language in addition to determining or imposing a structure on the text
using graphic organizers. Finally, teachers can practice helping students
learn how to monitor their text understanding, retell, discuss, write, and
summarize text.
© 2015 Curriculum Associates, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
9
Conclusion
Taken together, a set of strategies used with close
readings for differing comprehension purposes
has been shown to help readers of all ages, even
those in primary grades (Reutzel, Smith, & Fawson, 2005).
Teachers who help students integrate what they
learn from multiple or repeated close readings of
text also help students increase their knowledge
of the world. In doing so, they create an ongoing
and self-sustaining virtuous comprehension cycle,
where knowledge begets comprehension and
comprehension begets knowledge in the life of
every student (Duke, Pearson, Strachan, & Billman, 2011).
10
About the Author:
D. Ray Reutzel, Ph.D.
Ray is the Emma Eccles Jones
Endowed Chair and
Distinguished Professor of
Early Childhood Literacy
Education at Utah State
University. He is the author of
more than 220 published
research reports, articles,
books, book chapters, and
monographs in reading,
literacy, and early childhood
education. He is an elected
member of the Reading Hall
of Fame and conducts
research on early literacy in
grades K–3. Ray is also a
member of the i-Ready
Technical Advisory Committee.
The Habits of Close Reading
Renewing our focus on the essential skills for comprehension
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11
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