Close Reading Strategies

Close reading in science class? This post shares strategies and a free resource for implementing close reading in science instruction.

Hi! I'm Susie! I'm a curriculum developer at Panicked Teacher. On my blog, I share classroom tips, teaching ideas and upper elementary resources.

We finally began looking at the Notice and Note: Strategies for Close Reading signposts this week, starting with the tried and true Contrasts and Contradictions. I wanted to share with you a few of the things we did in class that helped the students to really grasp the idea of a character acting out of the norm for that particular character. To introduce the signpost to my fifth graders, I began with the "Thank You, Ma'am" lesson in the book. I highly recommend purchasing the book and…

Interested in trying close reading with your class but not sure how to implement it without marking the text? Check out these strategies for annotating text

Analyzing nonfiction text is something that we have been focusing on this year with the full implementation of CCSS. I am always on the look out for new resources to help me with this, and when Zaner-Bloser contacted me to review their new "I Read to Write Kits", I jumped on the opportunity. Disclaimer: Zaner-Bloser sent me a class set of these kits in exchange for an honest review. Though they did send them to me, the thoughts on the program below are my own and not influenced in any way by…

Sometimes struggling readers need a bit more support to apply reading strategies. Grab free reading strategy printables to make a FREE take-home book!

I’m back for my next installment on close reading! I am so excited to FINALLY share what I have been working so hard on. A few weeks back, I asked my Facebook followers to rate their understanding and knowledge of close reading. I was shocked to learn that so many teachers didn’t really know much […]

Upper elementary blog with practical, rigorous, classroom tested ideas to implement with your students.

Happy snow day everyone! Well…at least to my midwest and northeast friends, right?! BRR! It is cold! I hope you are all staying safe and warm! And to my friends in the south, or wherever you are that’s warm, we are all very jealous! This has been my view for the last two days: I […]

One of the reasons I did not dig into close reading sooner is that it seemed really intimidating. But, it turns out that while it does go deep - way beyond traditional comprehension - it is not all that mysterious. Once you learn the key pieces - what makes close reading close reading - it becomes less intimidating and more intriguing (or at least it

Close reading is a hot topic that's just getting hotter! Here are 21 anchor charts, bulletin board ideas and other resources that you can bring into your classroom to turn your readers into even closer readers.

I’m back for my next installment on close reading! I am so excited to FINALLY share what I have been working so hard on. A few weeks back, I asked my Facebook followers to rate their understanding and knowledge of close reading. I was shocked to learn that so many teachers didn’t really know much […]

Upper elementary blog with practical, rigorous, classroom tested ideas to implement with your students.

Need homework to prepare your students for the state assessment? This Common Core Reading Homework is perfect for meaningful practice of the standards.

A look at Close Reading and how to implement it in the classroom.

Not sure if you are noticing a pattern here with my posts, but I am seriously working on fiction and narrative in my class. I just feel like getting them to really understand literature well enough to then have to write about and like it (on THE TEST at the end of the year) is going to take a lot of front loading and targeted instruction on my part. So this week, we focused on *conflict* in a story. We have tackled plot, character, and setting, so it seemed only natural that conflict would…