Close+Reading+and+CCLS

By this point in time, it hardly seems necessary to spend a great deal of time discussing the specific Standards, but there are some key points which warrant a bit of discussion. There will, of course, be links to the Common Core Learning Standards you can follow to check them out, but for our intents and purposes, we will not go into great detail.

These sections are taken directly from the Common Core State Standards. There is a link provided at the bottom of the page if you are interested in reading the entire document.

Students Who are College and Career Ready in Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening, and Language: They demonstrate independence.

Students can, without significant scaffolding, comprehend and evaluate complex texts across a range of types and disciplines, and they can construct effective arguments and convey intricate or multifaceted information. Likewise, students are able independently to discern a speaker’s key points, request clarification, and ask relevant questions. They build on others’ ideas, articulate their own ideas, and confirm they have been understood. Without prompting, they demonstrate command of standard English and acquire and use a wide-ranging vocabulary. More broadly, they become self-directed learners, effectively seeking out and using resources to assist them, including teachers, peers, and print and digital reference materials

They build strong content knowledge.

Students establish a base of knowledge across a wide range of subject matter by engaging with works of quality and substance. They become proficient in new areas through research and study. They read purposefully and listen attentively to gain both general knowledge and discipline-specific expertise. They refine and share their knowledge through writing and speaking.

They comprehend as well as critique.

Students are engaged and open-minded—but discerning—readers and listeners. They work diligently to understand precisely what an author or speaker is saying, but they also question an author’s or speaker’s assumptions and premises and assess the veracity of claims and the soundness of reasoning.

They value evidence.

Students cite specific evidence when offering an oral or written interpretation of a text. They use relevant evidence when supporting their own points in writing and speaking, making their reasoning clear to the reader or listener, and they constructively evaluate others’ use of evidence.

Reading: Text complexity and the growth of comprehension

The Reading standards place equal emphasis on the sophistication of what students read and the skill with which they read. Standard 10 defines a grade-by-grade “staircase” of increasing text complexity that rises from beginning reading to the college and career readiness level. Whatever they are reading, students must also show a steadily growing ability to discern more from and make fuller use of text, including making an increasing number of connections among ideas and between texts, considering a wider range of textual evidence, and becoming more sensitive to inconsistencies, ambiguities, and poor reasoning in texts.

For the complete Common Core Learning Standards document, please follow this link: CCLS

Discussion Questions:

How would performing a close reading offer students an opportunity to deepen their understanding of a text?

What sort of texts can you use in your classroom to afford students the opportunity to perform a close reading?

What obstacles can you anticipate when implementing close reading with your students? How could you respond to those obstacles?