There are two ways to do close reading without a LOT of prep work.  One is to wing it, and the other is to find some good readings of a suitable length with activities already prepared for you.  Both ways have their place, I suppose.  If you’ve taught close reading for a while, you can probably come up with activities on the spot that you know your kids will benefit from.  But it’s also nice to have those ready-to-use lessons that cover all the bases.

 

 

 

 

One of the areas that I’ve been focusing on is creating close reading resources – sets of one-page informational text readings with all the related activities.  There are activities ready to use for each of three readings with each article.  This table of contents from one of the resources will show you what is included in each one:

 

First Reading Activities

• Text Dependent Questions (TDQs)
• Main idea and Supporting Details  – Graphic Organizer

 

Second Reading Activities

• Text Dependent Questions (TDQs)
• Vocabulary Graphic Organizer
• Text Structure Graphic Organizer

 

Third Reading Activities

• Text Dependent Questions (TDQs)
• Writing Prompt

 

Look at the preview of any of the sets to see sample pages.

 

So far, I have these sets completed (and more to come):

Exploring the Solar System

Election Mania

Wild Winter

Freedom of the Press

 

As an example, here are the four articles included in Close Reading – Election Mania (each one with all of the activities):

1. Make It or Break It Primaries
2. Love Those Campaign Buttons
3. The Best Voting Machines?
4. One Day on the Campaign Trail

 

 

Each full set also includes two close reading charts – a chart that shows students just what they need to do for each reading and a chart of the symbols for marking up the texts. In addition, there is a smaller version of these two charts for students’ notes.

 

 

If you would like to give one of these a try, here’s a FREE sample that you can download and use now – Close Reading – Women’s Suffrage.  It includes one article about the fight for women’s right to vote, with all of the related activities.

 

 

 

Check out all of the close reading and informational text resources in the Close Reading section of my Teachers Pay Teachers Store (and I’ll be adding more!).