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 newer areas that I’ve been focusing on with Classroom in the Middle is creating close reading resources.  Some are based on a single reading, and others use a set of related readings.  Either way, 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

 

Close Reading – Exploring Pluto is one of the single articles (with all the extras) in my store.  Click on the image to see the preview.

 

 

Close Reading – Election Mania includes these four articles (again, with everything needed):
1. Make It or Break It Primaries
2. Love Those Campaign Buttons
3. The Best Voting Machines?
4. One Day on the Campaign Trail

 

 

There are more close reading resources that you might like to check out in the Close Reading section of my Teachers Pay Teachers Store (and I’ll be adding more!).