Close Reading and Far-Reaching Classroom Discussion: Fostering a Vital Connection by Catherine Snow Graduate School of Education, Harvard University Catherine O’Connor School of Education, Boston University 

One of the widespread anticipatory reactions to the Common Core State Standards is a new emphasis in guidance to practitioners on “close reading” (Brown & Kappes, 2012). Close reading is an approach to teaching comprehension that insists students extract meaning from text by examining carefully how language is used in the passage itself. It stems from the observation that many students emerging from the K-12 world are not ready to engage with complex text of the kind they must work with in college. Its ultimate goal is to help students strengthen their ability to learn from complex text independently, and thus to enhance college and career readiness. 

A characteristic of the implementation of close reading in classrooms is a prohibition on questions that draw on resources outside the text and a focus on support for claims from the text itself. It is argued by some that close reading will level the playing field by eliminating differences in comprehension associated with background knowledge. 

In this brief we examine the basis for this view, and consider the advantages as well as the limitations of close reading. We also suggest ways in which close reading might be usefully supplemented by other classroom practices, to ensure that it supports comprehension and to avoid problems we anticipate from an excessive focus on close reading, such as student frustration, a decline in motivation to read, and reduction in opportunities to learn content.

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