CLOSE Reading - What Does It Really Mean? (Special Education Use?)

Thanks to Grant Wiggins at TeachThought.com I have found great material on really helping me to understand what Close Reading really is and how to implement it in my Special Education classroom.  (See complete article here.)

The main take away for me is that Close Reading should and can become as natural as reading itself. Unless you have some difficulty in reading or processing. Yet, that's where I found my epiphany. In finally understanding all the steps and process in Close Reading through the writing of the article posted,  I can see where I wasn't spending the right amount of time discovering the layers of meaning hidden within the text.

Once I began to break down the reading selection into "chunks" digestible for my students (i.e., get to know your students capabilities and then stretch them) - we were able, together, to navigate the depths of the text.

"Going down deeper!" I would say, as we would re-read, re-think, and try to see if we could find something that we hadn't see before. The discovery was the "fun" part. The analysis not so much. So we, keeping with the metaphor, we focused on the treasure - looking at what we  found, how did it relate to us, where was it found? What does it look like on the bottom? On the top? On the side?, etc. Yes, we had to take the time to teach the analysis steps in ways the students would come to find as an extension of the discovery. Then folding in the comparing and contrasting from what we had found earlier, we were well on our way through the analysis portion of the Close process.

Now we can discuss what we found, what we have concluded and predict or think ahead on what we will find as we continue to move through the text. It has been exciting to do this and to watch this unfold for each of the students in their own specific manner and pace.

Pacing was my Nemesis. I wanted to move through the book much faster than they did. Just as life, for us typically-abled we zoom through things and more often than not, miss things. But as my individually-abled students keep teaching me, when we go at our own pace, somethings become more important at the time than other things. The focus on the color of the dress the princess is wearing is just as important as the focus on the type of sword the prince may use to slay the dragon. While those may not be the main points, they are to those students. It is my job, to help them see the details as well as the main topic of the text. When we have all finished our analysis, then we can summarize to reach the main topic(s) and move forward. This takes several iterations. But, oh my, how joyful the journey.

I'm convinced that more we practice the more we will increase our speed of the process. I'm even more convinced that not practicing at all is a disservice to each person. What important lesson we are teaching by excluding the rich details as we summarize the main points and thus complete the comprehension of the story? After all, I may not remember all of the details of what I read, and sometimes the main idea that I've reached is different than a colleague based upon my prior-knowledge and attention to (or lack thereof to) such details. That is the fun and joy of reading - discussion and learning by interaction within a safe relationship.

Thanks again to the great staff of writers at TeachThought-com as I go back to see if we can determine the type of dragon - you know, even if not fully stated it is important to those who focus and know a lot about dragons.

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I teach K-3 special education students in an urban school district in Middle Tennessee.