Text Dependent/Close Reading Planning Checklist
Start, Teachers |

- Is this my first, second or third read? (If it’s a first read, then I need to ask questions about who/what/where/when/why/how. If it’s a second read, then I need to focus my questioning on how the author crafted the text. If it’s a third read, then I need to focus on analysis and how this text relates to other text I’ve read on the topic)
- What standard(s) am I teaching? (This will help me figure out what language I’m using and what content my questions should focus on.)
- What language do I want students to use in their response? (Academic language, technical terms, prompts and phrasing)
- What kind of prompt should I give so that I ensure that students use complete sentences in their response? (For example, “Using a complete sentence and the term “x”, respond to this question…”)
- What type of evidence from the text am I expecting students to give? (Do I want them to cite the text and give vivid examples from a passage or the text overall?)
- Do I want students to respond verbally or in writing?
- Does the question in the curriculum work? Do I need to adjust? Do I need to start from scratch? (Tip: Instead of crafting questions from the ground up, go to your curriculum and improve the quality of what’s there already – it is more time effecient!)
How often are close reads to be done? we are starting your program at our school and told to do them every day for about 20 minutes. So one close read per week spread out in 5 days, this seems a little much, what do you recommend?
Hi!
If you go to the search button on our website and search “Close Reading” you’ll find very straightforward information on how to plan for Close Reading…much better than I can type it to you here! 🙂
J