Be My Guest Sunday Presents...Close Reading with The Reading Tutor/OG

Hi there everyone! I am so excited for "Be My Guest Sunday" and I think you will be too! Are you engaging your students in Close Reading Strategies this year?  Close Reading has been a big part of our professional development this year.  In my quest to find out more about this strategy, I stumbled upon a very special blog....

Let me introduce you to Emily, from The Reading Tutor/OG Blog.   Emily has something really special over there!  She has tons of ideas and inspirations for your ELA block! She is also part of a huge collaborative site called Adventures in Literacy Land...another gem for all of you book lovers out there!

Emily has got some great information for you today, as well as FREEBIES.  Happy Sunday, folks!  Sit, back, relax and read on...

Thanks, Emily!

Hi everyone! I'm Emily from The Reading Tutor/OG, and I'm so happy Tracey invited me to be her guest today. I have been an educator for over 13 years now. I've taught mostly 3rd and 4th graders in inclusive classrooms. Currently, I am a SAHM and a certified Orton Gillingham instructor. This means I use a specific multi-sensory approach to help dyslexic learners with reading.  Although I love teaching all subject areas, Literacy is the area I am most passionate about.
Today I am going to share some research about close reading. I know this is a very hot topic in schools these days. There are many questions out there about how to implement it effectively in the classroom, especially with younger readers. I wrote a post about it a few months back about it on my own blog, but would like to share some practical tips you can take away with you today to use in your classrooms. Close reading has been around a long time in higher education. The thing that makes it new is that we're asking children to closely read in younger grades. Here are couple of quick points about what close reading is:

• Close reading is about arriving at a goal in reading, not just about using any one technique or approach.
• Close reading is flexible.
• The questions chosen in a close reading session are critical. Teachers need to be VERY familiar with the chosen text before assigning it to students to closely read.
• There is such thing as close listening for younger readers in K and 1. Since listening comprehension is developed in these grades, using this format is quite valuable.
• Not every story or passage you read needs to be closely read. In fact, the recommendation is to do one close read per unit of study. So if you were like me, we changed our reading units about every 4-6 weeks. I would carefully select a short passage to have my students do a close read.
• It is highly recommended that teachers choose shorter passages for close reads. If you're going to ask your class to read something anywhere from 2-3 times for a specific purpose, then a shorter passage is the way to go, especially for your challenged readers.

I thought it would be helpful to share a variety of resources which I found on Pinterest to use in your close reading lessons today. Plus, they are all FREE! I hope you find them useful!

I love this freebie from Create-Abilities. Show your class how to mark text while they read. Use this as a simple guide for marking text during a close reading lesson.

These handy bookmarks from Wise Words have great reminders for marking text and prompts for answering text dependent questions. There is a bookmark for each of the three reads you may do during a close reading lesson.

Post these posters created by The Teacher Next Door in your classroom as anchor charts for close reading lessons. They serve as a wonderful visual to explaining the process of close reading.

This is a wonderful and FREE resource for teachers. I love how it's organized by grade level, and skill and strategy. Teachers can set up a free account and download any of the passages. Every passage comes with comprehension questions and lesson plans. Choose from hundreds of short, high interest passages to do a close reading lesson.

That wraps up my post today. I wish you all the best of luck as you continue to build your literacy toolbox with resources and strategies. Feel free to comment with your ideas or questions.  I'd love for you to stop over at my blog and follow me, a brand new collaborative blog I am in called Adventures In Literacy Land, or find me on Facebook. Thanks again Tracey!

Credits:
Circle Badges by: Lindy du Plessis
Number Font in Circle Badges by: Jen Jones, Hello Literacy




Are you as ready as I am to work on Close Reading strategies in your classroom?  I know my littles are going to love using post-it notes as they read!  Thanks again, Emily!


If you are interest in being a guest blogger for Be My Guest Sunday, please email me! I'd love to feature you.  Don't forget to follow The Teacher's Chair to stay up to date with ideas, freebies, giveaways, guest bloggers and more!

Have a great week everyone :)