Close Reading in Elementary Classrooms

Authors: Douglas Fisher, Professor of Educational Leadership, San Diego State University
Nancy Frey Professor of Education at San Diego State University
Article:
Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2012). Close reading in elementary schools. The Reading Teacher, 66, 179-188.

Article Overview:
Close reading has typically been used at the high school and college level, so there wasn’t much research
at the elementary school levels prior to Fisher and Frey. Close reading is an instructional method that
teaches students to critically examine a text through repeated readings with specific focuses designed to
highlight the deeper structures of the text. The deep structure helps readers understand the author’s
purpose, how the ideas presented connect to other texts and the ways the reader can use this
information to deepen comprehension.

In this article Fisher and Frey aimed to determine whether close reading was an appropriate
instructional tool for elementary students as well as determine modifications that may need to be made
at these grade levels in comparison to that of the high school and college students. To conduct this
study, Fisher and Frey identified 14 elementary school teachers to participate as observers and ten
secondary educators whose classrooms would serve as demonstration classrooms. The secondary
teachers consisted of five English teachers, three social studies teachers, and two science teachers who
were selected based on their approaches to teaching.

Field notes were collected following each of the ten observations of secondary teachers as well as each
of the discussions between the observing and demonstrating teachers. The final field notes collected
were from the 14 elementary classrooms of the observing teachers as they began implementing close
reading in their own practice. Through the notes from the ten observations, Fisher and Frey identified
six key features of close reading that differed from most reading instruction in elementary schools. Each
feature is noted below. They determined that these differences would have to be addressed before
close reading could successfully be developed in elementary schools.

Short Passages:
Upon observation it was noted that the texts used in elementary classrooms were shorter than
the observers expected, ranging in length from three paragraphs to two pages. One of the
demonstrators was asked about the length of the text she chose and she stated that she had
her class read longer pieces on their own, while using the shorter pieces during class to teach
specific skills and dig deeper into the text.

Complex Texts:
The observers were surprised to find the difficulty of the texts was relatively high. This was
important to note as those they assigned for homework were typically a bit easier than the
texts reviewed in class.

Limited Frontloading:
The most surprising feature that was identified was the lack of frontloading of information
before the students started reading the texts. The teachers set a purpose for the reading but did
not engage in lengthy conversations about the meaning of the text or what the student should
expect to find in the text.
 Repeated readings:
In each and every observation it was noticed that the students read and reread the text several
times. Each time they read the text the teacher provided a purpose that influenced the repeated
reading.

Text-dependent questions:
It was observed that the questions the demonstration teachers asked required students to
respond with evidence from the text. These questions prompted students to reread the text and
have conversations in small groups to determine the correct responses and corresponding
textual evidence.

Annotation:
The observers noticed that the secondary students were regularly underlining, circling, and
making notes in the margins of the text. One of the demonstration teachers explained that this
allows them to walk around the classroom and notice patterns, like students circling the same
information, which led to opportunities for teachers and students to model and think aloud to
share their reasoning.

After the observation of the secondary teachers using close reading in their classrooms, the elementary
school teachers met to discuss the ways that close reading could be implemented in their classrooms.
The elementary school teachers agreed that the selected texts should be complex (at grade level or
above grade level), the passages should be short and include a wide range of genres, that the text
should be reread several times, and lastly that evidence from the passages should be included in the
students’ responses.

The strategies for who was going to read the text differed based on grade level. The K-3 teachers tended
to want to read their texts out loud to the students so that they could choose a text that was more
complex without having to worry whether the students could read it or not. For follow-up questions
those students reread the text themselves searching for evidence. Whereas, the 4-6 grade teachers
wanted their students to read it themselves first and read it out loud afterward. The thought was that
they could challenge themselves on their own at first, enabling the teacher to evaluate challenges that
arose and guide discussions that way.

The question of whether to frontload the students with information was one that was not fully agreed
upon. However, they agreed on two criteria. The first being that frontloading does not remove the need
to read the text. And secondly, that frontloading does not take readers away from the text to their own
experiences too soon. They all agreed that the common core standards state that texts can be complex
because of the level of the meanings in the text, the structure, or the specific language that is used. They
agreed that the text needed to be analyzed prior to teaching to determine if background knowledge is
necessary to understanding the text.

The next area the elementary teachers discussed was the development of text dependent questions.
The group agreed that this requires that the teachers read the text in advance before discussing it with
the students to identify questions that specifically focus on the text and force students to pull evidence
directly from the text. There was agreement on six categories of questions that should be asked 1)
general understanding questions 2) key detail questions 3) vocabulary and text structure questions 4)
authors purpose questions 5) inferential questions and 6) opinion and intertextual questions.
The last area that was discussed by the group of elementary school teachers was teaching annotation to
the students. One of the initial questions asked was, “If we teach students to annotate will they start
doing it in books that they shouldn’t and get in trouble?” Another teacher worried that her students
already had a hard-enough time understanding the text and worried that they would underline and
circle everything, making nothing standout. Annotation is commonly used in high school and college
courses, however less so in the elementary and middle schools. In general, annotation has been found
to be an essential component of analytical reading and useful for students to use in analytic writing.
Students are expected to use their annotations to formulate arguments, analyze information, and make
connections within and outside of the text. These annotations are often used in class discussions,
collected by teachers for grading, and used in the development of students’ written products. Taking
this into account, the group of elementary school teachers came up with a list of specific annotations for
each grade level.

Kindergarten - Using wiki sticks to underline key ideas in big books and develop notes collaboratively as
a group.
Grade 1- All of the above plus using wiki sticks independently in personal books.
Grade 2- Introduce writing instruments and phase out wiki sticks, continue with the interactive writing
of notes.
Grade 3 – The addition of underlining major points in the text, use of sticky notes for key ideas and
circling for portions that are confusing or unknown.
Grade 4- The addition of exclamation points for things that surprised the students as well as single word
comments in the margins.
Grade 5- Addition of a question mark for questions the students have during reading and writing of
questions in the margins.
Grade 6- Addition of an arrow indicating the student makes a connection to something in the text or an
experience outside the text.

This group of teachers came up with the idea (for the older elementary school students) to photocopy a
page or two from the text and have the students affix it to a legal sized sheet of paper to create a blank
boarder that could be used to make notes in the margins. These could later be used for discussions with
the class.

Conclusion:
The purpose of this investigation article was to follow a group of elementary school teachers as they
observed close reading in the secondary classroom, using what they observed to implement close
reading in their elementary classrooms. The elementary school teachers were able to make
modifications to what they observed in the secondary school classrooms to best cater to the needs of
their younger students. This is a topic that many elementary school teachers were less familiar with and
one that requires more work before fully understanding how it will work in elementary school
classrooms. However, the thinking of the researchers is that we may be able to achieve higher reading
comprehension in this young population than we previously thought possible through the
implementation of close reading.

Practical Application:
In my seventh-grade classroom we regularly use close reading strategies to build comprehension. In
Fisher’s observational study he encourages the use of short passages. We use complex, short passages
in the classroom to help students move beyond a surface level understanding and to help them identify
deeper meanings of the text. For example, we compared two short essays “Stop Rewarding Bad
Behavior” and “Reality TV Can Educate and Inspire” to further analyze points and a counterpoints in the
argument surrounding the value of reality television.

The article by Fisher and Frey supports the use of complex texts in close reading, repeated reading. In
my classroom, following the initial reading we examined each of the author’s claims and identified the
point and counterpoint. These two essays are considered complex texts based on the language structure
and because they allowed us to explore the larger, over-arching idea of how different perspectives can
have positive or negative impacts on our society. Additionally, the topic of reality television also
contributed to the complexity of the texts since most students were unfamiliar with the wide range of
television shows considered reality television.

In my class room I typically use limited front loading when we do a close read. I like to start by
establishing a clear purpose for having the students read the text. If the concept is completely unfamiliar
to my students, I will provide a limited amount context just to help them get started. For example, In
the text “Thank you Ma’am,” I helped my students understand the distinctive dialect spoken, and thus
written, during the historical period. Through multiple readings, I lead students to critically examine the
implicit teachings of kindness and people’s ability to change over time.

Text dependent questions helped students identify relevant evidence from the text. For example, in
“Thank You Ma’am” a general understanding question was why Mrs. Jones avoided asking certain
questions of Roger. The students ultimately concluded she did that to gain his trust and at same time
avoid embarrassing him. Text dependent questions also required them to closely analyze specific text to
gain a deeper understanding of the theme and author’s purpose of the story. Another text dependent
question posed to help students identify the implicit messages from the author was asking them to
identify and explain the emotional changes Mrs. Jones and Roger went through over the course of the
story.

Annotations that we use regularly in class also aided students in closely reading the text. I found that
annotating the text did help students to slow down and look at the text more critically. It also let me
know when my students were having difficulty with different aspects of the text, and what those specific
difficulties were. This allowed me to probe to determine if the students were familiar with the
information in a different context, or if the information was conceptually new to them.

I feel that close reading is an important tool in the classroom. This article has shed light on the
importance of using the strategy at the elementary level as well. The concept of close reading was a
fairly new strategy when we began implementing it in our classrooms at the middle school level. To
date, incorporating this strategy has helped not only myself but my colleagues to take a deeper look at
the instructional strategies we use and what the associated assessment data suggests about their
effectiveness on student achievement.