Engaged, accountable reading requires students to interpret, and respond, often creatively. This article suggests several personalized ways to hold students accountable for their reading.

In this lesson, students will engage in a second guided reading of "Don't Need Friends" by Carolyn Crimi. Students will compare and contrast elements within the story and elements between two stories.

Provides a number of questions that students can ask themselves about a literary passage when doing a "Close Reading" and following this with an organized piece of writing. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.5

This is a lesson practicing close reading of digital text. It uses Diigo to digitally annotate text of an article about childhood obesity.

In this lesson, you will walk through the steps of close reading with your students and teach them how to complete each step.

In this lesson, Students will work within Google Classroom to read an article and complete activities based on each step of the close reading process.

Contains plans for two lessons that explain an inductive method for analyzing poetry. Seamus Heaney's "Blackberry Picking" is analyzed using this model as an example, although the method can be used on a variety of poems. In addition to objectives and standards, this instructional plan contains links to sites used in the lessons as well as assessment and reflection activities. L.9-10.4 Word Meaning, L.9-10.4a Context/Meaning, L.9-10.4d Verify meaning, L.9-10.5 Fig Lang/nuances, L.9-10.5a Figures of Speech, L.9-10.6 Vocabulary

Students first explore what close reading is and some of the strategies of close reading. They then put them into practice when reading an article of their choosing and share how they put them into practice. 

The 11th grade learning experience consists of 7 mostly month-long units aligned to the Common Core State Standards, with available course material for teachers and students easily accessible online. Over the course of the year there is a steady progression in text complexity levels, sophistication of writing tasks, speaking and listening activities, and increased opportunities for independent and collaborative work. Rubrics and student models accompany many writing assignments.Throughout the 11th grade year, in addition to the Common Read texts that the whole class reads together, students each select an Independent Reading book and engage with peers in group Book Talks. Students move from learning the class rituals and routines and genre features of argument writing in Unit 11.1 to learning about narrative and informational genres in Unit 11.2: The American Short Story. Teacher resources provide additional materials to support each unit.

In this unit, students will take a look at the historical vision of the American Dream as put together by our Founding Fathers. They will be asked: How, if at all, has this dream changed? Is this dream your dream? First students will participate in an American Dream Convention, acting as a particular historical figure arguing for his or her vision of the American Dream, and then they will write an argument laying out and defending their personal view of what the American Dream should be.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Students read and annotate closely one of the documents that they feel expresses the American Dream.
Students participate in an American Dream Convention, acting as a particular historical figure arguing his or her vision of the American Dream.
Students write a paper, taking into consideration the different points of view in the documents read, answering the question “What is the American Dream now?”
Students write their own argument describing and defending their vision of what the American Dream should be.

GUIDING QUESTIONS

These questions are a guide to stimulate thinking, discussion, and writing on the themes and ideas in the unit. For complete and thoughtful answers and for meaningful discussions, students must use evidence based on careful reading of the texts.

What has been the historical vision of the American Dream?
What should the American Dream be? (What should we as individuals and as a nation aspire to?)
How would women, former slaves, and other disenfranchised groups living during the time these documents were written respond to them?

BENCHMARK ASSESSMENT: Cold Read

During this unit, on a day of your choosing, we recommend you administer a Cold Read to assess students’ reading comprehension. For this assessment, students read a text they have never seen before and then respond to multiple-choice and constructed-response questions. The assessment is not included in this course materials.

In this lesson, students will share their work with their classmates and celebrate their accomplishments.

Comparing and contrasting works and looking for underlying themes and messages are at the heart of this multicultural lesson plan. Provides links to several background resources, and suggestions for assessment.

This guide is written for college students, but should be very useful for upper level high school students as well. The writer first describes fourteen steps to take in doing a close reading, then provides six pieces of advice on how to do a written analysis based on a close reading.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.5, RL.11-12.5 Choice of Text Structure, RI.11-12.2 Central IdeaS/Anal/Summ, RI.11-12.5 Evaluate text structure, RI.11-12.6 Eval Purpose, Rhetoric, Style

This site discusses the four types of reading: Linguistic, Semantic, Structural, and Cultural and offers a detailed example of close reading. RL.11-12.3 Auth choice story elem, RL.11-12.5 Choice of Text Structure

Written by a college professor, this site discusses five areas for students to work on to improve their writing. The areas are Thesis, Research, Close Reading, Style, and Mechanics. The author is clear and concise in his advice, and often uses humor to make his points. Well-done and thorough.

Aimed particularly towards writing about non-fiction, this site describes ways to think about what you read so you can write more clearly. Focuses on analyzing the "ways of thinking" that an author uses so you can evaluate the validity of their arguments. W.9-10.9b Research/Argum, W.11-12.9b US Doc Analysis