Close Reading in Second Grade

In Falling in Love with Close Reading, Christopher Lehman and Kate Roberts define close reading as “an interaction between the reader and the text.” They explain the three crucial steps of close reading. First, students must read through lenses such as characters, relationships, setting, or time period to gather evidence. Then, they must use lenses to find patterns. Some questions they might ask themselves are: Which details fit together? How do they fit together? Lastly, students use the patterns to develop a new understanding of the text. Below is how this played out in a second grade classroom. 

Step in Close Reading Process	Observations
Read through lenses	Students read through the lens of character actions as Mrs. C read Harriett and the Garden. While Ms. C was reading, students put a thumb up when Harriet did something important. Half way through, students turned and talked with their partner about what Harriet did. At the end they discussed what other things Harriet did in the second half of the book. Ms. C wrote the actions on the board.
Use lenses to find patterns	Students used a sentence frame to describe how Harriet felt based on her actions. “In the beginning… In the end…” According to the students, in the beginning Harriet was scared, shy, ashamed, upset, and worried.  In the end, Harriet felt proud because she made things right and solved the problem by herself.
Use patterns to develop a new understanding of the text

Seeing close reading in action made me think. What if the focus in classrooms was no longer finding evidence to answer questions as a means to obtaining exemplary scores on the state assessments each year? What if, instead, the focus in reading was to form conclusions based on an analysis of evidence that students gather? I believe that kids would grow to become more independent readers who not only analyze the books they are reading, but also media and social constructs around them.