Close Reading Notes

3 levels of reading

1 Reading what’s on the line: “The Literal Level”– find meaning directly in the text. You may answer questions

such as “who,” “what,” “when,” and “where.”

3 levels of reading2 Reading between the lines – “Figurative Meaning” • interpret and infer what isn’t literally being said but

what is hidden within the meaning of the text. You may consider what a passage represents, suggests, or personifies. You are also analyzing what you are reading. You may interpret, classify, compare, contrast, and even find patterns.

3 Reading beyond the lines—move beyond the text to connect to universal meaning. You may consider how the text relates to your life. You will consider what kind of perceptions about life the author is communicating to you.

Close reading

• Becomes easier the more you do it 

• Helps you to understand the text itself as well as what the text suggests.

• Helps you grow as a critical thinker in all contexts.

Analyzing Author’s craft: • Why Word choice and word arrangement?• Very important vocabulary words to learn?• What questions do I have?• How can I chunk larger sections into smaller

sections?• What is the author’s purpose and how is her/ his

purpose being achieved through the writing?• Annotations, annotations, annotations. . . . .

Annotations . . .• When you can, write everywhere: margins,

within lines, etc… include questions, comments, and mark words you don’t know.

• When we can’t write in our books, use post-its or carefully annotated notes in notebook.

Dialectical journal

• Like annotation, but more organized.• Include note taking (or the piece of the text

you are referring to) and note making (what you want to say about that piece of text). It is also helpful to include a page and paragraph number so you know where to find it in the book.

Graphic Organizer• The most common graphic organizer we

think of is the Venn diagram, but there are many others to help us think….

Writing about close reading:

You have to reach a deeper understanding of the text, or you will simply end up summarizing the text.

As you perform the close reading, consider the topics discussed here in your notes. . . . Critical writing is only a result of critical reading.

• This is what it may look like: