Close readings allow primary students to engage with complex texts. Through repeated reading, students build a deep understanding of the text and critical thinking skills.

Get Close to Think Deeply: Creating Primary-Level Close Readings

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Tracking and Supporting Student Learning with Kidwatching
Grades
K - 8
Strategy Guide
In this strategy guide, you'll learn how to use kidwatching to track and support student learning. Teachers observe and take notes on students' understanding of skills and concepts and then use the observations to determine effective strategies for future instruction.

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Developing Persuasive Writing Strategies
Grades
6 - 12
Strategy Guide
This strategy guide describes the techniques used in effective persuasive writing and shares activities you can use to help students understand and use persuasion in their writing and critical thinking.

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Making the Reading Process Visible through Performance Assessment
Grades
6 - 12
Strategy Guide
Effective differentiation begins with purposeful assessment. In this strategy guide, you'll learn how to construct an authentic performance-based reading assessment that will give you access to students' thinking before, during, and after reading.

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Using Partner Talk to Strengthen Student Collaboration and Understanding
Grades
K - 8
Strategy Guide
In this strategy guide, you'll learn about Partner Talk—a way to provide students with another learning opportunity to make learning their own through collaboration and discussion.

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Introducing Ideas and Vocabulary with the Concept Sort
Grades
K - 8
Strategy Guide
A Concept Sort is a vocabulary and comprehension strategy used with students to introduce new topics and/or familiarize students with new vocabulary.

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Using Paired Reading to Increase Fluency and Peer Cooperation
Grades
K - 6
Strategy Guide
In this strategy, students read aloud to each other, pairing more fluent readers with less fluent readers. This strategy can also be used to pair older students with younger students to create "reading buddies."

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Teaching with Zooming Slideshows through Prezi
Grades
6 - 12
Strategy Guide
Through Prezi, a web application, students create "zooming" presentations for various purposes, such as presenting research, defending an opinion, or sharing a digital story.

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Bringing Lessons to Life with Animoto
Grades
5 - 12
Strategy Guide
Using Animoto, a free Web 2.0 tool, students can develop short digital videos that include music, photos, video clips, and text as well as share their creations electronically.

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Speak to Me: Teaching with Voki
Grades
6 - 12
Strategy Guide
Through Voki, a Web 2.0 tool, students create customizable avatars for class presentations for various purposes, such as presenting biographical information, expressing an opinion, or reading a poem.

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Shared Reading Opportunities for Direct Literacy Instruction
Grades
K - 12
Strategy Guide
Shared reading affords teachers the opportunity to teach reading strategies in larger groups. The shared text and teacher support offer unique opportunities for instruction.

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Supporting Students As They Read Independently
Grades
K - 12
Strategy Guide
This guide includes basic theory and practice for supporting students reading independently, which is the last instructional context along the gradual release of responsibility.

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Using Guided Reading to Develop Student Reading Independence
Grades
K - 12
Strategy Guide
This guide presents basic structures for implementing guided reading, which involves working with small groups of children possessing similar strategies and challenges when encountering new text.

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Teacher Read-Aloud That Models Reading for Deep Understanding
Grades
K - 12
Strategy Guide
This guide describes the basic elements for reading aloud to students in ways that demonstrate thoughtful and deep interactions with the text.

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Promoting Student-Directed Inquiry with the I-Search Paper
Grades
8 - 12
Strategy Guide
The sense of curiosity behind research writing gets lost in some school-based assignments. This Strategy Guide provides the foundation for cultivating interest and authority through I-Search writing, including publishing online.

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Inquiry Charts (I-Charts)
Grades
3 - 12
Strategy Guide
This guide introduces I-Charts, a strategy that enables students to generate meaningful questions about a topic and organize their writing.

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Question the Author (QtA)
Grades
3 - 12
Strategy Guide
In this guide, you'll be introduced to a strategy that requires students to challenge their understanding and solidify their knowledge while reading a text.

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Exit Slips
Grades
K - 12
Strategy Guide
This strategy guide introduces the concept of using Exit Slips in the classroom to help students reflect on what they have learned and express what or how they are thinking about the new information. Exit Slips easily incorporate writing into the content area classroom and require students to think critically.

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Power Notes
Grades
6 - 12
Strategy Guide
The strategy examined in this Strategy Guide teaches students an outlining technique to help them differentiate between main ideas and details in their reading and writing.

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Performing Poetry
Grades
K - 5
Strategy Guide
Performing poetry incorporates oral reading, literature, and the performing arts. This strategy can benefit content area readers, English language learners, or learners with special needs.