Close Reading and Big-Picture Reading
What Is The Meaning Of Close Reading?
1-Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
2. Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.
3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.
4. Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyzing how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.
5. Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole.
What Is The Goal Of Close Reading?
The goal of any close reading is the following:
- an ability to understand the general content of a text even when you don’t understand every word or concept in it.
- an ability to spot techniques that writers use to get their ideas and feelings across and to explain how they work.
- an ability to judge whether techniques the writer has used to succeed or fail and an ability to compare and contrast the successes and failures of different writers’ techniques.
What Are Some Examples Of Close Reading Questions?
Vocabulary and Diction:How do the important words relate to one another? Does a phrase here appear elsewhere in the story or poem?
Do any words seem oddly used to you? Why? Is that a result of archaic language? Or deliberate weirdness?
Do any words have double meanings? Triple meanings? What are all the possible ways to read it?
Discerning Patterns:How does this pattern fit into the pattern of the book as a whole?
How could this passage symbolize something in the entire work? Could this passage serve as a microcosm, a little picture, of what’s taking place in the whole narrative or poem?
What is the sentence rhythm like? Short and choppy? Long and flowing? Does it build on itself or stay at an even pace? How does that structure relate to the content?
Can you identify paradoxes in the author’s thought or subject?
What is left out or silenced? What would you expect the author to say that the author seems to have avoided or ignored? What could the author have done differently—and what’s the effect of the current choice?
Examples Of Close Reading Questions
Let’s consider my favorite, “Spring.” Frog wants Toad to wake up from hibernation to play on a nice April spring day. Toad resists all entreaties to wake up and play. The climax of the story comes here:
“But, Toad,” cried Frog, “you will miss all the fun!”
“Listen, Frog” said Toad. “How long have I been asleep?”
“You have been asleep since November,” said Frog.
“Well then,” said Toad, “a little more sleep will not hurt me. Come back
again and wake me up at about half-past May. Good night, Frog.”
“But, Toad,’ said Frog, “I will be lonely until then.”
Toad did not answer. He had fallen asleep.
The frog looked at Toad’s calendar. The November page was still on top.
The frog tore off the November page.
He tore off the December page.
And the January page, the February page, and the March page.
He came to the April page. Frog tore off the April page too.
Then Frog ran back to Toad’s bed. “Toad, Toad, wake up. It is May now.”
“What?” said Toad. “Can it be May so soon?
“Yes,” said Frog. “Look at your calendar.”
Toad looked at the calendar. The May page was on top.
“Why, it is May!” said Toad as he climbed out of bed.
Then he and Frog ran outside to see how the world was looking in the Spring.
All sorts of interesting questions can be re-raised here – all of which demand a close (re-) reading:
Why did Frog try to wake Toad?
How selfish or selfless was he being?
How did Frog eventually get Toad to get up?
Why did he do that (i.e. trick him)?
What convinced Toad?
Why did it convince him?
Is Frog being a good friend here?
Is Toad? (The title of the book, of course, is Frog and Toad Are Friends).
Notice that we could ask the following reader-response-like questions:
- A. Have you ever been tricked like that, or tricked someone else? Why did you trick them or did they trick you?
- B. Do real friends trick friends? Is Frog really being a good friend here?
The first question pair is less fruitful to consider less ‘close’ than the second pair.