This is an informational text (two pages) on various animals that inhabit the savanna of Africa. Animals discussed are single paragraphs containing 3-4 sentences. A student multi-standard question packet is attached along with the teacher answer key.

Support your transitional readers (grades 2-3) to experience history by reading one of many You Choose books. Readers are transported in time to historic events. They are encouraged to engage with the text by making choices along the way and following the specific adventure paths that they choose. Further, prompt them to engage in close reading to understand the book's format and author's craft. Following the activity, students can create their won 'You Choose' story using Google Forms.

This is a resource for a student to use in picking out a choice book. It allows recording space for several brief interactions with books as well as easy ways to recall information via multiple learning styles.

Students close read biographies of the accused and the accusers and primary source transcripts of the Salem Witch Trials to accompany their reading of The Crucible. By examining the historical documents as well as literature, students grapple with the question of how mass hysteria occurs and what makes historical events worthy of dramatic interpretation. Students read and act out key scenes in the play as they research the historical figures. A final project asks students to come up with an idea for dramatizing a past event and to describe, in writing, why the event would make good drama and how it could be dramatized. A separate blog post entitled "Arthur Miller's The Crucible: Witch Hunting for the Common Core" provides further resources for teachers. http://edsitement.neh.gov/blog/2014/10/28/arthur-millers-crucible-witch-hunting-common-core

In this lesson, students will perform a comparative close reading of select informational texts from the Scottsboro Boys trials alongside sections from To Kill a Mockingbird. Students analyze the two trials and the characters and arguments involved in them to see how fictional “truth” both mirrors and departs from the factual experience that inspired it.

Thorough explanation of the how and why of text-dependent questions for close, analytic reading. Includes examples.

The Common Core State Standards for reading strongly focus on students gathering evidence, knowledge, and insight from what they read. Indeed, eighty to ninety percent of the Reading Standards in each grade require text dependent analysis; accordingly, aligned curriculum materials should have a similar percentage of text dependent questions.

As the name suggests, a text dependent question specifically asks a question that can only be answered by referring explicitly back to the text being read. It does not rely on any particular background information extraneous to the text nor depend on students having other experiences or knowledge; instead it privileges the text itself and what students can extract from what is before them.

Students will perform a close reading of Mark Antony's monologue by cutting the text by 50%. Students will evaluate use of tone within the speech and choose appropriate tone words for the monologue. Students will perform the monologue for the class.
This activity could be used with other monologues as well as speeches.

In this lesson student will perform a close reading of a scene from Shakespeare or other complex text (preferably a play). Student will edit the text by evaluating main idea, plot elements, tone, etc. Then, they will practice and perform their scene for their peers.

Students will create a visual character map examining connections between characters and developing inferences about character motivation in Shakespeare's . The resource contains links to the Folger edition of  as well as the handout on Constructing Character Connections.

This resource includes (1) a guided notetaking handout and (2) an accompanying powerpoint for Ray Bradbury's Fahreheit 451 that guides students in close reading for thematic evidence and analysis.

This 1-2 hour module provides participants with an introduction to the key shifts required by the Common Core State Standards for ELA / Literacy.

This 1-2 hour module provides participants with an introduction to the key shifts required by the Common Core State Standards for ELA / Literacy.

This new EDSITEment lesson provides a Common Core application for high school students for Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart. They will undertake close reading of passages in Things Fall Apart to evaluate the impact of Achebe’s literary techniques.

From the site:  Thanks to the Disney film, most students know the legend of Pocahontas. But is the story told in the 1995 movie accurate? In this lesson, students use evidence to explore whether Pocahontas actually saved John Smith's life and practice the ability to source, corroborate, and contextualize historical documents.Please note that there are two versions of the lesson plan available. The shorter version is designed for younger students.

In this lesson on the Gulf of Tonkin incident by teacher Valerie Ziegler, students practice sourcing documents and placing them in context of other historical events.  The lesson is accompanied by supporting downloadable materials and a video example.

Show Me by SCC English is a site that offers close reading/annotating of passages from classic literature including The Great Gatsby; MacBeth; King Lear; Hamlet; Pride and Prejudice. 
This resource is useful for modeling annotating a text for deeper meaning.

As a class, read the book Six Thinking Hats by Edward DeBono. This book provides a framework to help people think clearly and thoroughly by directing their thinking attention in one direction at a time--white hat facts, green hat creativity, yellow hat benefits, black cautions, red hat feelings, and blue hat process.
Six Thinking Hats is a powerful book that facilitates critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and creativity. It allows each person's unique point of view to be included and considered. 
This activity will test students on their knowledge of what was learned through reading and discussion.
This can be used as final assessment after reading the book.

Reading of "Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost

This three-day lesson plan leads students through a close reading and analysis of Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy. Students will analyze Hamlet's soliloquy in Act 3.1 by completing a close reading which will focus on word meaning and etymology.  Students will analyze two film versions of the soliloquy and track actor choices throughout using two column note-taking. Finally, students will write an argument analysis on the soliloquy.