close reading

Products to Support Close Reading Pre-K to Eighth Grade

Common Core State Standards have brought close reading into the experience of K through 12. Close reading has been broadly defined as an interaction between a reader and text that involves observation and interpretation. This equates to rereading the text, reflecting on it and coming to new conclusions and understanding of the ideas being presented. Close reading is said to require intensive analysis of text to determine what it is saying, how it is saying it and what it means.

Sound like a tall order for young children? Not necessarily, with the help of guides and resourceful tools from Really Good Stuff®. We pride ourselves on offering innovative products that align with standards and are enjoyable for kids at the same time.

For example, take a look at our Smart Start Comprehension Activity Cards designed for grades 3 to 8, which give students 18 comprehension strategies with kid friendly definitions, as well as Start Smart prompts for thinking, talking and writing about what they read. In addition, 12 standards-based comprehension question cards are provided for use with any literature and informational text. The cards, which are kid-friendly and easy to understand, cover all the CCSS comprehension standards and many speaking and listening standards.

For intermediate grades 3 to 5, our ELA Toolbox is a comprehensive, handy kit that includes an assortment of innovative, hands-on ELA tools, including colored overlays, three different kinds of hand-held tools for helping readers highlight clues and evidence in text, fluency timers and a set of color-coded, magnetic word-building tiles with base words, prefixes and suffixes.

Giving Students a Strong ELA Start

To begin students on language skills early, the Feed Me Rhyming Words Chips challenge kids to sort out chips with words that rhyme. It's a good way to give children at the first and second grade levels practice in sounding out words to self-check whether they rhyme.

The tools we provide for instructing and supporting close reading cover all grades pre-K to 8, offering teachers all kinds of opportunities to teach and reinforce student understanding of what they read. Of course, this impacts their success in all subjects.

These learning tools can be demonstrated online for remote/distance learning situations. Parents can lend support by also purchasing these products, which allow them to work with their child on reading at home.