ABSTRACT
As students grapple with challenging material, it will profit their development as readers to study how specific comprehension skills aid them in greater understanding of what they read. This chapter offers Close Reading Frameworks on foundational comprehension skills, such as identifying the main idea, determining theme, summarizing, and analyzing characters. Students, however, should not only receive explicit instruction on the application of the Close Reading Frameworks but also be reminded that each additional review of the text allows them to more easily make meaning when they read. As with all the frameworks, comprehension objectives should be planned with a backward design in which the purpose of the lesson drives the re-readings as well as the accompanying questions and tasks, building upon one another and naturally progressing a reader's comprehension. The Close Reading Frameworks employ similar tasks, for example, circling, underlining, and coding key details. These common conventions encourage students not to focus unduly on the tasks themselves but to use these habits of practice with independence and concentrate more heavily on strengthening their comprehension skills.
