Close Reading Analysis PDF

Close Reading Analysis  2 What is Close Reading? ✘ Close Reading is a skill that requires the careful and deliberate reading of a text. ✘ It also requires you to pay attention to the most important details of a text. ✘...

Close Reading Analysis  2 What is Close Reading? ✘ Close Reading is a skill that requires the careful and deliberate reading of a text. ✘ It also requires you to pay attention to the most important details of a text. ✘ We can take these skills to the next level with a Close Reading Analysis, where we are: - Making logical inferences from the text; - Citing specific textual evidence; - Supporting conclusions drawn from the text.  3 Understanding Analysis ✘ Close Reading is NOT skimming for answers, reading and forgetting, just finding main ideas, or just annotating. ✘ The goal is to give you the tools necessary to analyze something complex. ✘ So far, we’ve been getting familiar with the text of Romeo & Juliet and its pace – the “Into” portion of a Close Reading Analysis.  4 Going Into, Through, and Beyond Text ✘ Getting “into” a text includes a range of activities that create interest and motivation [e.g. Short Stories, the Stratford Festival performance, etc.] ✘ Going “through” the text includes highlighting, asking questions, and discussion. We’ve been doing a little bit of that with Scene Notes. ✘ Going “beyond” the text involves deepening your understanding and gaining new insights AFTER a text has been read.  5 Why do we Analyze? ✘ Once again, close reading requires: - Understanding the purpose of reading - Understanding the Author’s purpose for writing; - Looking for and understanding systems of meaning; - Engaging in a text while reading; - Formulating questions and seeking answers.  6 Step 1: Understand the Passage ✘ When analyzing a text, you should start by understanding the context: - Answer who, what, where, and when; - Look up unfamiliar words in the dictionary; - Read to understand the passage and to understand how it fits with the text as a whole; ✘ You’re driving question in Step 1 should be “What is happening in this passage?”  7 Step 2: Clarity & Explanation ✘ In Step 2, your analysis goes deeper: - Notice the small but significant details by making notes or – when applicable – highlighting, circling, and underlining. - Pay close attention to how phrases and wording are used to create significant meaning [HINT: look for things like Imagery]; - Pay close attention to how literary devices are used to create meaning.  8 Step 3: Analyze ✘ Step 3 is where you bring everything together: - Explain how phrases and wording are used to enhance or create meaning; - Explain how literary devices are used to enhance or create meaning; - Look at how this passage develops the literary elements of the text – focus on characterization, conflict, theme, setting, and/or mood.