Citing evidence: what the text says and what it suggests
Reading · 6th grade
Close reading: reading a text twice
By the end, Owen will be able to read a short text twice, first for what happens and second slowly for how the author tells it, noticing small details that carry the meaning.
About 35 minutes to teach
Teach the idea
Close reading means reading a text more than once, on purpose.
The first time through is for what happens. You read straight ahead the way anyone reads a good story, without stopping to puzzle over every line. When you finish, you should be able to say what happened in a few plain sentences.
The second time is slower and done with a pencil. Now you look at how the author tells it: who speaks, who stays quiet, which small details come back. A short line of dialogue, a gesture, or something said twice can matter more than it first seemed.
A close reader asks of any detail: why is this here, and what would be lost without it?
In the story printed below for Owen, the grandmother says only a few words. On a second reading those words turn out to hold the whole lesson. You will see that together after the second reading.
Do it together
Owen reads:The Calf Who Wouldn't Walk
531 words
Eli Marsh was twelve, and he had eleven days to teach a calf to walk.
The calf's name was Clover. She was a young heifer, fawn-colored, with dark eyes and long lashes, and she was going to the county fair on the second Saturday in August. At the fair, Eli would lead her around the show ring in front of a judge. The judge would watch how she stood, how she walked, and how she behaved on the halter. The halter was the problem.
Every morning after chores, Eli buckled the rope halter onto Clover's head and led her out of the barn at Hollow Creek, his family's farm. Every morning, she walked three steps, stopped, and planted all four hooves in the dirt like fence posts.
Eli pulled. Clover leaned back. Eli pulled harder. Clover leaned back harder. She weighed five hundred pounds, and he weighed ninety-one.
On the fourth morning, his grandmother came out to the fence with her coffee. Nana had farmed Hollow Creek for fifty years, and she did not talk much. She watched Eli haul on the rope until his face was red.
"She's not a wheelbarrow," said Nana.
Then she went back inside.
Eli didn't know what that meant, so he pulled harder. On the fifth morning, he tried a bucket of grain, holding it in front of Clover's nose and walking backward. Clover followed the bucket for ten steps, ate the grain, and planted her feet again. On the sixth morning, he tried shouting. On the seventh, the rope burned a red stripe across his palm, and he sat down in the grass and didn't get up.
Nana came out to the fence again.
"She's not a wheelbarrow," she said. "You don't push her and you don't pull her. You walk with her."
"I am walking with her," said Eli. "She won't walk with me."
Nana set her coffee cup on a fence post. She came through the gate, took the lead rope from Eli, and did something he had never thought of. She didn't stand in front of Clover at all. She stood beside her, at her left shoulder, and held the rope loose, with a little slack hanging down. She looked straight ahead, the way you would if you were just going for a walk. Then she walked.
Clover walked too.
They went all the way to the end of the lane and back, Nana's boots and Clover's hooves moving together. Nana never once looked back at the calf.
"When you stand in front and pull," Nana said, handing him the rope, "she thinks you're fighting her. So she fights back. Stand where she can see you're going the same way she is."
For the next four mornings, Eli walked at Clover's shoulder with the rope loose. Some days she stopped anyway. When she did, Eli stopped too, waited, and started again. By the eleventh morning, she walked beside him all the way to the road.
At breakfast, Eli held up his hand to show the rope burn, which was almost healed. "You could have just told me on the first day," he said.
Nana buttered her toast. "I did," she said.
1. Have Owen read the story under the heading "Owen reads" straight through once, out loud or silently, without stopping to mark anything. When Owen finishes, ask Owen to tell you in two or three sentences what happens. Listen without adding or explaining yet.
2. Now have Owen read the same story a second time, slowly, with a pencil in hand. Ask Owen to notice who speaks, who stays quiet, and any small detail that returns or seems to matter. Owen may lightly underline a few words or put a small mark in the margin.
3. After the second reading, ask: What does Nana say the first time Nana comes to the fence? What does Nana say the second time? Why might those few words matter more than they seemed on the first reading?
4. Ask Owen to pick one small detail a quick first reading might skip. Why do you think the author put it there? What would change if it were missing?
5. When you both feel ready, go on to the Together activity printed below so Owen can try the same two-reading approach with a page from a book on your shelf.
Activity
Together: Two readings. Choose a page or two from a book on your shelf, a story Owen hasn't read in a while. First reading: Owen reads it aloud straight through, closes the book, and tells what happens. Second reading: Owen reads it again silently with a pencil and three scraps of paper as bookmarks, marking a word that repeats, a small action, and a line someone says. For each mark, Owen answers out loud, "Why is this here?" Last, Owen names one thing that is clear now and was missed the first time.
Tip If Owen races through the second reading, gently slow the reading down and point to one short line of Nana's and ask why it is there. If Owen is stuck on what Nana means, have Owen reread just Nana's two lines and the moment Nana takes the rope, then ask what changed when Nana walked beside Clover instead of in front.
On paper
Worksheet
Two Readings
The worksheet, as it prints
Reading · Worksheet
Two Readings
Use the story "The Calf Who Wouldn't Walk" to answer each question.
Name: Owen
Score: ____ / 7
1. Write what happens in the story in two sentences, the way you would after a first reading.
2. Copy what Nana says on the fourth morning, and write what she means.
3. Why doesn't Eli understand Nana the first time?
4. Copy one small detail a first reading might skip that shows how hard Eli has been trying.
5. Write two things Nana does differently from Eli when she leads Clover.
6. At breakfast Nana says, "I did." Write what she means, and copy the earlier words that prove it.
7. What would happen if Nana had come out on the first day and led Clover for him?
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