Close Reading

Non - Fiction Close Reading:

Before teaching close reading at third level, it is useful to learn about Author Purpose and then Fake News (many resources available online). This teaches them to be critical about what they are reading.

If children can identify the author's purpose for writing the text, they are better able to analyse and explain the author's craft such as word choice, as this links to their purpose for writing.  Many non-fiction texts have a dual purpose, such as inform and persuade. If the children do not learn to identify the author's purpose, the fact that an informative text also includes persuassion may be lost on the children; consequently, they will not be able to analyse the author's craft accurately as it relates to the persuade purpose.