Teaching Skills for Complex Text: Deepening Close Reading in the Classroom

Tired of hearing about “complex text”? Bothered by the pushy messages about “challenge”? This book is for you! Unlike the many other materials on text complexity, this one focuses on specific comprehension skills that students need in order to really engage with text. This book will help elementary school teachers equip their students with practical tools and understandings of the structures and conventions that allow them to excel, including concrete tools, passages, games, lessons, and examples to teach anaphora, connectives, paragraph structure, evidence-gathering (fiction and nonfiction), and text challenge. A final chapter specifies how to stretch students in texts while attending to their stamina, executive skills, and interests.

Book Features:

• Text-based lessons for grades 3–5
• Opening vignettes that provide classroom context for each skill
• Key objectives and Common Core Standards.
• Think-aloud language to guide strategy development.
• Research-based strategies and games.

Heidi Anne E. Mesmer is an associate professor of literacy education at Virginia Tech.