Close Reading: How we interact with text 

When you read through the text, you will notice boxes that ask you to look a little deeper at what
you just read.

You will see the following throughout our text:

Connection:

This makes me think of _______________________________ because ________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

You will fill in the sentence in the connection box when you see it in the text.

When we read a text we should try to think about where we’ve seen something like it in our own
life. Maybe we have a connection to the way the character is acting, maybe we have a
connection to where the story is taking place, maybe we’ve learned about the information
before, maybe we’ve read another text that reminds us of this one. By making connections, we
keep our minds active and understand the text more.

Ask 2 Questions:

1.

2.

It’s as simple as that. When you see this box in the text, you will go through the section you
have finished reading and come up with two questions. These could be questions that you
already know the answer to (questions you could ask to a classmate on a quiz) or they could be
questions you want to know the answer to.
 Translate:

In this box, you will translate (or summarize) what you have just read. This box checks for
understanding and makes you really think about what just happened in the section that you
read.

Inference:

Inference ​is a fancy word that asks you to look deeper or “read between the lines.” Many times
authors will write creative sentences that don’t tell the reader exactly what’s happening. For
example an author might write,

“​She looked out the window, sighed, shrugged into her coat, and grabbed her umbrella​.”

What was the weather like?

What words helped you figure this out?

Is the character happy or sad about this weather?

What words helped you figure this out?

These are all inference questions. Nowhere in the text does the author tell you specifically what
the weather is like (raining or cloudy) and nowhere does he say that the girl is sad - instead he
uses words like “sighed” and “shrugged.”

These, along with text specific questions, will be our guide to closer reading of ​Tales From the
Odyssey.