Thlog # 2: Shelley's Quick Guide/ Close Reading

On Monday, we received to readings to take home: Shelly’s Quick Guides for Writing Teachers and How to do a Close Reading. In Shelley’s Quick Guides, the article listed a number of mini assignments that students may complete in order to be more well prepared in discussion of what they are reading. The reading and writing techniques listed are: Predict and Annotate, Opinionnaire, Freewrite, SQ3R, KWL, Two-Column Log, Concept Map, among others. The only ones that I were familiar with from earlier years of education were KWL and Predict and Annotate. There are so many techniques listed in the article that are new to me, and it was really helpful to sit back and analyze each, one by one. Now in future readings, I can practice these techniques, and better prepare myself for discussions of readings and making a written analysis of such. In the other article, How to do a Close Reading, I learned how to “develop a deep understanding and a precise interpretation of a literary passage that is based first and foremost on the words themselves” (Kneece, 1). What the author means is that, you must re-read the passage, define key vocab words, spot rhetorical devices, figure out the tone, know the theme and construct a thesis, among other things. Doing this will allow to take small parts of information, and move it into larger groupings to get a thorough understanding of the reading. Along with the tips from SQGWTHCW, I can closely dissect a reading for its theme and purpose and not take it for what it is on paper.