21 Cool Anchor Charts To Teach Close-Reading Skills

This anchor chart captures the gist of close reading. Use the checklist format to create bookmarks or laminated cheat sheets that students can use as tools as they read.

This visual helps students conceptualize "digging deep" into text.

Make this anchor chart a living document by switching out the sticky notes with examples from students' reading and writing.

These basic annotation marks are a good starting point for students who are learning to read with a pencil.

Use this second-grade anchor chart to set a purpose for reading, rereading and rereading again.

As they learn how to annotate, students can get into adding these think-marks alongside the words they've circled and key lines they've underlined.

Use models (like this one) to show students how to annotate and to avoid common pitfalls like the 100 percent highlighted page or the no-notes-in-the-margins annotators.

During a first read, this anchor chart is helpful for students who need support in figuring out what to jot down. After they retell their summary (in their own words), they can write those notes in the margins.

This drawing annotation is a technique that could be incorporated into kindergarten, first grade or elementary special education classes to help students visualize important information as they read.

This chart helps students identify exactly where they are in their close reading. At the end of each lesson, students can identify which step they're on and what they have yet to do.

The Accountable Ant keeps students talking within the four corners of the text.

Put this printable in your planning binder to remind you of the ultimate goal when you're planning close-reading lessons.

This chart, updated with students' sticky notes, can be used to reflect, first, how students are building their close-reading skills and then how they're applying those skills in different lessons, contexts and texts.

This poster will help you plan inventive close-reading lessons that have students zooming in on text through their reading behaviors and questions.

This teacher-focused chart will help you plan close-reading lessons with a reminder about what's most important and what to avoid in close reading.

It can be difficult to show off student reading skills, but this bulletin board showcases how students are color coding text and finding proof in their reading.

Students develop independence with this chart that outlines six effective close-reading steps.

Students can use the general questions in this wheel to develop their own text-dependent questions for each story or article they read.

This bulletin board highlights the ways students create text-dependent questions, and showcases how students are applying those TDQs in their work.

As students discuss and write about text, this anchor chart shows them how to use evidence-based transitions and sentence starters.

This bulletin board display shows students how to cite evidence in big, bold ways.