Preparing Drama Students to Close Read

What is close reading?

Close reading is an analysis tool. Students read a text multiple times for in-depth comprehension:

• First read: WHAT is being said in the text? What QUESTIONS do you have?
• Second read: HOW is the text written?
• Third read: WHY does the author present the text a certain way?

Reading a text multiple times helps students understand not only what is being said but how it’s being said and why. It takes a student from story and character to drawing conclusions on author intention. Close reading is a great way to help students develop critical thinking skills. It teaches students to: 

• Engage with a text. With each particular read, students have to annotate/make notes.
• Be selective. We can’t highlight everything in the text, only the most important elements.
• Make educated decisions. All conclusions and opinions have to be backed up with a text example.

Why should you use close reading in the drama classroom?

Close reading goes hand in hand with script analysis. You want your students to get in the habit of reading scenes and monologues multiple times. It’s not just about the content of the text, it’s about sentence structure and punctuation. It’s about the “why” of the text. Close reading is a text-dependent exercise. You don’t use research to support an answer, you use the text. When student actors and directors make decisions about their character or their vision, we want them to support their decisions with examples from their script.

Where do you start?

When you begin the close reading process, take baby steps. Choose a play title and have students read it three times, and annotate the title for each read. For example, look at the title Death of a Salesman. 

• First read: WHAT is being said in the text? What QUESTIONS do you have?
  • There’s a salesman and he dies. First impression is that the play is a drama rather than a comedy.
  • Salesman is probably the main character?
  • Why do they die?
• Second read: HOW is the text written?
  • It’s “a” salesman rather than “the” salesman. That’s probably important.
  • We don’t know the name of the salesman. Does that tell us something about the personality of the character? They’re not specific?
• Third read: WHY does the author present the text a certain way?
  • The author chooses to tell us that the main character dies. Why?

You  could also use a single line from the first scene of the play, or find a production photo from the play and analyze it:

• What is happening: What details can you see in the photo? What are the relationships?
• How is it happening: How has the director blocked the moment? Is there a power struggle? Who has the higher status? How are lighting, set, and costuming used?
• Why is it happening: Why has the director chosen to present the scene in this way? What conclusions can you draw about the play by what you see in the picture?

How do I prepare my students to close read?

Part of the close reading process is understanding how to annotate the text. Annotation means adding notes, highlights, and comments to a text to increase understanding. When you’re reading a text multiple times, it’s easy to forget your thoughts from one read to the next. Students need a system to identify the what, the how, and the why for their annotations. 

Click below for a pre-close reading exercise that will help students get used to using specific annotation markings, understand what it means to make choices when annotating, and use critical thinking skills to analyze a monologue. 

Close reading is a dense, focused process. It can also take your students’ script analysis skills to the next level!