Reading a source closely
Close reading means noticing choices. Every word a writer picked is a word they preferred to another one.
Part of your national curriculum
- Reading: Understand increasingly challenging texts, making inferences and referring to evidence in the text
- Reading: Read critically, knowing how language, including figurative language, vocabulary choice, grammar, text structure and organisational features, presents meaning
- Grammar and vocabulary: Study the effectiveness and impact of the grammatical features of the texts they read
Lesson overview
What you'll learn in this lesson
Analyse how writers use language for effect
Key learning points
- • Word choice and connotation
- • Purpose and audience
This lesson at a glance
- 20 minutes
- 9 parts to scroll through
- 3 quick checks
- Marked quiz at the end
- Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses
Words to know
Scroll down — the lesson carries on below
Watch & discover
Part 1 of 9
Watch first
Reading a source closely
An English teaching video on this topic from Growing Primary. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.
In a nutshell
Analyse how writers use language for effect
Explore the idea
Part 2 of 9
Learn
Word choice and connotation
'Crowd', 'mob' and 'gathering' describe the same people with three different attitudes. Name the attitude, then quote the word that carries it.
Explore the idea
Part 3 of 9
Learn
Purpose and audience
Ask who wrote this, for whom, and what they wanted the reader to do. A Tudor pamphlet selling a cure is not a neutral medical record.
Quick check
Part 4 of 9
Quick check
'Mob' rather than 'crowd' suggests the writer thinks the group is…
Quick check
Part 5 of 9
Quick check
The first question to ask of any source is…
Quick check
Part 6 of 9
Quick check
A quotation in an analysis should be…
Challenge round
Part 7 of 9
Game · Sort it
Which of these are true?
Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.
True
Not true
Mastery quiz
Part 8 of 9
Marked quiz
End of lesson quiz: Reading a source closely
3 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.
1. 'Mob' rather than 'crowd' suggests the writer thinks the group is…
2. The first question to ask of any source is…
3. A quotation in an analysis should be…
Lesson round-up
Part 9 of 9
Lesson round-up
Ready when you are
Quiz score
Not sat
Games
Not played
Points this lesson
0
Best run
0 in a row
Luna: 0 out of 3 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?
Ask LunaDo the work
Your written work for this lesson
This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.
The last bus
The bus shelter smelled of wet coats. Mira pressed her timetable flat against the glass, as though staring at the numbers might make the 9:42 appear. Rain tapped the roof in small, impatient fingers. Somewhere behind her, a shop shutter came down with a sound like a full stop.
She had been brave all day. She had been brave in the corridor, brave at lunch, brave when the register reached her name and nobody looked up. Being brave, she decided, was mostly a matter of keeping your face still.
Headlights swung around the corner and lit the puddles gold. Mira picked up her bag. Tomorrow she would say something. Tonight she would simply go home.
Original extract written for Good Learning Co.
Reading questions
- Find two words or phrases that show how Mira is feeling, and explain what each one suggests.
- How does the writer use the weather and the sounds to build the mood? Use a short quotation.
- Write the next paragraph in the same style, keeping the writer's short sentences at the moments that matter.
Reading response
ReadingRead the extract again, then write about how the writer makes you feel that way. Use a short quotation and explain your choice of words.
2 paragraphs (PEE)
Extended writing
WritingWrite your piece in full, then redraft the opening so it hooks the reader.
250–350 words
Reading log
ReadingNote the book, the pages you read and one thing you noticed about the writing.
20 minutes' reading
Saved as you type.
Part 1 of 9 · Watch & discover
How this is going
- Not looked at yet
Understand increasingly challenging texts, making inferences and referring to evidence in the text
- Not looked at yet
Read critically, knowing how language, including figurative language, vocabulary choice, grammar, text structure and organisational features, presents meaning
- Not looked at yet
Study the effectiveness and impact of the grammatical features of the texts they read