Second Grade Close Reading with Text Markings

For my high level first graders and second graders, I have decided to use the folder system. This just allows us to keep the current stories we're working on in one place for easy access.

The second graders have been working on a short story called "I'm Trying to Eat, Please!" by Vanessa Richie. This story came from MobyMax. A paid site I use for language instruction that also has stories that align with various skills.

Here are the steps we took for this Close Read:

First read: short discussion about the title and pictures. They read silently around the room.

Second read: I read as they mark the text with the symbols we've discussed. We are using the star, question mark, exclamation point and circling words system at this grade level too.

Third read: We took turns reading aloud and cleared up anything that confused them as we read. Their writing piece was to write about something they need to control so that they are a better person.

Here's an example of two students' writing:

As you can see, my students have issues to work on but don't we all have something to work on to become a better person??? I really loved the message of this story as we all try to become a better person.