Close Reading Strategies

S.C.O.U.T. and 3T

What is Close Reading?It requires the reader to get truly involved with

the text they are reading.

The purpose is to teach students to notice features and language used by the author.

Strategy 1 – S.C.O.U.T.S: Specifics

C: Comparisons

O: Organization

U: Unusual

T: Theme Examples

SpecificsLocations

Characters

Time

Words (Syntax)

Choice of Details

ComparisonsSymbols

Metaphors

Imagery

Allusions

OrganizationSequential

What comes first and what comes lastWhat was important enough to present first?What impact does leaving the last fact have on the

overall piece?

Spatial – Syntax RepetitionContrastQuestions like, “Why is this paragraph or sentence

so short or so long in comparison to others?”

UnusualNoticing when things are different than you

expected them to be

Glitches in the matrix that are the breadcrumbs that lead down a potentially interesting rabbit hole.

Theme ExamplesWhat adds to the development of or examples of

theme?QuotesSymbolsPlot eventsMotifsCharacters

“This is Just to Say”1. I have eaten the plums that were in2. the icebox3. and which4. you were probably5. saving6. for breakfast7. Forgive me8. they were delicious9. so sweet10. and so cold

SCOUT Practice

3 T TOPIC

TONE

THEME

TopicBasic comprehension (Lit and Art):

VocabularySettingSituationChoice of DetailsCharactersSubjectColorLineSubject

ToneTone: the author’s attitude towards the subject

and the audience

Examples:Tongue-in-cheekPlayful IronicDespondent

Leaves the audience with a palpable emotion

ThemeThere is a thesis made, a push back by the

audience and society, and then a synthesis of understanding

Topic is what the story is about, but Theme is what the story is REALLY aboutThe difference between the denotation and

connotation

“The Young Who Want to” by Marge Piercy

1.Talent is what they say you have after the novel is published and favorably reviewed. Beforehand what you have is a tedious delusion, a hobby like knitting. 2.Work is what you have done after the play is produced and the audience claps. Before that friends keep asking when you are planning to go out and get a job. 3. Genius is what they know you had after the third volume of remarkable poems. Earlier they accuse you of withdrawing, ask why you don't have a baby, call you a bum.

4.The reason people want M.F.A.'s, take workshops with fancy names when all you can really learn is a few techniques, typing instructions and some-body else's mannerisms 5.is that every artist lacks a license to hang on the wall like your optician, your vetproving you may be a clumsy sadistwhose fillings fall into the stewbut you're certified a dentist.6. The real writer is onewho really writes. Talentis an invention like phlogistonafter the fact of fire.Work is its own cure. You have tolike it better than being loved.

Practice