What is a key strategy when scaffolding a close-reading exercise?

What is a key strategy when scaffolding a close-reading exercise?

• A. Start with short passages, provide guided questions, annotate with prompts, and gradually remove supports
• B. Start with long, complex passages
• C. Avoid prompts
• D. Skip annotation

Answer: (A)

Scaffolding a close-reading exercise means guiding students through the practice in layers that build their analytic habits from the ground up. Starting with shorter passages gives them a manageable entry point to identify ideas and evidence without being overwhelmed. Guided questions and prompts model the kinds of inquiries close reading requires—questions about purpose, tone, evidence, and how specific passages support a claim—so students learn the steps they should take when they analyze a text. Annotating with prompts helps students visibly track their reasoning and the features of craft they’re attending to, which deepens their engagement with the material. As students become more confident, you reduce these supports so they rely more on their own thinking and analysis, eventually applying the same strategies to longer or more complex texts. Choosing to begin with long, complex passages makes it harder for learners to practice the essential strategies without getting lost, because they don’t yet have the scaffolds that guide interpretation. Avoiding prompts eliminates a key tool for modeling higher-order thinking, and skipping annotation deprives students of a concrete way to connect evidence to claims.

Scaffolding a close-reading exercise means guiding students through the practice in layers that build their analytic habits from the ground up. Starting with shorter passages gives them a manageable entry point to identify ideas and evidence without being overwhelmed. Guided questions and prompts model the kinds of inquiries close reading requires—questions about purpose, tone, evidence, and how specific passages support a claim—so students learn the steps they should take when they analyze a text. Annotating with prompts helps students visibly track their reasoning and the features of craft they’re attending to, which deepens their engagement with the material. As students become more confident, you reduce these supports so they rely more on their own thinking and analysis, eventually applying the same strategies to longer or more complex texts.

Choosing to begin with long, complex passages makes it harder for learners to practice the essential strategies without getting lost, because they don’t yet have the scaffolds that guide interpretation. Avoiding prompts eliminates a key tool for modeling higher-order thinking, and skipping annotation deprives students of a concrete way to connect evidence to claims.