Technology in the classroom is a frontier with ever-developing rules and boundaries. It’s like the Wild West. Students need phones for educational apps, but phones can be a distraction. We want them to have personalized tablets, but carefully monitor their access. EdTech provides endless opportunities: personalized practice, immediate feedback, and unlimited access to texts. It’s an incredible tool that we are lucky to have, but we’re still learning to harness its power.

Many digital learning environments are designed to keep students moving, which helps teachers cover more material than ever. However, close reading, arguably the most complex critical thinking skill, is slow-building and requires plenty of practice. Close reading is difficult to measure and automate. It isn’t simply reading something twice; it’s intentionally returning to a text to notice increasingly sophisticated layers of meaning. But just because it takes time, doesn’t make it outdated. In the same way there is a time and place for technology, there is certainly a time and place for building close-reading skills with your students.

Close reading isn’t competing with technology, it’s complementing it. The goal isn’t to choose one over the other. It’s knowing which instructional approach best serves the learning you’re trying to accomplish.

The Challenge with Close Reading

Close reading is so much more intentional than just reading extra text; it’s reading carefully and thoughtfully. It’s examining author’s choices more carefully and asking questions that deliver meaning beyond plot structure. It’s encouraging students to ask questions about a simile, unpack a specific word choice, discover symbolism hidden in a description about the setting, etc.

Unfortunately, with all the demands of today’s ELA classroom, teachers feel pressure to spend less time on close reading in order to cover more material. Between juggling pacing guides, standardized testing, and intervention for struggling readers, it’s tempting to rely on technology’s adaptive software.

EdTech is incredible for so many aspects of ELA instruction. Vocabulary practice, independent reading, web quests for historical context, and research can all be done with a few clicks of the button, and the immediate feedback helps you differentiate student progress. Students complete a module and take a quick assessment, and you have clear data that shows they’ve understood a new concept. In fact, these technological supports can make close reading even stronger by reducing the cognitive load students bring to a challenging text.

Technology can prepare students for deep reading but can’t replace the critical thinking it requires from both students and teachers. Close reading doesn’t reward speed; it rewards attention.

The Value of Teaching Close Reading

We are constantly having conversations about the literary crisis, and that’s partially because it’s one thing to read a sentence, and it’s another entirely to interact with it. Students often don’t comprehend or connect with what they read because they lack the close-reading skills that allow them to create those associations. That’s where your commitment to practicing close reading really is essential.

Technology is just a tool. What you can do as a teacher to support close reading is irreplaceable. Only you are able to help students identify exactly how they misunderstood irony, where they overlooked symbolic imagery, or who misinterpreted an author’s tone. Close reading is not about what a student’s answers are; it’s more about how they arrived there. Close reading in the classroom also allows for meaningful discussions to develop meaningful connections, shift thinking, and defend interpretations—all of which are crucial real-world critical thinking skills.

3 Simple Ways to Protect Close-Reading Time in the Classroom

1.   Dedicate one lesson each week to one rich passage.

Instead of trying to cover an entire chapter, spend twenty minutes unpacking one descriptive passage. Rather than dousing students in comprehension questions about it, consider asking one question that’s worth debating and discussing. Conversation often clarifies thinking before students write. Ensure they use specific evidence and author word choice to back their interpretation. Narrowing the focus to less volume and more value helps students practice attention to detail.

2.   Encourage annotation with purpose.

Rather than highlighting everything, encourage students to annotate with purpose. This can also be a great opportunity to practice rereading. After students read the passage the first time to absorb the content, ask them to reread and highlight surprising ideas, confusing moments, repeated language, figurative imagery, or connections to a theme. Have them reread the passage again and underline something new they noticed upon this third read. This will help build their attention spans but also demand that they interact with what they’re reading.

3.   Let students struggle a little.

Productive struggle often precedes deeper understanding. Students might complain that they’re bored with rereading, that the description is too complicated, or the language is confusing, but persevere! In time, they’ll be more comfortable with the challenges associated with close reading and enjoy the connections they are able to make.

The most meaningful moments in reading can’t be rushed or automated. They happen when students struggle over a sentence, debate an author’s intent, or discover a pattern they missed the first time. The goal isn’t to use less technology. It’s to make sure that, in our effort to move students through texts, we don’t accidentally move them past the thinking that makes reading worthwhile.