When thinking about texts to use during a close reading, teachers may easily become overwhelmed. However, as Eileen Murphy Buckley points out in her book 360 Degrees of Text: Using Poetry to Teach Close Reading and Powerful Writing, poetry is a very rich, although highly underutilized, resource. Through poetry, readers have ample opportunities to look closely at word choice, text structure, vocabulary, language, arguments, imagery, and much more.

In her book, Buckley outlines how a close read of a poem may look in a classroom: 1. Frontload knowledge, if appropriate. Have students respond to a quick write on the topic of the poem. Discuss student responses, and let students know that they will be exploring the question(s) further as they read the given poem. Share a little bit of background on the poet or time period, if appropriate. 2. Let students know that during the first read of the poem, they will be looking at the art of the poem at the sentence level. Although they may know how to look at imagery and form, they will be looking at the poem differently, exploring the words and phrases the author chose. 3. Pass out the poem and begin modeling a close reading. Think aloud as you read aloud, paying particular attention to the sentence and word level of the poem. When words or phrases are identified, engage the class in a larger discussion regarding what those words and phrases might mean, while maintaining the use of textual evidence in all discussion. 4. Continue close reading small portions of the poem (line by line, one stanza at a time, etc.), having students assist in identifying those words or phrases and discussing how they contribute to the poem. Be sure to use the gradual release of responsibility model. 5. In small groups, have students continue to read closely, highlighting or marking particular words or phrases , paraphrasing every few lines, recording examples of imagery, etc. 6. Reconvene as a whole group to share findings from the small groups.You may want to project the text in order to take notes as a group. 7. Suggest to students that they take a closer look at their findings in order to learn more about something a bit deeper, such as how word choice impacts meaning, what can be inferred about the character, what the authors' point of view on the given topic is, etc. 8. Think aloud and model re-reading, going line-by-line or one stanza at a time, looking at those initial findings and delving a bit deeper, depending on what was identified in step 7. 9. Continue with the re-reading, and have students wrap up their analysis using a writing prompt to share their own findings.

Of course this is just one example of how to do a close reading of a poem. There is no one way to do so. However, ensuring that students read and re-read in order to look at a poem in a much deeper and analytical way is crucial to building those close reading skills. http://www.examiner.com/article/teaching-close-reading-through-poetry