GoalsIn producing my project my goals are:• Integrate close reading strategies with the literacy/science curriculum to improve critical thinking outcomes with a group of 45 kindergarten children in a suburban kindergarten classroom • Determine whether the use of extensive reading can help close the growing achievement gap between Hispanic and non-Hispanic students in kindergarten and first grade • Develop a variety of close reading activities that can be used in kindergarten and first grade classrooms • Share my knowledge and findings with colleagues at my school Project Description My project was to investigate how to implement close reading strategies such as means to develop critical thinking skills starting from kindergarten. Dominant factors in close reading include: multiple readings of complex texts that help the reader understand and interpret the text, question the author, connect to the text, and understand vocabulary by creating images based on the author's words. (Lassonde, 2009, 6) Why a careful reading? Until recently, it was commendable for students to make a connection with the text. According to Boyles (2012), teaching students to make reader/text connections “has veered significantly off track.” The ideology behind close reading is the shift from simply making connections with oneself, with the text, with the world, etc. which, until a few years ago, were thought to create metacognitive readers, to think critically about what the author is saying. The personal connections left readers with little knowledge of the actual text and created a discussion about images that popped into the reader's mind instead of finding evidence in the text. (Boyles, 2012, 2) The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College an...... middle of paper ......, CM (2009). Recognizing a “different drum” through close reading strategies. Networks: An On-Line Journal for Teacher Research, 11(1), 1-14.doi: journals.library.wisc.edu/index.../399‎Reardon, S., & Galindo, C. (2009). The achievement gap between Hispanics and whites in mathematics and reading in the elementary grades. American Educational Research Journal, 46,853-891.Shanahan, T. (2013, July 16). Close reading for beginning readers? probably not. [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.shanahanonliteracy.com/2013/07/close-reading-for-beginning-readers.htmlContent Model Structure of the Template for ELA/Literacy. (2011, October 1). College and Career Readiness Assessment Partnership. Retrieved from http://www.parcconline.org/mcf/english-lingual-artsliteracy/structure-model-content-frameworks-elaliteracy