Close reading can be a way to generate ideas about a text -- By studying characters, people develop ideas about stories -- Elaborating on written ideas using conversational prompts -- Finding and testing a thesis -- Using stories as evidence -- Citing textual evidence -- Using lists as evidence -- Putting it all together -- Writing to discover what a story is really about -- Adding complexity to our ideas -- Writing flash-drafts of literary essays -- Beginnings and endings -- Using descriptions of an author's craft as evidence -- Editing -- Building the muscles to compare and contrast -- Using the lenses of comparing and contrasting to become more thoughtful readers of familiar texts -- Using yesterday's learning, today and always -- Stretching out our essays like we stretched out our narratives -- Exploring commas -- A celebration.