One reaction to the Common Core State Standards is a new emphasis on "close reading," an approach to teaching comprehension that requires students to extract meaning from text by examining how language is used in a passage. The intent is to strengthen their ability to learn from complex text independently and thus enhance college and career readiness. This article is an expansion of a Policy Brief from the Literacy Research Panel of the International Reading Association in which we examined the basis for this view, considered the advantages and limitations, and suggested ways in which close reading might be usefully supplemented by other classroom practices, both to ensure that they support comprehension and to avoid problems from an excessive focus on close reading. Instructional implications for students for whom English is an added language are offered.