In Jennifer Saba's Grade 7 Humanities class, students are currently reading Animal Farm as a foundation for developing critical reading and thinking skills. To develop close reading skills, students annotate and actively interact with the text by questioning, finding themes, and making connections. This process strengthens both comprehension and inferential thinking, helping students move beyond surface-level understanding. Just as importantly, students are learning to share their ideas through thoughtful, respectful discussion, to listen to different perspectives, and to support their interpretations with evidence from the text. These skills are essential not only for literary analysis but for developing confident, collaborative learners.