Why conduct education research? To answer questions that we have about our students, add to our knowledge of good teaching, and investigate new theories based on observations we have made in our classrooms, schools, or communities. This qualitative research methods case illustrates a study we undertook to better understand how teachers use close reading formative assessment tasks to uncover students' literacy needs. We applied a mixed-methods and ethnographic approach that gave us a first-hand view of student and teacher learning. To answer our research questions, we provided professional development on close reading formative assessment to a team of teachers of 8th grade (ages 12-14 years) English language arts and literature, observed as teachers tried out close reading formative assessment in their classrooms, conducted think-aloud interviews with a sample of students, and analyzed teacher reflections and student work. The teacher sample was the 8th grade English department team in one US school. Our student focus was on English language learners and former English language learners taught by this team of teachers. Teachers in the study were able to create and adapt close reading formative assessment tasks for their own instructional purposes. They found the tasks useful in pre-assessing students' background knowledge, in engaging students to focus closely on the texts, and in preparing students for summative assessments. Among the many lessons from this case was the need to be flexible and creative in identifying sites, working with teachers and students, and grappling with numerous forms of data. [This content is provided in the format of an e-book.]