Showing posts with label Thanksgiving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thanksgiving. Show all posts

Christmas Close Reading Passages, Text-Dependent Questions, & More



I'm back with my next Close Reading resource for you! If you and your students enjoyed my Fall and Thanksgiving Close Reading resource, you will love my Christmas Close Reading Passages, Text-Dependent Questions & More! 


The information below is just a sample of what's included! Click HERE to check out the preview to see more!

I created this seasonal close reading resource to help students read complex texts independently and for a specific purpose.

It contains everything you need to implement close reading in your classroom! 

Leveled Passages
Included in this resource are four Christmas-themed reading passages. There are three levels of each passage so you can easily differentiate for your students! The levels are based on word count and Lexile levels which can be found in the top left corner of each passage. 




Each passage contains text features and bolded vocabulary words for your students to analyze.  


Implementation Printables
I've also included a step-by-step implementation guide. I've researched several strategies for close reading and have developed a process that will make your life easier, and help your students develop skills to read for deeper meaning.


In addition to the step-by-step implementation guide, I've included an Understanding the Standards Teacher Guide. This printable helps teachers understand the purpose of each reading, and how each reading ties into specific Common Core Anchor Standards. I've outlined what each student should focus on and the learning targets for each read.


Annotation Guides
These printable annotation guides are a resource to help students quickly annotate or mark up the text using symbols. I've included two different levels of the printables.


Close Reader Poster
Is this little gingerbread not the cutest thing ever? This Close Reader Poster is a great visual reminder to help students understand their role as a close reader.


Text-Dependent Questions, Writing Prompts, and Graphic Organizers
Each passage includes text-dependent questions for each of the three themes or categories in the Common Core Anchor Standards (Key Ideas and Details, Craft and Structure, and Integration of Knowledge and Ideas). The questions require students to cite evidence from the text to support their answers.

In addition to the text-dependent questions, I've also included graphic organizers for key ideas and details, vocabulary, main idea, and more!


Each passage also includes one writing prompt that is to be completed after the third read. This writing prompt requires students to synthesize or make connections by combining their thinking and knowledge with evidence from the text.


Detailed answer keys are also included.

Like I said above, this is only a small preview of what's included!

Click the button below to check it out!


Looking for more close reading resources to use in your classroom? Click the "Purchase Here" button to check them out in my store! 

     
     


Also, make sure you check back for more information on close reading. There will be additional blog posts to follow.

Fall and Thanksgiving Close Reading Passages, Text-Dependent Questions & More



I am so excited to finally share what I have been working on! I have spent the last three months researching everything I can on close reading. I've read books, articles, blog posts, websites, and more. My goal is to provide you with resources, an informational blog series, and freebies so you can successfully implement close reading in your own classroom.

I will be blogging about all of information I've acquired over a series of posts. So each time you see that picture above, know that the blog post is part of my close reading series!

On that note, the first close reading resource I am excited to share is my Fall and Thanksgiving Close Reading Passages, Text-Dependent Questions & More!


The information below is just a sample of what's included! Click HERE to check out the preview to see more!

I created this seasonal close reading resource to help students read complex texts independently and for a specific purpose.

It contains everything you need to implement close reading in your classroom! 

Leveled Passages
Included in this resource are four fall and Thanksgiving-themed reading passages. There are three levels of each passage so you can easily differentiate for your students! The levels are based on word count and Lexile levels which can be found in the top left corner of each passage.




Each passage contains text features and bolded vocabulary words for your students to analyze.  



Implementation Printables
I've also included a step-by-step implementation guide. I've researched several strategies for close reading and have developed a process that will make your life easier, and help your students develop skills to read for deeper meaning.


In addition to the step-by-step implementation guide, I've included an Understanding the Standards Teacher Guide. This printable helps teachers understand the purpose of each reading, and how each reading ties into specific Common Core Anchor Standards. I've outlined what each student should focus on, and the learning targets for each read.


Annotation Guides
These printable annotation guides are a resource to help students quickly annotate or mark up the text using symbols. I've included two different levels of the printables.



Close Reader Poster
Is this little turkey not the cutest thing ever? This Close Reader Poster is a great visual reminder to help students understand their role as a close reader.


Text-Dependent Questions, Writing Prompts, and Graphic Organizers
Each passage includes text-dependent questions for each of the three themes or categories in the Common Core Anchor Standards (Key Ideas and Details, Craft and Structure, and Integration of Knowledge and Ideas). The questions are written in a way that require students to cite evidence from the text.

In addition to the text-dependent questions, I've also included key ideas and details graphic organizers, main idea graphic organizers, and more!


Each passage also includes one writing prompt that is to be completed after the third read. This writing prompt requires students to synthesize or make connections by combining their thinking and knowledge with evidence from the text.


Detailed answer keys are also included.

Like I said above, this is only a small preview of what's included!

Click the button below to check it out!



Looking for more close reading resources to use in your classroom? Click the "Purchase Here" button to check them out in my store!

     
      




Also, make sure you check back for more information on close reading. There will be additional blog posts to follow.

This just in: SALE TODAY!

Who are we kidding?! I sat on my butt all Thanksgiving break and have not started my lesson planning for the December blitz! Am I crazy or what? Can anyone else relate?

For those of you scrambling to plan for the week, I thought I would extend my sale into today too! Check out my store for 20% off through the rest of the day today!!

Thanksgiving Persuasive Writing

Praise the LORD next week is Thanksgiving!! Can you all believe it? What happened to September and October? Target Christmas commercials are already airing and the mall is already decked to the nines in Christmas decor! I'm ready!!

As promised, I wanted to share what we've been doing in our classroom with the Thanksgiving Persuasive Writing pack that you can learn more about HERE!



Since persuasive writing  is now a big deal in the new Common Core standards, I put this writing activity together to make it fun and inspire my kids to be creative.  Here is a step-by-step guide to show how I taught this in my classroom.  

1.)  Planning/Prep:  Before I started the lesson, I put together these anchor charts that include the posters from my Thanksgiving Persuasive Writing Pack (see below) and printed out the writing and planning pages for the writing activity. 

2.)  Introduction/Define Core Concepts:  We talked about what it means to persuade and discussed the various persuasion techniques are used to convince people to go out and "do something."  Since we are starting off with logos (logic) for now, we then discussed debate and rebuttal.   Students learned that defending their arguments against rebuttals often made their arguments much stronger.


Also as part of my introduction into the lesson, I read:


This might be the BEST book for an introduction to this unit EVER. It's a about a boy who is about to squish an ant, but before he can, the ant starts talking to him to persuade the boy not to squish him. 
 
3.)  Brainstorming:  Next, we then brainstormed a bunch of ideas and topics that they have been or could be persuaded on...


4.)  Group Activity:  We split students up into teams and had them come up with as many facts and logical responses as they could to support their positions.  You can have the rest of the class listen to them and vote for a winner.  They LOVED this!!!

5.)  Individual Writing Activity:   With the introduction and our first mini-lesson out of the way, my kids were SUPER eager to test their persuasive skills on me, using the prompts I created from my Thanksgiving Persuasive pack! I handed out their planning pages, and allowed them to start planning away to start persuading me with their first persuasive writing paper of the unit!



7.)  Publishing: When it was time to create their published pieces, I had them write it on special publishing paper for the SUPER ADORABLE display in our hallway! 

(There is ALWAYS time for super cute hallway displays)











Most of my kids chose the prompt about not eating turkey for Thanksgiving (surprise, surprise!), and I took an idea from Stephanie and Teaching in Room 6 and allowed them to "disguise" a turkey to help with their persuasion! 

Here are just a few of my kids' HILARIOUS reasons, and I wish I would have taken more because these aren't even some of the BEST ones they came up with!

Oh dear me! This spelling needs some love :)








Super adorable (although I do think he meant to write Medical Weight Loss calling YOU!)

Here are a few of their hilarious turkeys (please excuse the blur, they were taken on my I-Phone and didn't come out so great!!)







Do you LOVE his dreadlocks!?!!!
For those of you that have purchased this, I have added the blank turkey template if you would like to add this fun twist to your students' writing! Just click HERE to re-download! 

Stay tuned for more persuasive writing to come!! Ethos, pathos, testimonials, and slogans...OH MY!

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