Teachers need to create text-dependent questions to elicit close reading. When answering these questions, students learn to reread and think deeply about the text.
Depend on the Text! How to Create Text-Dependent Questions
Grades
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Promote Deep Thinking! How to Choose a Complex Text
Grades
1 - 3
Strategy Guide
Complex texts promote deep thinking and critical analysis by students. Through close reading of a complex text, students' independent reading abilities also increase.
Grades
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Get Close to Think Deeply: Creating Primary-Level Close Readings
Grades
1 - 3
Strategy Guide
Close readings allow primary students to engage with complex texts. Through repeated reading, students build a deep understanding of the text and critical thinking skills.
Grades
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Using Partner Talk to Strengthen Student Collaboration and Understanding
Grades
K - 8
Strategy Guide
In this strategy guide, you'll learn about Partner Talk—a way to provide students with another learning opportunity to make learning their own through collaboration and discussion.
Grades
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Introducing Ideas and Vocabulary with the Concept Sort
Grades
K - 8
Strategy Guide
A Concept Sort is a vocabulary and comprehension strategy used with students to introduce new topics and/or familiarize students with new vocabulary.
Grades
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Exit Slips
Grades
K - 12
Strategy Guide
This strategy guide introduces the concept of using Exit Slips in the classroom to help students reflect on what they have learned and express what or how they are thinking about the new information. Exit Slips easily incorporate writing into the content area classroom and require students to think critically.
Grades
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New Visions for Linking Literature and Mathematics
K - 6
Professional Library
| Book
David and Phyllis Whitin offer K–6 teachers a wealth of ideas for integrating literature and mathematics.
Grades
|
Standards for the English Language Arts
K - 12
Professional Library
| Book
Standards for the English Language Arts presents a vision of literacy education that encompasses the use of print, oral, and visual language and addresses six interrelated English language arts: reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing, and visually representing.
Grades
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Four Simple Steps to Small-Group Guided Writing
K - 2
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
Students will go batty about the three writing strategies they learn in this lesson centered on Nicola Davies' Bat Loves the Night.
Grades
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Weather: A Journey in Nonfiction
K - 2
Lesson Plan
| Unit
Questions about weather clear up when students use what they learned from their books to create a presentation to share with the rest of the class.
Grades
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Diagram It! Identifying, Comparing, and Writing About Nonfiction Texts
K - 2
Lesson Plan
| Unit
Students compare the traits fact and fiction by using a Venn diagram to compare fiction and nonfiction books about Native Americans.
Grades
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Telling a Story About Me: Young Children Write Autobiographies
K - 2
Lesson Plan
| Unit
Students tell their life stories in this lesson about autobiographies based on family photographs.
Grades
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Junie B. Jones Introduces Literacy Mystery Boxes
K - 2
Lesson Plan
| Unit
Like Junie B. Jones, students will be saying "Wait till you hear this" after listening to a Junie B. story and creating mystery boxes to help retell the story.
Grades
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Predicting and Gathering Information With Nonfiction Texts
K - 2
Lesson Plan
| Unit
Students take a walk on the wild side when they develop an understanding of nonfiction texts with hands-on experiences and intense analysis.
Grades
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Exploring the Subtext Strategy: Thinking Beyond the Text
2 - 4
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
What is it like to have a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day? Students find out in this lesson in which they "become" the characters in Judith Viorst's book.
Grades
|
Show What You Know: Read, Write and Solve Math Problems
2 - 3
Lesson Plan
| Minilesson
Informational texts, iPads, and interactive games, oh, my! Help students journey through multimodal texts to identify and solve real-world mathematics problems using writing and apps.
Grades
|
Blogging in the Primary Grades? Yes, Indeed!
2 - 5
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
Give students an authentic reason to read and write by researching blogs written by their peers around the world and then writing their own.
Grades
|
Amelia Bedelia Up Close! Closely Reading a Classic Story
1 - 2
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
Through a close reading of Amelia Bedelia, students reread the material to discuss text-dependent questions, promoting deep thinking about the text and its characters.
Grades
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Bringing Economic Vocabulary to Life Through Video Posters
2 - 5
Lesson Plan
| Minilesson
Imagine if vocabulary could come alive with the click of a button! Students create video posters to demonstrate knowledge of new economics vocabulary.
Grades
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Engaging With Cause-and-Effect Relationships Through Creating Comic Strips
2 - 4
Lesson Plan
Students demonstrate their knowledge of cause-and-effect relationships by creating original comic strips and sharing their completed work in an oral presentation format.