Middle School Common Core Close Reading Teaching Tips

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In This Issue:

• Common Core Close Reading Tips
• Making Stronger Text Comparisons
• Teaching Resources

Middle School Teaching Ideas

One of the greatest goals of the new Common Core Standards is to get students to deeply read text.  This is different from traditional highlighting where students highlight information that is important. With close reading, students highlight important information and write annotations to explain why this information is relevant. There are different ways that students can do a close reading.  The most helpful for me is to give students information to focus on while reading.  

When we read about characters, I ask students to pay close attention to figurative language, what characters do, say, think, and how they interact with other.  This is extremely helpful for less adept students.  These students often struggle with the idea of what they should pay attention to as they read.  For Close Reading Passages Click Here

Making Deeper Text Comparisons

Students should make deeper level comparisons in which they compare by stating how two texts have the same theme, characters with similar traits, teach the same ideas, etc. As students state these deeper comparisons, they should provide textual evidence to defend their thinking (Standards RL.1 and RI.1).  Including this balance of comparisons and textual evidence is vital.

Taking Care of You

In the hustle and bustle of being an educator, friend, and life, it is important to take time for yourself.  One way to do this is by taking time with a hobby.

Windowsill Container Garden

With the changing seasons, this may be difficult to do, but starting a windowsill container garden is always an option. Container gardens take up little space.  This is one of my container gardens.  It contains green leaf lettuce.  No matter what the hobby is, the most important idea is taking time to do something that you enjoy.

Have a great week!