with The TeachThought curriculum
Curriculum format If you would like to purchase printable reading response cards to use in the classroom, you can do so at our TeacherPayTeachers store. You can find a demo of the equipment here–> non-fiction reading responses.
In the ELA classroom, literacy involves decoding text and analyzing it for meaning, implicit and explicit themes. It also needs to evaluate the relevance of the text to a particular idea, the author’s intention, and the text in relation to the media.
This is where these warnings come in.
The following analytical answers are intended to be general and universal, useful for the use of text lists. Here, the most specific form is non-fiction writing, including articles, essays, editorials, speeches, memoirs, biographies, and other informational texts.
How to Use These Warnings
Each resource is designed to stand alone, so teachers can choose one or more based on the text, the skill being emphasized, or individual student needs. A few methods that work well:
As you read the response channels: Print the cards and place them at stations around the room. After reading a shared text — for example, Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” — students rotate and answer two or three commands of their choice.
As a variety journal advocates: Provide specific instruction based on where students need to practice. A reader working to identify the author’s creativity might respond to: prompt 3 (“How does the author establish and develop a theme throughout the text? What tools do they use?”), while a reader who is good at complex analysis might pick prompt 9 (comparing texts in terms of theme, tone, writing style, and logical order).
As conversation starters: Use one prompt to organize a Socratic seminar or small group discussion. Prompt 5 (“Who is the audience? How do you know?”) can create a productive debate when used in an editorial or political speech where the target audience is not immediately obvious.
As preparation for the test: Because the material resembles the types of analytical thinking required on standardized tests, regular use builds familiarity and close learning with evidence-based feedback without requiring separate tests.
Notifications appear in the image below. If you would like to download the actual flashcards to use in class (see the image above for an example), we have made a set of lessons you can download here.
Content area: English Language Arts, Literature, Writing
Grade Level: High School/Grades 8-12
Non Fiction
Answers for Self-Directed Study
15
- What did the author’s intention seem to be? Why do you think so?
- What can you say about the theme? Explain how it is made public or transparent.
- How does the author establish and develop a theme throughout the text? What tools do they use? Which is more compelling and why?
- What is the author’s position on a given topic from the text? How do you know?
- Who are the listeners? How do you know? How does that choice of audience affect the text?
- What is the overall tone of the text and how does the author establish it?
- From what point of view does the author write?
- What is the most relevant supporting information does the author use to argue his or her ideas?
- Compare and contrast this text with any related text in terms of theme, tone, writing style, and order of thought.
- How would you describe the author’s writing style? Explain using evidence from the text.
- How does the author’s expertise and/or credibility come across in the text?
- What is a typical text form, and how does a writer create it?
- How is the structure, argument, or information organized? Explain using evidence from the text.
- Find one part of the text that can be changed, then predict and explain the effect of that change on the meaning of the text.
- Create your own answer. Play, have fun, or be creative.
TeachThought: Informed Strategies for Researching Teaching and Learning
