To build a foundation for college and career readiness, students must read widely and deeply from among a broad range of high-quality, increasingly challenging literary and informational texts....By reading texts in history/social studies, science, and other disciplines, students build a foundation of knowledge in these fields that will also give them the background to be better readers in all content areas.
Some school districts are purchasing "common-core aligned" curriculum to help their teachers find those complex texts in other disciplines. However, many school districts do not have funds for this. Teachers are left to search endlessly on the internet to find informational texts at their students' reading levels. Until now.....
ReadWorks.org is a non-profit website which offers high-interest passages and comprehension questions. The passages are fully-searchable. Teachers need only type in a keyword, select the reading level, and search.
The site is free and sign-up is quick. There are hundreds of high-quality passages for grades Kindergarten through 6th grade.
Go to ReadWorks.org to start searching now. You can search in the box in the top right corner.
When you have created a profile, you may save passages to "My Binder".
If you don't know exactly what you want to read about, you can search by standard. Click on "My Standars Alignment" at the top. If you already have a profile, it will direct you to your state standards. If the pacing guide (curriculum map) for the week says "Cause and Effect" you can select that standard. **Make sure you select the correct grade level.
Lesson plans are designed with the Gradual Release of Responsibility framework of "I do, We do, You do". Most lesson plans also include:
- learning objectives
- a vocabulary routine
- guided practice
- graphic organizers to scaffold understanding
- student engagement strategies (Turn and Talk, Buddy Buzz, etc.)
- independent practice with multiple choice questions and constructed response prompts
- extension ideas
- novel studies (for 5th and 6th grades, however, I have used some of those novels in 4th grade)
- paired text
For a tutorial on finding specific texts, watch this video:
Vocabulary Lessons
ReadWorks now offers vocabulary lessons for 2nd-8th grade. They include:
- More than 1,200 carefully selected vocabulary words, from ReadWorks’ authentic non-fiction and literary reading passages
- Multiple sentence and paragraph examples from other texts, of how the vocabulary word is used in different contexts
- Spanish cognates
- Student practice/formative assessment template
- Basic and advanced definitions with syllables
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