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ACTIVATE:
This instructional practice empowers students to reflect on their own reading development and provides them with the tools needed to choose a text appropriate for their learning and reading level.
HANDOUTS and RESOURCES:
PREPARATION:
Select three texts that each deal with the same content but are written at different levels of difficulty. Prior to selecting texts, refer to the Educator Resource: Selecting a Rigorous Text Template for guidance.
Identify what criteria are important for students to consider when reading each of the texts. This may include vocabulary (academic and content-specific), content-specific thinking applied to the text, length of text, validity of information, or publication date.
STEPS:
PROVIDE INFORMATION: Provide students with information outlining the details that they should be looking for in each text.
THINK-ALOUD: Using the identified criteria for text selection, conduct a Think-Aloud to model interacting with the text.
READ TEXTS AND TRACK: Have students read each of the texts and track the use of the various identified criteria for each text.
USE RESOURCE: Pass out Student Resource: Selecting a Rigorous Text Reflection Questions to students and have them review the posed reflection questions.
WRITE A REFLECTION: Students then select and write a reflection on which text is most appropriate for them, through the lens of the questions from the resource.
VARIATIONS:
Start with a classic reading, such as The Three Little Pigs by Paul Galdone (1984), charting the voices heard in the story. Who is telling the story? What are the major events? Then, read The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith (1996), charting the perspectives given. How did the change in perspective change the story? This experience can be used as a springboard into discussing perspectives present (or not present) in other texts.
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