LITERACY: READING & WRITING

We have been exploring the difference between thin and thick questions in class. We are to ask thick questions about our Book Club assigned readings and when conducting research. Check out this link below to learn the difference between thin and thick questions. There is a great video and a copy of the posters we have in class. ​

Click here to learn more about Thick or Thin Questions

In order to monitor our comprehension while close reading, we create thinking tracks on post-its to put in the text. Thinking tracks can be inferences, predictions, questions, ideas about author's craft, and/or connections to themselves, other texts, or the world around them. While close reading, students analyze the details of a text to make interpretations and develop a deeper understanding of the text. Students have been learning that just copying facts or sentences out of a text is not showing deep thinking. In STEM, we love to have discussions about our thinking when reading! ​

The Common Core Standards "emphasize using evidence from texts to present careful analyses, well-defended claims, and clear information. Rather than asking students questions that they can answer solely from their prior knowledge and experience, the standards call for students to answer questions that depend on their having read the texts with care. The reading standards focus on students’ ability to read carefully and grasp information, arguments, ideas, and details based on evidence in the text. Students should be able to answer a range of text-dependent questions, whose answers require inferences based on careful attention to the text."

​During third quarter, each student will be required to give one to two examples of text evidence to support and explain their answer. This poster hangs in the classroom to remind students to cite the text when explaining their reading. Click on the links below to learn more about the Common Core Standards and to see examples and questions in practice tests on the end of year PARCC Assessments. ​

Information about Common Core Standards and Text Evidence

PARCC Practice Tests

 Monitoring Comprehension: Thinking Tracks and Inner Voice

 Generalizations

 Theme

 Text Features

 Questioning

 Story Elements

 Text Organization

 Main Idea/Details

 Cause/Effect

 Characterization

 Summarizing

 Context Clues

 Inferencing

 Drawing Conclusions

 Determining Importance

 Paraphrasing

 Author's Purpose

 Quoting Text Accurately

 Visualizing

 Word Origins

 Reference Materials

 Fluency and Pacing

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 Writing Portfolio Creation and Goal Setting

 Informational Writing

Opinion Writing

 Narrative Writing

 Concept Mapping

Sensory Details

 Propaganda and Advertisements

 Research Strategies

Works Cited/Bibliographies

Cursive Review

 Keyboarding/Typing

 Sentence Fragment

 Run-on Sentences

​Kinds of Sentences

​ Adjectives

 Adverbs

 Sensory Words

Proper Nouns

 Common Nouns

 Pronouns

 Compound Sentences

​Conjunctions

​Quotation Marks and Commas-Dialogue

​Articles

​Prefixes, Suffixes, Root Words

​Figurative Language: Similes, Onomatopoeia, Alliteration

Homonyms

Modal Auxiliaries

Progressive Verb Tenses

Abbreviations

Contractions

Analogies

Titles of Works