from TeachThought Curriculums
Curriculum format If you would like to purchase printable reading response cards to use in the classroom, you can do so at ours TeachersPayTeachers Shop. You can find the resource show here–> nonfiction reading answers.
In the ELA classroom, literacy involves decoding a text and then analyzing it for meaning, implicit and explicit themes. It also requires an examination of a text’s relationship to a given perspective, the author’s purpose, and the associated text and media.
That’s where these prompts come in.
The following analytical responses are intended to be general and universal, useful for application to a range of texts. Here, the most specific form is nonfiction, including essays, articles, editorials, speeches, memoirs, biographies, and other informational texts.
How to use these prompts
Each prompt is designed to stand alone, so teachers can choose one or several based on the text, the skill being emphasized, or the needs of individual students. A few approaches that work well:
As read response stations: 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 Birmingham Jail”—students take turns answering two or three prompts of their choice.
As the differential log suggests: Set specific prompts based on where students need practice. A student working on identifying the author’s craft might answer: prompt 3 (“How does the author establish and develop the theme throughout the text? What tools does he use?”), while a student ready for more sophisticated analysis might take prompt 9 (comparing texts in terms of theme, tone, writing style, and idea organization).
To start the discussion: Use one prompt to frame a Socratic seminar or small group discussion. Prompt 5 (“Who is the audience? How do you know?”) can generate productive debate when applied to an editorial or political speech where the intended audience is not obvious.
In preparation for assessment: Because the prompts reflect the types of analytical thinking required on standardized assessments, regular use builds knowledge of close reading and evidence-based responding without requiring separate test preparation.
The prompts are shown in the image below. If you’d like to download actual maps to use in the classroom (see image above for an example), we’ve created a set of curriculum you can download here.
Content area: English language arts, literature, writing
Grade level: High School/Grades 8-12
Non-fiction
Self-directed reading responses
15
- What seems to have been the author’s purpose? why do you think so
- What can you say about the topic? Explain how it is implicit or explicit.
- How does the author establish and develop the theme in the text? What tools do they use? Which is the most fascinating and why?
- What is the author’s position on a given topic from the text? how do you know
- Who is the audience? how do you know How does this 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 is the author writing?
- What are the most relevant supporting details that the author uses to argue his point?
- Compare and contrast this text and any related text in terms of topic, tone, writing style, and idea organization.
- 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 the general mood of the text and how does the author create it?
- How is the plot, argument, or information organized? Explain using evidence from the text.
- Identify one element of the text that could be changed, then predict and explain the effect of that change on the meaning of the text.
- Create your own answer. Be playful, funny or creative.
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