Character Analysis

To fully understand about characters, students must be able to determine character traits, examine how characters change from the beginning to the end of a text, and know what caused a character to change.  Closely reading a text is a great way to help students be able to do these things.

When they read, students should look for subtle clues in the text that would help a reader infer things.  Sometimes this is easier said that done, but this is not the students' fault.  The way that writers write shifts beginning at the third/fourth grade reading level range.  Authors go from using details that tell to details that show.  Students are often unaware of this shift in writing and do not adjust their reading strategies.  Making students aware of this and giving them opportunities to closely read text greatly helps.

For Task Cards That Teach And Review Characterization Click Here To Access Them

Understanding Radicals

Powers of Exponents Rules 

Interactive Math Journal Fold Insert

One of the elements that makes mathematics tricky for pre-algebra and algebra students is the rules is all of the rules that must be memorized.  Radicals is no exception.

Once students understand the basics, they can apply these rules when solving equations and expressions.

Interactive journals are useful notetaking resources at all grade levels.  This interactive journal insert was developed to help the students that I assist with math remember exponent rules.  Colored pencils were used to color code each rule.

These task cards come with a printable box and are useful for reviewing radicals.  They are mostly geared for advanced students.

To Access Radical Task Cards Click Here

Analyze How Authors Use Figurative Language

In order for students to deeply understand what they read, they must go beyond identifying instances of similes and metaphors.  They must examine how the use of such features contributes to the text.

As I work closely with students, they are constantly reminded of this principle as they read.  Annotating the text and close reading are both ways to get students to see how an author's craft contributes to a text.

Next, we examine the techniques that different authors use across reading passages.  This enables students to go beyond the surface level of comprehension into deeper levels of critical thinking and Bloom's Taxonomy.

This page is from one of my grade levels of Daily Common Core Reading Practice.  I carefully monitor students to get them to think of all of the details in a text as information that works together to convey an idea.

Click Here To Access These Task Cards

Click Here to Access Poetry and Drama Task Cards

Click Here to Access These Playing Cards

Click Here to Access Them

Poetry

Poetry and drama (plays) are often the forgotten reading genres.  Being able to infer, interpret, and identify text details in a wide variety of genres is ideal.  These task cards teach students elements of poetry and drama and are written at different levels of Bloom's Taxonomy so that students will know and analyze information within these two genres. The task cards are self-teaching so that students or small groups can work independently.  The task cards also come with a printable box to make storage and use convenient.Click Here To Access Them

Common Core Standard RL.5 Poetry, Common Core Poetry, Common Core Plays, Text Structure, How to Analyze Poetry

Give Writing A Boost By Varying The Sentence Structure

When students write, they must pay attention to several aspects of writing as they read. One of those aspects is sentence structure. Using a variety of sentence structures adds flow and makes writing more appealing. 

This blog post includes free task cards to help students remember to use sentence variety.

Free Varying Sentence Structure Task Cards

The Case for Using Sentence Variety
Why should students be concerned about sentence variety?  Writing clear and cohesive sentences is not only a focus point of the new Common Core Standards, it is also a valuable tip that will help students score higher on ACT and SAT exams. Understanding how and when to use different sentence structures not only improves writing, it also helps students understand how authors develop and convey ideas to their readers.

How Authors Use Different Sentence Structures
Varying sentence structures can heighten the tone in a action story.  In informational text, it draws a reader's attention to specific ideas.

In addition to experimenting with different sentence structures, students should analyze the writing structures that authors use.  They can ask questions like:

• How does the author convey tone in the text?
• How does the use of this sentence structure (in paragraph 10) help the speaker be more convincing to listeners?

The Common Core Connection

The Common Core English Standards lead students into deeper levels of analysis as they progress into higher grade levels.  While words such as analyze, think about, and compare are used at the lower and middle grade levels, terms such as diction and syntax are directly used at the high school grade levels to address this deeper level of analysis.
View additional posts on Classroom Freebies

To access close reading task cards from my TpT store, Click Here

Informational Text

These nonfiction (informational text cards) are a convenient tool for helping students understand text structure and for building content area vocabulary.  40 task cards are included.  (20 Cards) Set A is for students that read at the 5th to 8th grade levels. (20 Similar cards that are written at a lower reading level) Set B is for students that read at the late 2nd to late 4th grade range.  Relevant informational text topics are included.  Many content area vocabulary words repeat across the passages to help students build their vocabulary.  Animal adaptations, sound, light, early travel, and more topics are covered.Click Here to Access It

Compare and Contrast Themes

There are several elements of a text that a student must pay attention to as they read. Theme is one of them.  Theme is addressed in two of the Common Core Standards. Standard RL.2 asks students to determine the theme of a text.  Standard RL.9 asks students to compare and contrast how authors convey theme.

One way to help students in this area is to have students closely read a text to look for ways than two different authors teach the same theme.  The setting, characterization, and also the choice of characters that an author includes in a text each contribute to helping readers determine what the theme of a text is.

Point of View

If you have looked at the new Common Core Standards, then you already know that Common Core (RL.6 and RI.6) both want students to know some interesting things about point of view.  They must know more than first and third point of views.  At some grade levels, students must compare firsthand and secondhand accounts of information. They must also determine how a narrator's point of view affects how events are retold. This set of 36 task cards covers each of these Common Core requirements and more.Click Here To Access It.

The task cards are differentiated to cover the different point of view requirements across multiple grade levels.  They contain text dependent questions and also use wording from the Common Core Standards.  Since many students are still trying to understand the Common Core Standards, the task cards also teach and review.  Plus, the document comes with a printable box.  This is great to use as a point of view learning center.  Or, send home a box of self-teaching task cards with a student that needs extra practice.Click Here To Access It

Multi-Step Math Questions

These Common Core aligned task cards do more than provide practice, they also help students gain the skills that they need to meet the demands of the new Common Core Standards.  Beginning at second grade level, Common Core expects students to be able to solve two-step or more word problems. Students are also expected to solve fraction word problems beginning in the fourth grade.Click Here To Access Task Cards

A detailed, step-by-step explanation of how to solve each problem has been included with the task cards to help students understand how to solve these problems too.  The task cards contain real world scenarios so that students can see how fractions apply to everyday life.

This Common Core aligned resource is a great tool to help students meet the demands of state assessments.  Click Here To Access Task Cards

How to Answer Short Response Questions

I have found that short response questions are troublesome for many students to answer. The biggest reason is students tend to use an all or nothing approach.  What I mean is they include all text details or all explanation.  I created this wall chart to remind my students that they must balance both types of information when they write a short response.

Welcome to Middle School Rush

Welcome to Middle School Rush.  This is a new middle school blog from Literacy and Math Ideas.  Literacy and Math Ideas is a duo with sixteen years of combined teaching experience in elementary, middle school, high school, and college level instruction.  We have amazing blog posts and teaching ideas to share with you that we used with our own students.  Visit often.