Nonfiction Product Review: Brynn, The Literary Maven.

8:00 AM Sarah Koves 2 Comments


Yesterday I was a guest on The Literary Maven talking about her Nonfiction Close Reading sets a few months ago.  See my post below.

Today I used her St. Patrick's Day & The Dark History of Green text and questions.

I think this is one of my favorites because the text was the transcript of an NPR broadcast.  Most of my students have never come across a text like this before.  They really got into the Valentine's Day one too.

Before class I printed off both the transcript and the questions for each student.    I print enough for every student, much to the dismay of the man watching printer counts, because I want them to mark up the text.  I always give my students the article first without the questions because otherwise they don't even want to read.  These texts are short (about four pages), so the students don't get too squirrley.

The first thing I ask them to do is always the same: read an annotate.  I ask the students to make two comments or questions on each page.

Clearly this student was all about BACON. 


Not only does the annotation help them focus and me know they read, it is just good reading strategy.

As they finish reading, even though I ask for quiet, they begin to talk....about the reading!!! I love the conversations they have over these texts.  It warms my heart that the students get into the reading enough to want to share with others.

The sharing of their thoughts with their table groups is what I do after the reading.

See how engaged they are in the conversation...TEACHER LOVE!!!



This one was getting so excited about the topic that he almost hit me with his papers as I was walking the room checking in on everyone.


Only after the conversation do I hand out the questions that go with the text.  We go over them one-by-one before I turn them loose.  Some of these questions ask for textual evidence, and I want to be sure that my students know exactly which ones they need quotes as parts of their answers.


That is one of my favorite things about these products: they require text-based answers.  The students have to use the text in their responses.



I have been using these for awhile now, so the students are getting really good at figuring out the types of questions that go along with the Common Core Nonfiction standards.  This is another great thing about these products: they cover all of the Common Core Standards for Nonfiction text.

Check those right off my list!!!



Another point about these Close Readings is that I just finished the first part of our state testing, and while it is NOT my favorite time of year, these texts made it tolerable because they are such high interest yet allow students to work with texts that similar to those nonfiction texts that they encounter on tests.




One last thing to consider is that these Close Readings are so user-friendly (the answer key is included) that they make a perfect sub folder addition.  These can easily be printed off and left for a substitute to teach.  In fact, The Presidents' Day set was used for just that last month.  



I was gone for the day, and I left that set for my substitute to use in not only my English classes but also my civics classes.



Here is the set I used in these pictures:


Here is The Literary Maven's freebie set:




And here is a freebie from me using the same idea:

Here is The Literary Maven's newest spring set:

Please be sure to stop by our blogs for more wonderful ideas.


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