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The novel, Refugee, by Alan Gratz follows three separate characters through important times in history (WWII, Cuba, Syrian War). The characters all have their own stories, but their lives connect in the end. This packet contains 130 comprehension questions that span the entire novel. The questions are separated into chronological order by chapter. The questions range from "within the text" to "beyond the text" to "about the text." There are many stopping points where the student will have to pa

Middle Grade novel, Toys: Amazing Stories Behind Some Great Inventions, by Don Wulffson (2014), is great informational text in a story format. This packet contains 4 sections of short-answer response questions based on summary, timeline, problem & solution, text features, and much more. There are three open-ended questions at the end which I used for a cumulative assessment.

This Dr. Seuss packet is appropriate for upper elementary and middle school students. A short biography is presented about Theodor Geisel's life and then a page is presented explaining how he became known as Dr. Seuss. This is a great introductory lesson for Read Across America.

Introduce your students to 8 different genres (both fiction and nonfiction). Students will become detectives to identify the genre by first using the images of covers of novels to make educated guesses using text features. Next, on a separate page, students will read the synopsis of the book and adjust any of their first attempts at identifying the genre. (Genres: realistic fiction, historical fiction, mystery, fantasy, autobiography, biography, informational, and poetry) Book titles and synops

Students use this checklist to self-evaluate their Close Reading skills applied to any reading assignment. This checklist notes the skills applied while reading and then looks at two levels of achievement. Close Reading strategies included are domain-specific vocabulary, text features, text structure, comprehension, and finding textual evidence. Students note how many times they read the text and score themselves on the level of effort they put in.

Students can work independently or in a small group to identify story setting, major and minor characters, tone, and episodes (events). This task asks students to use textual evidence to demonstrate knowledge of setting, tone, and character change. The task also asks students to identify the 3 most recent episodes in the story.

This double-sided task asks students to set reading goals, summarize, answer a choice question about genre, problem, or prediction, and then leaves a place for a teacher-created question. This "roll the dice" question can align directly with your mini-lesson or can be individualized for each student.

Students are provided with 20 sentences that are either compound or complex. Students have to identify which sentence is which.