South Washington County Schools

DRAFT

Middle School Language Arts Curriculum Guide for Parents

Grades 6-8

e for Parents Guide for Parents

Contents:
General Information: .......................................................................................................................................... 3

Portrait of students who are college and career ready4

Grade 6 ............................................................................................................................................................ 5-6 Grade 7 ............................................................................................................................................................ 7-8 Grade 8 .......................................................................................................................................................... 9-10

The Strategic ExpressionReadReadRead Think and Question11-13

Language Arts Curriculum Guide for Parents 2012 South Washington County Schools; ISD 833 7362 East Point Douglas Rd S Cottage Grove, MN 55016 www.sowashco.k12.mn.us Teaching and Learning Services Dr. Richard Spicuzza; Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Assessment Donita Stepan; K-12 Literacy Coordinator Updated 5/15/12
2

General Information
In Minnesota, the language arts content standards, aligned with the National Common Core standards are divided into four separate strands: Reading, Writing, Speaking/Viewing/ Listening and Media Literacy, and Language. Students receive instruction in each area and standard, every year. The content builds on itself and becomes more in-depth as students progress through the years. A comprehensive Language Arts program provides meaningful instruction in the four core areas. All E-8 South Washington County Schools use a Balanced Literacy/Workshop Structure for instructional planning and implementation. Observation and assessment data are used on a daily basis to make instructional decisions. The daily delivery of instruction moves through each of the components of a Workshop Model: read aloud, whole group lesson, small group guided instruction, and independent practice. Its this structure that allows us to personalize instruction and meet the needs of all students in South Washington County. In addition to our strong workshop model, students in South Washington County schools receive a comprehensive approach to reading that includes theme based learning and allows for flexibility, construction of meaning, critical thinking, and problem solving. Our curriculum develops a bridge between Language Arts and other content areas in order to provide a means for all subject areas to make connections to student learning across each grade level. This allows teachers the flexibility they need to create lessons and units that foster independence, creative thinking and problem solving. These connections reinforce and expand students relationship between their learning and their world. In an effort to communicate some of the essential learning at each of the grade levels, we have created this Middle School Language Arts Curriculum Guide for Parents. One of the most important guiding principles in the South Washington County schools is that we believe students should be spending at least 30 minutes per day reading at home and should be accountable for a specified number of books per year. The more students read, the more words they encounter and the more words and background knowledge they gain.

What Matters: Variation in Amount of Independent Reading

Student percentile rank 98 80 60 40 2 Minutes of reading per day 65.0 14.2 6.5 3.2 0 Words read per year 4,358,000 1,146, 432,000 200,000 0

Anderson, Richard C., Wilson, P.T Fielding, L.G., Growth in Reading How Children Spend Their Time Outside of School, Reading Research Quarterly #23, pp.285-303 1988

The following pages outline some basic information regarding Middle School Language Arts. These learning targets are only a fraction of the expectations for middle school students in South Washington County schools; we attempted to identify skills and strategies that may offer support for parents and their children. In addition to some of the Essential Questions and learning targets, you will find a link that shows an average fluent reader at each grade level. These readers have the fluency and comprehension that we believe is considered proficient at each of the grade levels. Listen and enjoy! For a more complete curriculum outline, feel free to view our curriculum webpage or contact Donita Stepan, SWC District Literacy Coordinator at dstepan@sowashco.k12.mn.us
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A Portrait of Students who are College and Career Ready

The descriptions that follow are not standards themselves but instead offer a portrait of students who meet the standards set out by the state of Minnesota. As students advance through the grades and master the standards in reading, writing, speaking, viewing, listening, and media literacy and language, they are able to exhibit with increasing fullness and regularity these capacities of the literate individual.

They demonstrate independence.

Students can, without significant scaffolding, comprehend and evaluate complex texts across a range of types and disciplines, and they can construct effective arguments and convey intricate or multifaceted information. Likewise, students are able independently to discern a speakers key points, request clarification, and ask relevant questions. They build on others ideas, articulate their own ideas, and confirm they have been understood. Without prompting, they demonstrate command of Standard English and acquire and use a wide-ranging vocabulary. More broadly, they become self-directed learners, effectively seeking out and using resources to assist them, including teachers, peers, and print and digital reference materials.

They comprehend as well as critique.

Students are engaged and open-mindedbut discerningreaders, listeners and viewers. They work diligently to understand precisely what an author or speaker is saying, but they also question an authors or speakers assumptions and premises and assess the veracity of claims and the soundness of reasoning.

They value evidence.

Students cite specific evidence when offering an oral or written interpretation of a text. They use relevant evidence when supporting their own points in writing and speaking, making their reasoning clear to the reader or listener, and they constructively evaluate others use of evidence.

They build strong content knowledge.

Students establish a base of knowledge across a wide range of subject matter by engaging with works of quality and substance. They become proficient in new areas through research and study. They read purposefully and listen attentively to gain both general knowledge and discipline-specific expertise. They refine and share their knowledge through writing and speaking.

They use technology and digital media strategically and capably.

Students employ technology thoughtfully to enhance their reading, writing, speaking, viewing, listening, and media literacy and language use. They tailor their searches online to acquire useful information efficiently, and they integrate what they learn using technology with what they learn offline. They are familiar with the strengths and limitations of various technological tools and mediums and can select and use those best suited to their communication goals.

They respond to the varying demands of audience, task, purpose, and discipline.
Students adapt their communication in relation to audience, task, purpose, and discipline. They set and adjust purpose for reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language use as warranted by the task. They appreciate nuances, such as how the composition of an audience should affect tone when speaking and how the connotations of words affect meaning. They also know that different disciplines call for different types of evidence (e.g., documentary evidence in history, experimental evidence in science).

They come to understand other perspectives and cultures.

Students appreciate that the twenty-first-century classroom and workplace are settings in which people from often widely divergent cultures and who represent diverse experiences and perspectives must learn and work together. Students actively seek to understand other perspectives and cultures through reading and listening, and they are able to communicate effectively with people of varied backgrounds. They evaluate other points of view critically and constructively. Through reading great classic and contemporary works of literature representative of a variety of periods, cultures, and worldviews, students can vicariously inhabit worlds and have experiences much different than their own.
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Essential Questions by Grade Level

The next several pages outline the Essential Questions for each of the grade levels, along with some key learning that are essential at each of the grade levels. This is only a fraction of the expectations for students in South Washington County schools. For a more complete curriculum outline, feel free to contact Donita Stepan, SWC Literacy Coordinator at dstepan@sowashco.k12.mn.us .

Grade 6
Your child will be exposed to many different learning experiences in 6 grade. These experiences will be appropriate to your childs age and level of development and will be presented in a variety of ways in order to introduce, reinforce, master or extend the skills.
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Grade 6 Essential Questions:

Language Arts Content Questions
Reading and Literature What strategies do good readers use in order to understand text? Why is it important to read? What are the elements of a fictional story? Writing and Language What are the key steps in the writing process? How do writers develop elements of a fictional story? 21st Century Skills What is my role in our workshop community? How do I become a life-long reader and writer? Reading and Literature When one encounters unknown words, what can one do? What are the elements of nonfiction? How does fiction compare to nonfiction? Writing and Language Why is it important to continually build vocabulary? How can one deepen analysis of ones writing? Why is it important to produce a quality piece of writing? 21st Century Skills How can one communicate effectively with others? What questioning techniques are most effective to gain information? Reading and Literature What are the elements of poetry and drama? How can I develop into a better reader? Writing and Language How can figurative language enhance ones writing? 21st Century Skills How does persuasion affect the information presented in a text? How can one make informed evaluations of different media?

How can you help your child at home?

Along with the benchmarks from the State of Minnesota and the SWC District learning targets, Grade 6 students, by the end of the school year, should be able to: Read and discuss 20+ books with a parent by the end of the year Write at least one formal paper each trimester narrative, informative and argumentative along with daily journaling Read at least 30 minutes per night

Listen to a proficient/end of year sixth grader read and talk about text (NOT YET
AVAILABLE)

Spring

Winter

Fall

Recognize and define the following root words, prefixes and suffixes automatically: *Flexible Pacing Guide Unit Patterns

September September October October November November December December January February February March April April May May

1 2 6 7 8 18 19 25 26 31 34 40 42 50 51 52

Prefixes in-, un-, dis-, misPrefixes pre-, fore-, post-, afterComparative Suffixes er, -est, -ier, -iest Noun Suffixes er, -or, -ian, -ist Suffixes ment, -less, -ness Consonant Alternation Vowel Alternation: Long to Short Greek and Latin Number Prefixes: mono-, uni-, bi-, triMore Number Prefixes Latin Roots: dic, aud, vis Latin Roots: man, scrib/script, cred, fac Latin Roots: gen, mort, bio Latin Roots: jud, leg, mod, biblio Suffixes: -ent/-ence, -ant/-ance Suffixes: -ent/-ence/-ency, -ant/-ance/-ancy Suffixes: -able/-ible

*Be sure to check with the teacher for specific pacing

In order to help comprehension, its important to ask your child questions about the books they are reading and get them to speak clearly and precisely about their understanding. See pages 12-15 for questions to ask your child when he/she is reading.

Vocabulary instruction should consist of three things:

Ample time to read this is the single best way for students to increase their vocabulary A literacy rich environment parents should use challenging vocabulary at home Direct instruction parents can help by working with their child at home. Working with Word Parts/Morphology and ensuring their child understand word parts are essential to increased vocabulary development and comprehension. Using Word-Part Clues/Morphology. Morpheme is the name for meaningful word parts that readers can identify and put together to determine the meaning of an unfamiliar word. Knowledge of morphemes and morphology, or word structure, plays a valuable role in word learning from context, because readers can use such knowledge to examine unfamiliar words and figure out their meanings (Carlisle, 2004). It is estimated that more than 60 percent of the new words that readers encounter have easily identifiable morphological structure that is, they can be broken into parts (Nagy, Anderson, Schommer, Scott, & Stallman, 1989). Researchers have focused considerable attention on the value of teaching roots, prefixes, and suffixes for purposes of vocabulary development. The Nagy and Anderson (1984) analysis of printed school English made clear that a large number of words that students encounter in reading are derivatives or inflections of familiar root words. Several researchers have argued, in fact, that focusing vocabulary instruction on acquiring root words is an effective way to address the large number of words that students must learn each year (e.g., Anglin, 1993; Biemiller & Slonim, 2001). For the complete article, click here http://www.prel.org/products/re_/ES0419.h. For a list of additional Roots, prefixes and suffixes, and their meanings, click here.
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Grade 7
Your child will be exposed to many different learning experiences in 7 grade. These experiences will be appropriate to your childs age and level of development and will be presented in a variety of ways in order to introduce, reinforce, master or extend the skills.
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Grade 7 Essential Questions:

Language Arts Content Questions
Reading and Literature What distinguishes an effective reader from an ineffective reader? How does an author develop characters, setting and plot? How do elements of fiction contribute to understanding? Writing and Language What process can one use to improve writing? How can one use character and setting development to enhance narrative writing? How can one use language to convey meaning? 21st Century Literacies How can one communicate ideas and deepen understanding?

Fall Winter

Listen to a proficient/end of year seventh grader read and talk about text (NOT
YET AVAILABLE)

Reading and Literature How are informative essays different than argumentative essays? What are the elements of historical fiction and how do they contribute to understanding of text? Writing and Language How does one write an effective informative essay? What constitutes effective supporting evidence? How can knowledge of grammar and usage improve ones writing? 21st Century Literacies What consequences can come from poor communication? Why is it necessary to do research and be able to communicate to others? What are the effects of different media on communication?

Reading and Literature

How is poetry similar/different than other types of writing? How might oral interpretation increase appreciation of poetry? How is drama different from other literary forms? What do I need to do to become a better reader? Writing and Language How can one plan an effective informational presentation? What makes a speech effective? 21st Century Literacy How can one critically analyze persuasive arguments? How does one critically evaluate different media? What are different ways of communicating information? What determines the accuracy, validity and reliability of information?

How can you help your child at home?

Along with the benchmarks from the State of Minnesota and the SWC District learning targets, Grade 7 students, by the end of the school year, will: Read and discuss 20+ books with a parent by the end of the year Write at least one process paper each trimester narrative, informative and argumentative along with daily journaling Read at least 30 minutes per night

Spring

Recognize and define the following root words, prefixes and suffixes automatically: *Flexible Pacing Guide Unit Patterns

September September October October November November December January January February February March April April May May

9 11 14 17 20 23 24 27 30 33 36 41 45 47 53 56

Suffixes ary, -ery, -ory Suffixes al, -ial, -ic Adding ion to base words, no spelling change Adding ation, -cation, -ition Vowel Alternation: Long to Short or Schwa Adding ion: Vowel Alternation, spelling change Multiple Alternations Greek and Latin Elements: Size, micro-, mega-, super-, hyperLatin Roots: spect, port, form Latin Roots: fract, flect/flex, ject, mis/mit Latin Roots: bene, mal and Prefixes ante-, postLatin Roots: ven/vent, junct, spir, sec/sect Prefixes: intra-, inter-, intro-, circumLatin Roots: pos, loc, sist, sta/stat/stit Adding able, -ible (e-drop and y to i) Prefix Assimilation (in-)

*Be sure to check with the teacher for specific pacing In order to help comprehension, its important to ask your child questions about the books they are reading and get them to speak clearly and precisely about their understanding. See pages 12-15 for questions to ask your child when he/she is reading.

Vocabulary instruction should consist of three things:

Ample time to read this is the single best way for students to increase their vocabulary A literacy rich environment parents should use challenging vocabulary at home Direct instruction parents can help by working with their child at home. Working with Word Parts/Morphology and ensuring their child understand word parts are essential to increased vocabulary development and comprehension.

Using Word-Part Clues/Morphology. Morpheme is the name for meaningful word parts that readers can identify and put together to determine the meaning of an unfamiliar word. Knowledge of morphemes and morphology, or word structure, plays a valuable role in word learning from context, because readers can use such knowledge to examine unfamiliar words and figure out their meanings (Carlisle, 2004). It is estimated that more than 60 percent of the new words that readers encounter have easily identifiable morphological structure that is, they can be broken into parts (Nagy, Anderson, Schommer, Scott, & Stallman, 1989). Researchers have focused considerable attention on the value of teaching roots, prefixes, and suffixes for purposes of vocabulary development. The Nagy and Anderson (1984) analysis of printed school English made clear that a large number of words that students encounter in reading are derivatives or inflections of familiar root words. Several researchers have argued, in fact, that focusing vocabulary instruction on acquiring root words is an effective way to address the large number of words that students must learn each year (e.g., Anglin, 1993; Biemiller & Slonim, 2001). For the complete article, click here http://www.prel.org/products/re_/ES0419.h. For a list of additional Roots, prefixes and suffixes, and their meanings, click here.
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Grade 8
Your child will be exposed to many different learning experiences in 8 grade. These experiences will be appropriate to your childs age and level of development and will be presented in a variety of ways in order to introduce, reinforce, master or extend the skills.
th

Grade 8 Essential Questions:

Language Arts Content Questions
Reading and Literature
How do authors organize fiction and nonfiction text? How can the use of effective reading strategies promote higher level thinking? How does a work of literature endure through time?

Fall Winter Spring

Listen to a proficient and fluent eighth grader read and talk about text
(NOT YET AVAILABLE)

Writing and Language

How do writers use voice to reveal meaning? How do writers effectively structure fiction and nonfiction writing?

21 Century Literacies
How does learning about different patterns of organization help me understand media?

st

Reading and Literature

What can we learn about reading and writing from studying the same event/era through multiple authors perspectives? How do authors use figurative language to affect meaning? How can learning prefixes, suffixes, and roots help people enlarge vocabularies?

Writing and Language

How can one improve ones writing through the study of grammar and usage? What constitutes an analytical response?

21 Century Literacies
How can one critically evaluate the quality and relevance of informational media? What kinds of writing will be part of the 21st century workplace?

st

Reading and Literature

How does an author convey ideas or beliefs through text?

Writing and Language

How can one plan and present an effective persuasive argument? What are the qualities of an argumentative paper?
st

21 Century Literacies
How does one recognize bias? What skills are necessary to give and seek information in conversations, in group discussions, and in oral presentations?

How can you help your child at home?

Along with the benchmarks from the state of Minnesota and the SWC District learning targets, Grade 8 students, by the end of the school year, will: Read and discuss 20+ books with a parent by the end of the year Write at least one process paper each trimester narrative, informative and persuasive along with daily journaling Read at least 30 minutes per night

Recognize and define the following root words, prefixes and suffixes automatically: *Flexible Pacing Guide Unit Patterns

September September October October November November December January January February February March April April May May February February

15 16 21 22 29 32 35 37 38 39 43 49 54 55 57 58 39 43

Adding ion and ian, no spelling change Adding ion, E-drop, and spelling change Adding Suffix ity: Vowel alternation, schwa to short Vowel Alternations: Long, Short, and Schwa More Greek Roots: geo, therm, scope, meter, logy Latin Roots: gress, rupt, tract, mot Latin Roots: duc/duct, sequ/sec, flu, ver/vert Greek and Latin Elements: Amounts, magni, min, poly, equ, omni Greek and Latin Elements: Related to the Body, cap, corp, dent/dont, ped/pod Greek and Latin Roots: terr, astr/aster, aer, hydra/hydro Greek and Latin Roots: voc/voke, ling/lang, mem, psych Predicatble Spelling Changes in Word Roots: seiv/sep, tain/ten, nounce/nunc Accent and Doubling Words from French Prefix Assimilation (com-) Prefix Assimilation (sub-) Greek and Latin Roots: terr, astr/aster, aer, hydra/hydro Greek and Latin Roots: voc/voke, ling/lang, mem, psych
*Be sure to check with the teacher for specific pacing

In order to help comprehension, its important to ask your child questions about the books they are reading and get them to speak clearly and precisely about their understanding. See pages 12-15 for questions to ask your child when he/she is reading.

Vocabulary instruction should consist of three things:

Ample time to read this is the single best way for students to increase their vocabulary A literacy rich environment parents should use the challenging vocabulary at home Direct instruction parents can help by working with their child at home. Working with Word Parts/Morphology and ensuring their child understand word parts are essential to increased vocabulary development and comprehension. Using Word-Part Clues/Morphology. Morpheme is the name for meaningful word parts that readers can identify and put together to determine the meaning of an unfamiliar word. Knowledge of morphemes and morphology, or word structure, plays a valuable role in word learning from context, because readers can use such knowledge to examine unfamiliar words and figure out their meanings (Carlisle, 2004). It is estimated that more than 60 percent of the new words that readers encounter have easily identifiable morphological structure that is, they can be broken into parts (Nagy, Anderson, Schommer, Scott, & Stallman, 1989). Researchers have focused considerable attention on the value of teaching roots, prefixes, and suffixes for purposes of vocabulary development. The Nagy and Anderson (1984) analysis of printed school English made clear that a large number of words that students encounter in reading are derivatives or inflections of familiar root words. Several researchers have argued, in fact, that focusing vocabulary instruction on acquiring root words is an effective way to address the large number of words that students must learn each year (e.g., Anglin, 1993; Biemiller & Slonim, 2001). For the complete article, click here http://www.prel.org/products/re_/ES0419.h. For a list of additional Roots, prefixes and suffixes, and their meanings, click here
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V-Q-MC2-I-D-S

ReadRead Read. Think and Question

Reading is more than saying the words on a page or getting your child from the beginning of the book to the end. To be successful readers, children need to comprehend (understand) what they read. This is ultimately what matters! There is plenty of thinking that never contributes to any understanding and never casts light on whats really important. Thinking without questioning will never get a reader to true understanding. We must work together to ensure our students learn to question, wonder and think. Strategic questioning will help your child reach higher levels of thinking and comprehension. Asking some of the questions below, and asking them to provide EVIDENCE of their thinking, will help your child learn to think and comprehend.

Visualizing
Readers create pictures in their minds as they read. If they arent able to, comprehension is lost. Perhaps background knowledge isnt solid enough for the child to understand the text or perhaps he or she needs to reread for understanding. You could have your children make stops while reading aloud to describe the pictures in their minds. They could even draw for you what they see. You could also ask them questions What do you picture as you read this paragraph? When reading this story did you make pictures in your head? How did these pictures help you understand the story better?

Questioning
When readers question the text before, during, and after they read, they attend more closely to the text, clarify meaning, make predictions, and focus their attention on whats important. It is important for readers to understand some of the most interesting questions we have arent always answered in the story! Before Reading What do you think will happen? Why do you suppose...

During Reading What do you think... What do you wonder... How come... What does that word mean? How can I figure it out using clues from the text?
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After Reading What would have happened if I wonder why the author I wonder where we could look to find out more about

Making Connections
Readers constantly make connections as they read; connections to their own lives, another book, or real world events. Bringing those connections out and discussing them can lead to more interaction and interest in a text as well as deepen comprehension. What does this book remind you of? Have you experienced any of the events or situations in this book? Can you understand how the character was feeling? Why? What do you know about the books topic? Does this book remind you of another book?

Inferring
More than simple prediction, inferring happens when readers can take what they know and what is written in the book to read between the lines. The ability to infer helps the reader get to the why of the story and draw conclusions. You can help your child use inference by asking Why did you think that would happen? Why did the author write the story in that way? Why do you think the character feels that way? Why did the character do that?

Determining Importance
Readers need to prioritize as they read. It is related to main idea and identifying themes. It is a critical skill for students as they encounter textbooks and nonfiction. Be sure your child pays attention to first and last lines of a paragraph, titles, heading, captions, fonts, illustrations, italics, and bold faced print. Initiate discussion before reading by asking what your child knows about the topic and what he or she would like to learn. What kind of message is the author sending? What are the main ideas? What is just interesting without being important?

Summarizing
Readers have to decide what information is central to the meaning of the text. To effectively summarize, students must delete some information, substitute some information, and keep some information. In order to do this, students must analyze the information at a fairly deep level. Who? What? Where? When? Why? Which? How?

Sometimes its easy for students to start with the when, followed by the who or the where and build from there. For instance, In 1942 (when), in a small town in England, (where), a teenage girl, named Ellen, (who) was held captive (what). 12

SIMILARITIES/DIFFERENCES
Ask yourself questions which require you to find similarities and differences in characters, settings, and events presented in various texts. How are ________ and ___________ ALIKE? How is ______________ DIFFERENT from ___________? How is ____________ both SIMILAR to and DIFFERENT from _______________? What is one DIFFERENCE between ___________ and ____________? How is ________________ dissimilar to ___________? How did the character change from the beginning of the story to the end?

CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER
Ask yourself questions which require you to use skill of sequencing in order to form an answer. Be sure you are able to prove your answer by showing pages, pictures, etc within the story (text). What happened just BEFORE _____? What happened just AFTER______? What happened first, last, etc? What happened between ______ and _______? What is the first, second, third, last, etc step in_______?

PROBLEM/SOLUTION
Ask yourself questions which require you to identify the problem and solution in the story (text). Make sure you support your answer with facts and details from the story (text).

What was the problem in the story? How was the problem solved?

COMPARE & CONTRAST

Ask yourself questions which require you to recognize the use of comparison and contrast in story (text). Make sure you support your examples with facts and details from the story (text). How are ______ and _______ALIKE? How is ____ DIFFERENT from ____? How are you SIMILAR to the character(s)? How are you DIFFERENT from the character(s)? What is one DIFFERENCE between ____ and ____?

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CAUSE & EFFECT

Ask yourself questions which require you to describe the cause or effect of an action or event within the story (text). Make sure you prove your answers using facts and details from the story (text). What caused _____ to _____? What happened because of _____? What effect did _____ have on _____? What might happen if _____? What is the effect of _____? Why did the character ______? What were the results of _____?

MAIN IDEA
Ask yourself questions which require you to find the main idea of a story (text). Make sure you support your answer using facts and details from the story (text). What is the main idea of the story? Describe what the story is mostly about in 10 words or less. Would ________ be a good title for the story? Why? What do you think would be another good title for the story? Why?

RETELLING
Ask yourself to retell a part of the story (text). Make sure you retell the story with the proper story elements. Remember to use specific information from the text. Do NOT make up information.

Retell the part of the story from ______ to ________; Retell your favorite part of the story. In your own words, what happened in the beginning, middle, or end of the story?

PLOT DEVELOPMENT/RESOLUTION
Ask yourself questions which require you to identify plot development and/or problem resolution in the story.

What problem did the character face? What happens that causes the character to change from the beginning to the end of the story? How is the problem solved in the story? What events lead to the resolution of the problem in the story?

*Remember to support your answers using details from the text.

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AUTHORS PURPOSE
Ask yourself questions which require you to recognize why the author wrote the story (text). Make sure you can justify your answers. Why do you think the author wrote the story, article, etc? Is the author trying to explain or show you how to do something? Is the author trying to entertain you or make you feel happy? Is the author trying to make you think like him/her? Is the author trying to teach you about something? Examples of Authors Purpose: o Show, Entertain, Persuade, Inform, Argue

VOCABULARY
Ask yourself questions which require you to determine the correct meaning of a word in context (within text). Justify your answers. What does __________ mean? What does the word __________ mean? Can you think of another word that means the same as _________? Can you think of a word that means the opposite of __________? What do you think the word means by looking at the clues (pictures, words around the unfamiliar word)?

FACT/OPINION *
Ask yourself questions which require you to differentiate between fact and opinion in story (text). Is _____ a fact/opinion from the story? Why? Tell me one fact/opinion from the story. Tell me one fact/opinion about you.

*Remember: a fact is something one can prove (colors, size, shape, etc..) either right or wrong and an opinion is someones thoughts or feelings (cannot be proven).

FACT/DETAIL
Ask yourself questions which require you to recognize facts and details from the story (text). Make sure you use specific information from the story (text). Who? What? Where? When? Why? Which? How?

MULTIPLE REPRESENTATION OF INFORMATION

Ask yourself questions which require you to use a variety of reference materials, including multiple representation of information such as maps, charts, captions, and pictures to gather information. According to the maps, charts, captions or pictures Who? What? Where? When? Why? Which? How?
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