Students analyze Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry using key skills from the Common Core. Close reading of the text is required to answer text-dependent questions. Included are student pages with the text-dependent questions as well as suggested answers.

Looking for ways to add rigor to your students' explorations of rich, complex literature? Students will be engaged as they analyze this classic Newbery Medal-winning book about a young girl's fight against prejudice. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry: An Instructional Guide for Literature provides engaging activities that incorporate the following research-based literacy skills: close reading tasks; text-based vocabulary practice; cross-curricular activities; text-dependent questions; reader response writing prompts; leveled comprehension questions; story elements comprehension tasks; diverse and relevant assessments. Strengthen your students' literacy skills by implementing this high-interest resource in your classroom!

Winner of the Newbery Medal, this remarkably moving novel has impressed the hearts and minds of millions of readers. Set in Mississippi at the height of the Depression, this is the story of one family's struggle to maintain their integrity, pride, and independence in the face of racism and social injustice. And it is also Cassie's story—Cassie Logan, an independent girl who discovers over the course of an important year why having land of their own is so crucial to the Logan family, even as she learns to draw strength from her own sense of dignity and self-respect. * "[A] vivid story.... Entirely through its own internal development, the novel shows the rich inner rewards of black pride, love, and independence."—Booklist, starred review

The Common Core State Standards have put close reading in the spotlight as never before. While middle and high school teachers want and need students to connect with, analyze, and learn from both literary and informational texts, many are unsure how to foster the skills students must have in order to develop deep and nuanced understanding of complicated content. Is there a process to follow? How is close reading different from shared reading and other common literacy practices? How do you prepare students to have their ability to analyze complex texts measured by high-stakes assessments? And how do you fit close reading instruction and experiences into an already crowded curriculum? Literacy experts Barbara Moss, Diane Lapp, Maria Grant, and Kelly Johnson answer these questions and more as they explain how to teach middle and high school students to be close readers, how to make close reading a habit of practice across the content areas, and why doing so will build content knowledge. Informed by the authors’ extensive field experience and enriched by dozens of real-life scenarios and downloadable tools and templates, this book explores • Text complexity and how to determine if a particular text is right for your learning purposes and your students. • The process and purpose of close reading, with an emphasis on its role in developing the 21st century thinking, speaking, and writing skills essential for academic communication and college and career readiness. • How to plan, teach, and manage close reading sessions across the academic disciplines, including the kinds of questions to ask, texts to use, and supports to provide. • How to assess close reading and help all students—regardless of linguistic, cultural, or academic background—connect deeply with what they read and derive meaning from complex texts. Equipping students with the tools and process of close reading sets them on the road to becoming analytical and critical thinkers—and empowered and independent learners. In this comprehensive resource, you’ll find everything you need to start their journey.

Looking for ways to add rigor to your students' explorations of rich, complex literature? Students will be engaged as they analyze this Newbery Honor Book set in 1960's Birmingham. The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963: An Instructional Guide for Literature provides engaging activities that incorporate the following research-based literacy skills: close reading tasks; text-based vocabulary practice; cross-curricular activities; text-dependent questions; reader response writing prompts; leveled comprehension questions; story elements comprehension tasks; diverse and relevant assessments. Strengthen your students' literacy skills by implementing this high-interest resource in your classroom!

Close reading, the purposeful, focused reading and rereading of text, is more than an education buzzword. Every Reader, a Close Reader defines and unpacks the components of close reading and explores how to apply it within the context of the Common Core State Standards so that every student will be able to implement close reading strategies in class and independently. Drawing expertise and ideas from research, as well as teachers from across the country, Every Reader, a Close Reader serves as both an instructional guide and professional development tool for classroom teachers and instructional leaders to use when starting or strengthening close reading at the classroom level. In addition, this book includes chapters that focus on developing the close reading skills of students who are struggling readers, English language learners, or gifted learners.

Full of life lessons about growing up, this well-known story will have students comparing and contrasting their own life experiences with those in the book by completing fun, challenging activities and lessons in this instructional guide for literature. These rigorous, cross-curricular lessons and activities work in conjunction with the text to teach students how to comprehend complex literature and help them understand the significance of the story. This resource supports this well-known novel and is packed with tools to teach students how to analyze story elements in multiple ways, practice close reading and text-based vocabulary, determine meaning through text-dependent questions, and more. This is the perfect way to add rigor to your students' explorations of rich, complex literature.

Another powerful story in the Logan Family Saga and companion to Mildred D. Taylor's Newbery Award-winning Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. For David Logan, a time of distress means taking the higher road. During a drought, the Logan family shares their well water with their neighbors, black and white alike. But David’s brother Hammer finds it hard to share with Charlie Simms, who torments them because they are black. Hammer’s pride and Charlie’s meanness are a dangerous combination, and tensions between the boys build and build—until they explode. * “A compelling novel about prejudice and the saving power of human dignity."—School Library Journal, starred review

Get to know Julian and the stories he loves to tell! Along with his brother Huey, Julian's stories sometimes get them into trouble, but count on quick-thinking, fast-talking Julian to invent a story to get out of it. This instructional guide for literature features engaging, rigorous lessons and activities that work in conjunction with the text to teach students how to analyze and comprehend rich, complex literature. Students will learn how to analyze story elements in multiple ways, practice close reading and text-based vocabulary, and determine meaning through text-dependent questions. Strengthen your students' literacy skills by implementing this high-interest resource in your classroom!

Consultant and former teacher Glass helps K-5 teachers make sense of the new Common Core State Standards in English language arts (ELA) and presents numerous classroom activities, differentiation ideas, and rubrics. She introduces a process for developing a unit of study using the ELA Common Core Standards, and includes a template with each key component explained in detail. There is also a lesson design template and sample lessons using the template. The website provides reproducibles for classroom use. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).