guide to how action supports your reading program: 2019 …learn about features of drama. action...

Guide to How Action Supports Your Reading Program: 2019-2020

Welcome to Action!

Welcome to Action, a powerful, award-winning reading intervention resource for your middle or high school English Language Arts classroom.

This guide will help you plan your year with Action, a classroom magazine full of thrilling cross-genre content. You’ll find the genres and skills you can expect to cover with your students, along with the differentiation, assessment, and standards information you need to create a powerful and robust teaching schedule.

This guide will help you utilize Action to its fullest and teach each issue with ease and joy.

We always love to hear from you. If you have any questions or comments, please contact Executive Editor Kim Tranell at [email protected].

What You’ll Find Inside

Planning Overview: Using Action Throughout the Year .................................................... 4

Narrative and Literary Nonfiction ................................................................................ 5

Fiction .................................................................................................................... 6

Paired Texts ............................................................................................................. 7

Reader’s Theater Play ................................................................................................. 8

Debate .................................................................................................................... 9

Mini Read ...............................................................................................................10

True Teen ................................................................................................................11

In the News ............................................................................................................12

Poetry ....................................................................................................................13

Infographic .............................................................................................................13

Planning Overview: Using Action Throughout the Year

Action is a flexible resource that can fit into many classroom settings, whether you’re using it as a core resource for a special education class, as an intervention tool with a small group, in a resource room, or as a supplement to your ELA program. You’ll receive your class set of magazines two to three weeks before each issue date; at the same time, you will be able to access the wealth of online support materials that accompany the issue so you can start planning around specific articles and stories.

The number of days per week you teach with Action is up to you. Depending on how many features you cover and which activities you assign, you might use Action one or two days per week or all five. However you choose to fit the resource into your classroom, here is a suggested breakdown of how you can use it through the year:

Issue ApproximateTimeFrame September September 1-September 30 October October 1-October 31 November November 1-November 30 December/January December 1-January 31 February February 1-February 28 March March 1-March 31 April April 1-April 30 May May 1-May 31

NARRATIVE AND LITERARY NONFICTION

DescriptionofFeature Skills Differentiation Assessment Standards

Every issue of Action offers a beautifully crafted work of narrative nonfiction. Each dazzling article delves into an important and highly engaging topic, often connected to social studies and science content areas. Typical selections present significant events in history, natural disasters, and inspiring figures from the past or present.

The article, lesson, and support materials focus on a featuredskill,textevidence, which is reinforced throughout the year. We also offer activities to introduce or reinforce additionalskillsso that you can tailor instruction to your needs. Skills include:

• Close reading• Critical thinking• Text features• Central idea and

details• Inference

Vocabulary: Academic and domain-specific

Writing: A writing prompt is included in the Teacher’s Guide

On-level (600-800L) in the print issue and lower-Lexile (450-650L) and higher-Lexile (750-950L) versions of article online

Audio read-aloud of on-level article with text-to-speech

Higher- and lower-level activity sheets and quizzes

Teaching suggestions for struggling readers, ELL students, and multiple learning styles

Videos to build background knowledge before reading

FormativeorSummative: Observation, conferencing, progress on activity sheets for individual skills, response to close-reading and critical-thinking questions (oral or written), quiz (higher- or lower-level) with selected-response and constructed-response questions

PerformanceTasks:• Writing prompt• Extension activities

CCSS(and states that have similar standards)*: R.1, R.2, R.3, R.4, R.5, R.7, W.1, W.2, W.3, SL.1, L.4, L.6

Issue-specific CCSS and TEKS are available online.

*The standards listed apply to AL, AZ, AK, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, RI, SD, UT, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY


Action offers high- quality, complex fiction by renowned authors in alternating issues. Stories often address issues and themes relevant to teens, including identity, change, bullying, and friendship. Genres include realistic fiction, historical fiction, science fiction, and fantasy.

Each story is designed as a “learning kit,” with questions printed in the margins for students to consider and discuss as they read.

The story, lesson, and support materials focus on a featuredskill,inference, which is reinforced throughout the year. We also offer activities to introduce or reinforce additionalskillsso that you can tailor instruction to your needs. Skills include:

• Character• Plot• Text features• Close reading• Critical thinking


Writing: A narrative, explanatory, or argumentative writing prompt is included in the Teacher’s Guide.

Audio read-aloud of the story with text-to-speech

Audio read-aloud of vocabulary words and definitions

Activity sheets and higher- and lower-level quizzes


Interactive video: “Skills in Action: What is an Inference?”



CCSS(and states that have similar standards)*: R.1, R.2, R.3, R.4, R.7, W.1, W.2, W.3, SL.1, L.4, L.6


FICTION


PAIRED TEXTS


Our popular paired-text feature offers two texts united by topic or theme—for example, two nonfiction articles, or a nonfiction text paired with a poem, fable, personal essay, interview, or other genre. Topics often draw on science, social studies, current events, and social-emotional learning concepts.

The article, lesson, and support material focus on comparingandcontrastingorsynthesizing. We also offer activities to introduce or reinforce additionalskillsso that you can tailor instruction to your needs. Skills include:

• Close reading• Critical thinking• Text features• Key ideas and details


Writing: A narrative, explanatory, or argumentative writing prompt is included



Audio read-aloud of the texts with text-to-speech




PerformanceTasks: • Writing prompt• Extension activities

CCSS(and states that have similar standards)*:R.1, R.2, R.3, R.4, R.7, R.9, W.1, W.2, W.3, SL.1, L.4, L.6



READER’S THEATER PLAY


Alternating issues include a read-aloud play that provides a perfect opportunity to practice fluency and learn about features of drama. Action plays are often adapted from classic short stories, novels, myths, folktales, biographies, or significant historical events.

The play, lesson, and support materials focus on a featuredskill,inference, which is reinforced throughout the year. We also offer activities to introduce or reinforce additionalskillsso that you can tailor instruction to your needs. Skills include:• Character• Theme• Genre• Mood• Close reading• Critical thinking• Integrating ideas


Writing: A prompt is included.




Interactive video: “Skills in Action: What is an Inference?”



CCSS(and states that have similar standards)*: R.1, R.2, R.3, R.4, R.5, R.6, R.7, R.10, W.1, W.2, W.3, SL.1, SL.2, L.4, L.5, L.6



DEBATE


Every issue includes a debate on a hot-button topic for teens. Debates prompt students to read and analyze a text or texts that explore both sides of a debate. After an activity in which students find points on both sides of the debate and a lively classroom conversation, students use our differentiated graphic organizers to write an argumentative essay or paragraph.

Reading the debate, participating in a classroom debate, and writing an essay in response requires students to:

• Identify central ideas and supporting details

• Evaluate arguments and claims

• Support an argument using text evidence

• Build on others’ ideas and express their own ideas clearly and persuasively

• Evaluate a speaker’s point of view and reasoning


Writing: Argumentative


Audio read-aloud of the debate with text-to-speech

Higher- and lower-level quizzes and graphic organizers to guide students to plan an argumentative essay or paragraph

FormativeorSummative: Observation, discussion, quiz with selected-response and constructed-response questions


CCSS(and states that have similar standards)*: R.1, R.2, R.6, R.8, W.1, W.4, W.7, SL.1



MINI READ


Every issue of Action has a bite-sized fascinating informational text and accompanying MiniSkillsWorkout, which asks students to find vocabulary words in the text and provide text evidence to comprehension questions.

Reading the article and completing the Mini Skills Workout enforces the following skills:• Grammar • Vocabulary• Text evidence• Comprehension

Vocabulary:Academic and domain-specific

Audio read-aloud of text with text-to-speech

Every Mini Read comes with an online activity sheet focusing on a grammar skill.

CCSS(and states that have similar standards)*: R.1, R.3, L.3



TRUE TEEN


Every issue of Action includes the true story of an incredible teen. This short nonfiction is written in first or third person and focuses on a teen who has overcome a hardship, beat the odds, stood up for what they believe in, or has an interesting lifestyle.

The article, lesson, and support materials focus on a featuredskill,causeandeffect, which is reinforced throughout the year. We also offer activities to introduce or reinforce additionalskillsso that you can tailor instruction to your needs. Skills include:

• Close reading• Critical thinking• Text features• Sequencing• Problem and solution


Writing: A narrative, explanatory, or argumentative writing prompt is included in the Teacher’s Guide.






Videos to build background knowledge



CCSS(and states that have similar standards)*: R.1, R.3, R.4, R.5, R.7, W.1, W.2, W.3, SL.1, L.4, L.6



IN THE NEWS


Every issue of Action comes with a short, timely nonfiction feature about a current event relevant to teens, explained in a way they can understand and relate to.

The article, lesson, and support materials focus on a featuredskill,summarizing. We also offer activities to introduce or reinforce additionalskillsso that you can tailor instruction to your needs. Skills include:

• Close reading• Critical thinking• Text features• Comprehension








CCSS(and states that have similar standards)*: R.1, R.2, R.3, R.4, R.7, W.2, SL.1, L.4, L.6



POETRY


Some issues of Action feature a poem by poets such as Carl Sandburg, Tupac Shakur, and Gwendolyn Brooks.

This feature builds the following skills:• Poetry analysis• Inference• Text features• Imagery• Figurative language• Author’s craft• Close reading

Audio read-aloud of the poem found at Action Online with text-to-speech.

Formative: Observation, progress on activities

CCSS(and states that have similar standards)*:R.1, R.2, R.3, R.4, R.5, SL.1, SL.2, L.5



INFOGRAPHIC


The infographic conveys facts and data about a kid-friendly topic using photos, graphs, charts, and other images. Students draw on the information presented to complete an activity online.

This feature builds the following skills:

• Text features• Analyzing a visual text• Central ideas and

details

Formative: Observation, progress on activities

CCSS(and states that have similar standards)*:R.1, R.7


guide to how action supports your reading program: 2019 …learn about features of drama. action...

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