I have to admit that author's point might be my least favorite standard to teach.  😂I was so glad when I stumbled across this text, because it made author's point and reasons so clear!  Even for this teacher who hates teaching it.  😳The author's point is the viewpoint or position an author is taking on an issue.  Students have to be able to identify the author's point and describe how reasons support the specific points the author makes in a text.  (RI 2.8) In Her Right Foot , by Dave Eggers, the author is making a point on an overlooked part of the Statue of Liberty.  The author gives very clear reasons in this text that support the point he makes on the Statue of Liberty.  This is also a great text to incorporate for teaching U.S. symbols and landmarks. Author's point is not first introduced in second grade.  It is actually introduced in kindergarten and first grade, but I have found that students still need support with this standard in seco......

  Asking questions is an important comprehension strategy for readers.  Asking authentic questions encourages curiosity and engages the reader in the text.  Students are more likely to be actively involved with the text when they are on the hunt for answers to their questions.  It gives them a purpose for reading and promotes comprehension of that text.  You want to begin teaching this strategy through an interactive read aloud in which you model and scaffold the strategy of asking questions.  I use the text What Can a Citizen Do? to teach students how to ask questions before, during, and after reading an informational text. You should begin the unit by discussing what questions are.  Creating a question can be difficult at first, so you will want to model for the students.  I would begin by showing them photographs of citizens helping in their community.  Ask students what they wonder about the photos.  Jot down their questions on a w......

  Grace for President is the perfect text for younger elementary students to teach about how our presidential election and the electoral college works.  I knew this would be a great fit for my November Interactive Read Aloud Lessons .  It's the first text that we will read during November.  I used this book to teach using information gained from illustrations and words in a print to demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot in fiction texts (RL 2.8).  I also paired a nonfiction text from www.getepic.com to teach identifying and explaining how illustrations and words contribute to and clarify a text (RI 2.7).  In this post, I will share some Grace for President activities for in-person and distance learning students. I would begin the unit by teaching the students the difference between words and illustrations.  I use these posters to show the difference and we discuss what we can learn from both. The mentor text for this unit is ......

Identifying the author's main purpose for writing a text is an important component of reading comprehension.  When reading informational text, students should be able to determine if an author is writing to answer a question, describe a person or a specific topic, or explain how something works or how to do something.  This is a topic that you may want to spend more than one week on, since its a little difficult for students to grasp within one week.  It's very important to provide lots of scaffolding to aid students in remembering the different purposes in which an author might write a text.  In this post, I will share some activity ideas, anchor charts, posters, and printables to use in your author's purpose lessons. Author's Purpose Activity Packet (Answer, Describe, or Explain Anchor charts are vital in your instruction for scaffolding purposes.  I printed these two as posters and laminated to use throughout my unit.  The first can be used when reading......