Reading Stories for Comprehension Success

Junior high students are easily distracted and lose interest quickly. This work presents a reading curriculum designed to challenge them to think. It features 45 high-interest lessons on topics like jeans and buying your first car. It also includes 15 story lessons and activities, printed in a big 8-1/4" x 11" spiral-bound format for photocopying. For classroom reading teachers and specialists, this unique resource is one of four volumes of "Reading Stories for Comprehension Success" packed with ready-to-use story lessons and activities for building students' reading, comprehension, and writing skills in grades 1 through 12. Volume I, PRIMARY LEVEL, presents 45 detailed lessons, reproducible story selections and questions, and related activities for reading grade levels 1, 2, and 3. Volume II, INTERMEDIATE LEVEL, presents 45 detailed lessons, reproducible story selections and questions, and related activities for reading grade levels 4, 5, and 6. Volume III, JUNIOR HIGH LEVEL, presents 45 detailed lessons, reproducible story selections and questions, and related activities for reading levels 7, 8 and 9. Volume IV, SENIOR HIGH LEVEL, presents 45 detailed lessons, reproducible story selections and questions, and related activities for reading levels 10, 11 and 12. The story lessons and activities in all volumes are designed with modifications for the learning disabled built in. They can be used with all regular and special students in any basal or whole language reading program, and help increase students' confidence, interest, and involvement in learning while growing comprehension skills. You'll find 15 story lessons at each grade level—each story lesson is organized into the following sections: About the Story: A brief overview introduces the story's topic, e.g., "Fast-Food Computers" (RL 2) or "The Mystery of St. Elmo's Fire" (RL 4) or "Life Is Sweet: The Story of Milton Hershey" (RL 7). Preview Words: A helpful word list introduces students to any unfamiliar vocabulary. Books to Read: Recommended books relate to the subject of the story lesson. Videos/CD's, Records & Cassettes: These additional resources will help get students hooked into the story lesson. Introductory Activities: Role-playing, card games, crafts projects, and other activities familiarize students with the topics of the story. The Story: Each factual story is designed to capture and hold students' interest and is accompanied by a reproducible full-page picture. Questions: Specially designed comprehension questions require students to think out their answer and respond with complete, written sentences. Extension Activities: Projects, plays, and a variety of other activities allow the student to experience the subject beyond the story. In addition, both Junior High and Senior High Levels feature story-related "Quotes of the Week" ... "Interview Topics" ... and "Word Origin Study." Each grade-level volume also includes a special introduction offering detailed suggestions for using "Reading Stories for Comprehension Success" with students of all abilities. This covers teaching strategies, reading ability guidelines, sentence writing lessons, and directions for effective use of the pre-tests, teacher lesson plans, and student data sheets. In short, "Reading Stories for Comprehension Success" gives you a single developmental program you can use with all of the regular and special students in your classroom. It provides maximum flexibility in lesson preparation and the freedom to base each lesson on your students' needs. It s not easy for teachers to hold the attention of today's junior high students! They re easily distracted and lose interest quickly. Here s a reading curriculum designed to challenge them to think. Written by an experienced reading teacher and workshop leader, it features 45 high-interest lessons on topics like jeans (The Never-Fading Popularity of Levi's Jeans) and Buying Your First Car. You ll'find 15 story lessons and activities—each story includes a brief overview of the story s topic a word list to introduce unfamiliar words recommended books, videos, CDs, records, and cassettes related to the subject crafts, projects, role-playing, games, and other activities that tie into the story reproducible comprehension questions and extension activities such as plays, projects, and other activities to allow students to experience the subject beyond the story. This comprehension program poses literal, fact-based questions as well as interpretive questions that ask students to draw logical conclusions based on what they ve read. It s flexible enough to be used effectively with poor readers, average readers, upper level readers, and special needs students in the classroom.