How to Build Important Things

Description

How to Build Important Things connects the classroom to the working world. This collection of 60 nonfiction texts invites students of all ages to explore career paths while strengthening their literacy skills. Engaging readings pair with standards-based question sets to teach readers about welding, aircraft carriers, the history of the United States Navy, and many topics in between.

• Student-ready worksheets
• Lesson plans and scoring materials
• Literacy and career-exploration questions with each reading

Learners from elementary to high school can benefit from these strategic texts. High school classes could use these readings with students who need more practice and supports. Elementary and middle school students can use them to explore career-based texts with on-grade level comprehension practice. Readings can be used to support a whole class of students, or they can be used in a one-on-one setting. You can use them to build individual skills, increase motivation, or assess learning progress. Regardless of your educational setting, this book can scaffold real-world learning to capture your students’ attention.

Each text is less than one full page in length, accompanied by 4-10 brief but strategic questions to gauge comprehension after reading. Question sets are aligned to the key reading comprehension standards for informational, or nonfiction, texts. The first half of the book features texts with lower readabilities and questions that focus on vocabulary and meaning-making. Afterwards, the readabilities slightly increase, and questions require more inferences.

Chapters in this book do not need to be read chronologically. Students can read from different areas of the book based on the goal of their reading experience or the texts they are most interested in exploring. Additionally, readings are designed to work flexibly with many lesson plans. Students can use them to collaborate on projects, discussions, and further research. Five complete lesson plans at the beginning of this book outline examples of how these texts can come to life in a classroom setting.