For secondary reading specialist and English teachers, this unique resource provides over 200 ready-to-use exercises to help you introduce and reinforce basic literary and reading concepts and develop essential thinking and interpretive skills with students of varying abilities.
The activities are organized into 12 sequential units and build naturally to higher levels of reading proficiency. Each unit also includes reproducible reading selections plus an introductory section with suggestions for teaching the skills in that unit. Here's just an overview of unit topics with sample worksheet titles:
1. THE GOOD READER IN ACTION presents a variety of warm-up exercises, such as "Filling in Famous Quotations," to help students become more flexible in working with words.
2. ALL WORDS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL focuses on different kinds of reading in activities such as "Reading for Proof" and "Search & Scan Exercise."
3. WHEN TO USE A DICTIONARY features activities to help students determine when to use a dictionary, for example, "Making an Educated Guess" and "What's in a Name?"
4. A MEETING OF MINDS teaches students to look beyond the surface for the writer's meaning through exercises such as "Recognizing Charged Words" and "Dealing with Doublespeak."
5. THE READER AS REPORTER provides 20 exercises focusing on a reporter's five W's and an H (how) to develop the habit of looking for answers to these things in reading.
6. WHEN COMPLICATIONS ARISE prepares students for reading literary masterpieces that might otherwise overwhelm them with activities such as "Breaking Up Busy Sentences."
7. COMING TO TERMS WITH TECHNIQUES OF LITERATURE features exercises to build students' understanding of literary techniques, for example, "Seeing the Logic in an Analogy."
8. THE TRUTH IN LITERATURE develops understanding of differences and similarities between nonfiction and fiction through exercises such as "Taking Sides in a Conflict."
9. SETTING & POINT OF VIEW focuses on some of the elements readers can absorb from the first paragraph in activities like "Omniscient or Outside Observer"
10. PLOT introduces the basics of plot and types of fiction passages in exercises such as "Plotting the Action" and "Drawing Conclusions from Dialogue."
11. CHARACTER: THE HEART OF THE STORY presents various methods by which authors achieve effective characterization through activities such as "Shades of Differences."
12. SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT feature authorial comments, elements of symbolism, and thematic references in activities such as "And the Moral is..." and "Familiar Symbols."
For easy use, all material is printed in a big lay-flat binding that folds flat for photocopying of the reproducible pages. And complete answer keys to all activities are provided at the end.
You can use individual activities in conjunction with your classroom literature assignments'to introduce a concept or reinforce specific skills-or as an integrated program to focus on your students' special needs. In Reading Smarter! you'll find a wealth of exercises and ideas that not only prepare students for higher level reading, but also help them approach reading as a lively art!
Patricia Osborn, has taught English and related electives, advised high school newspapers, and served as English department chair in Toldeo, Ohio. Ms, Osborn is the author of five books and lives in Toldeo, Ohio.
