Assignment Template

Aligned to California’s Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy

This Assignment Template is a great resource for showing the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy in a simple and helpful way. It emphasizes ways to help students read, comprehend, and respond to texts. The structure of this template is much like the edTPA Lesson Plan Guidelines which I personally enjoy because of the detail that is put into explaining each step of the process. The section about pre reading was an important section for me because it is something that I do not see people do as much as they should, and it is probably something that I do not do enough either. It is a very strategic and important way to approach a reading and it sets the tone for the rest of a student’s experience with the text. Once the student starts the reading, they will already be engaged with the text because of the pre reading process that they have gone through. This article points out something very interesting when it talks about the actual reading process. It introduces the idea of reading “with the grain,” and reading “against the grain.” By using just those two concepts of reading, I can see students having a deeper understanding of what they read. This way they are able to read for understanding and then follow that up by asking questions about it and analyzing the text. The article goes into two other parts of the process for the assignment which are the post reading and the writing part. It seems that by taking the proper steps for the pre reading and the reading, a student would be able to easily reflect on their reading and be able to write a cohesive response about it. The first two steps of this process are vital because by doing them, a student will set themselves up for success with the rest of the assignment.