Fall in Love with This Teacher’s Text-Marking Activity

By Kim O'Bray
Editor’s Note: Kim O’Bray’s colorful text marking activity is a key part of her close-reading process. Students engage deeply with the text by using colored pencils to mark everything from figurative language and unfamiliar vocabulary to central ideas and text structures.

 I really like this text-marking approach because it gets everyone on the same page and encourages students to ask questions and make their own connections. It works wonderfully with any nonfiction text. At the beginning of the year, I model each step for my students, especially for my 6th graders who are new to text-marking. By the time my students are in 8th grade, the process has become second nature.


What you’ll need:

Any Scope nonfiction article. I used "Crisis at Chipotle" from the May 2016 issue.
List of vocabulary words and definitions, like this one
Red, yellow, green, and regular pencils
Close-Reading and Critical-Thinking Questions, like these
Key skills:
finding text evidence, central ideas, text structure, figurative language, vocabulary, synthesizing, summarizing

Time:

Three, 45-minute class periods

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