I have heard from many of you who use my Text Time close reading passages that the paired passages have been particularly effective with your students. That is why I decided to make an entire paired passages product – actually, one better because there are three passages on the same subject instead of just two. That means that you can select any of the the two to work with together or use all three! Each passage is presented at two reading levels: grades 3/4 and 4/5 (the easier version is shown in the image above); however, the text-dependent questions on the right are the same for both levels so you can go over them as a group, even if you have differentiated the reading.
While high interest for students, the passages are all focused on a science or social studies topic, so you can easily work them into your curriculum. There are ten sets of three related passages, so plenty of practice! You can use them individually, but I designed them to be used together, either in pairs or all three. To help students compare and contrast the passages, I have included 6 graphic organizers.
While I was working on the answer keys, it occurred to me that these passages could be used as source material for writing an informative paragraph. This could be a great way to teach this skill since the materials are limited in scope – much less overwhelming than sending students to the library or the internet. In many cases, all three paragraphs have factual information that could be used in an informative paragraph (even the fictional one). So I adapted some of the the guide pages from my I Heart Paragraph Writing product for use with these passages.
You also get a handy-dandy half-page annotation guide and of course answer keys. I am really excited about these passages because they not only cover a wide range of reading skills, but are also fun to read! You will love them because they are pretty much no-prep…just print and go! And remember, these passages were written by a professional nonfiction children’s author (me!) with more than 120 books in print, so you can be sure that these passages are no different than what you would find in any nonfiction book for the school and library market.
Find out more on the Text Time Triples product page!
Happy Teaching!
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