Reading Skills Review the Easy Way!

So, a few months ago I was thinking about making an ELA skills review product – something with several different skills on one page – but when I asked my Facebook followers what they thought about the idea, a bunch of them basically said, “Well, that’s a swell idea, but what we really need is reading skills practice.” I am all about making what teachers need, so I went to work. I wanted to create a product that would be super easy to use – basically print-and-go but would also provide rigorous, Common Core-aligned practice and would be fun for the students, too. The resulting product is Text Time.

The first thing you need to know about Text Time is that I wrote all the passages, and I am a published author of over 100 nonfiction books for children. I have written for Harcourt, Rosen, Thomson-Gale, Evan-Moor, and several others. You can see my books on Amazon here. The passages in Text-Time are no different from those I would write for any of these publishers. They are well-sequenced, grade appropriate, interesting.

NOTE: As Amazon Associates, we earn from qualifying purchases.

If you look at the image below, you will notice a few things about the passages:

It’s all on one page – super easy!
The passages are written at two different reading levels. The passage on top is easier and is marked with a single diamond in the bottom left, while the one on the bottom is more challenging and is marked with two diamonds.
The questions are the same for both reading levels. This means that you can discuss the questions as a group, even if you have students using different levels.
The skills addressed are listed in small print below the passage. Those skills are also part of the table of contents for easy reference.

Text Time is the perfect reading skills practice that you've been looking for! It includes 60 reading passages, which really translates to 120 passages because there are two levels for each. Click through to read more about what's included in this awesome reading skills review resource!

There are 60 passages (120 altogether, since there are two versions of each). They are a mix of curriculum-based topics and high-interest topics. They are organized in cycles of six:

Informational Text (nonfiction)
Literature (fiction)
Informational Text with a picture, such as a chart, a table, a map, a diagram, or an illustration
Literature
Informational Text
Poetry

So the split is: 1/2 Informational Text, 1/3 Literature, and 1/6 Poetry.

The skills address most of the RI and RL Common Core Standards and include: reading for details, main idea, summarizing, inference, predicting, genre setting/character/plot, theme, context clues/vocabulary, figurative language, author’s style, author’s purpose, point of view, mood/tone, text structure, comparing and contrasting, interpreting an illustration (map, chart, diagram, table, or photo), analysis, and evaluation. In addition, there are five paired passages that can be used together to compare and contrast. For example, there is an informational text passage about the Pony Express. The next passage is a fictional dialogue written in first person between a boy and his older brother, who is a Pony Express rider. Three printables are included to use with the paired passages.

Here is part of the table of contents so you can see the variety of passages.

Want to try it before you buy it? The free preview on the TpT product page includes six full-sized passages that you can download and use with your students!

I am also planning to make seasonal sets of Text Time, so there is more reading skills goodness ahead!

Thanks so much for reading! If you already own Text Time, what do you think? If you are thinking about it, are there any questions I can answer for you?

Happy Teaching,

* Minds in Bloom, Inc. is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon properties including, but not limited to, amazon.com, endless.com, myhabit.com, smallparts.com, or amazonwireless.com.