Text Structures and Fables

Teaching Students to Write About What They Read, Grades 3-12

State tests are assessing reading and writing together—Are you ready?

I wish students would interact with a text on their own…I wish it wasn’t like pulling teeth to get them to elaborate their thinking. Wish no more, because bestselling author Gretchen Bernabei shows you how to guide students to be nimble at both short answer and extended responses. Her secret? “Teach students text structures, and they can pour their swirling ideas about the text into cogent writing.”

Using the accessible format of fables, Bernabei and Hover share lessons and an appendix full of fables so you can teach students five concrete ways to respond to text in any genre:

1. Generate basic responses, using structures that support clarity
2. Craft fiction inspired by the text to unveil literary knowledge and imaginative response
3. Write essays about a theme or moral that display empathic and evidence-based interpretation
4. Answer open-ended questions by selecting a technique that reflects the text and their engagement
5. Use non-traditional formats like graphics and spoken dialogue to showcase their learning

The heat is on—beginning in third grade, state tests are now assessing reading and writing together. And that’s a good thing, but we’ve got some catching up to do. With Text Structures and Fables in hand, your students will swiftly and surely become text-savvy readers and writers.