Back at my store at TeachersPayTeachers.com, an educator who has purchased one of my products has left a comment, pronouncing it, "... very useful ... for a teacher teaching this novel for the first time."
This comment (perhaps combined with the influence of too much coffee this morning) has given me cause for euphoria! From the very start I've been creating products for distinct purposes, chief among them, to help the new teacher. I've been waiting for a positive remark from a new teacher. Now I've got one!
I remember being a new teacher! It's tough! I hope this teacher, who has commented on my quizzes, will now consider using my close reading study guides as well. I hope all of you language arts teachers consider them. Information on their use is contained in my free download entitled, "Study Guides: Reading Fearfully Close."
I'm not certain that new teachers have taken the leap yet to close reading study guides. Most of the very kind and wonderful customers who have commented on the use of them sound like veteran teachers. See for yourself at my store. Just click on the link over there and have a look; and by the way, if you think my work is valuable, please help spread the word.
OK. Now I've got to get ready for summer school.
Wohlsi's a retired English teacher and coach who would like to offer a few reflections:
I'm a first year teacher this year teaching three differentiated sections of senior English. I found your TPT store tonight when looking for materials for A Christmas Carol. I'm SO excited to try and use your close reading guides. My kids and I have been working on close reading all year, and it's a constant battle. I'm hoping your guides will be a crutch for me to lean on as I try to help them go beyond surface level understanding and truly grasp subtext!
ReplyDeleteThank you Cassie! It does my heart good to read this! You can make your own close studies too. Just select a portion of a story, a really exciting part, or a critical part, or a heart-warming part (Mockingbird is full of them), and formulate about twenty or more extremely detailed questions. Especially employ speculation questions as you go.
DeleteAs for Christmas Carol, yikes! Dickens is incredibly complex. I began an extremely close study of Stave One and quit after 150 questions. I was nearly to the end of the stave, but I thought I'd better re-think it. So I'm "trimming" these study guides back, at least for now.
I hope your year goes well. You're focusing on the really important parts of your work. Enjoy the adventure. It goes by really fast!