Text Structures and Fables

Teaching Students to Write About What They Read, Grades 3-12
Gretchen Bernabei - Consultant, Educator, Trail of Breadcrumbs
Jayne Hover - San Antonio ISD
Corwin Literacy
Text Structures and Fables
September 2022 | 200 pages | Corwin
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eBook
ISBN: 9781071901472
Available from January 0001
Paperback
ISBN: 9781071894248
Available from January 0001

Description

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.

Contents

PART I. BUILDING STRONG READERS AND WRITERS

  • LESSON 1. RESPONDING TO READING
  • LESSON 2. WRITING FICTION FOR READERS
  • LESSON 3. WRITING ESSAYS ABOUT THE MORAL
  • FABLE THEMES 1–10

PART II. ASSESSING STRONG READERS AND WRITERS

  • LESSON 4. WRITING ANSWERS TO COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
  • LESSON 5. WRITING ANSWERS ABOUT THE AUTHOR’S CRAFT
  • FABLE THEMES 11–20

PART III. USING NONTRADITIONAL FORMATS

  • LESSON 6. THE QA12345 DIALOGUE
  • LESSON 7. INFOSHOT (CUBING): SHOW WHAT YOU KNOW
  • LESSON 8. BA-DA-BING
  • LESSON 9. THREE-THINGS RESPONSE
  • LESSON 10. ONE-LINERS
  • FABLE THEMES 21–30

Additional materials

Description

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.

Contents

PART I. BUILDING STRONG READERS AND WRITERS

  • LESSON 1. RESPONDING TO READING
  • LESSON 2. WRITING FICTION FOR READERS
  • LESSON 3. WRITING ESSAYS ABOUT THE MORAL
  • FABLE THEMES 1–10

PART II. ASSESSING STRONG READERS AND WRITERS

  • LESSON 4. WRITING ANSWERS TO COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
  • LESSON 5. WRITING ANSWERS ABOUT THE AUTHOR’S CRAFT
  • FABLE THEMES 11–20

PART III. USING NONTRADITIONAL FORMATS

  • LESSON 6. THE QA12345 DIALOGUE
  • LESSON 7. INFOSHOT (CUBING): SHOW WHAT YOU KNOW
  • LESSON 8. BA-DA-BING
  • LESSON 9. THREE-THINGS RESPONSE
  • LESSON 10. ONE-LINERS
  • FABLE THEMES 21–30

Additional materials

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Text Structures and Fables

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

Gretchen Bernabei , Jayne Hover
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September 2022 | 200 pages | Corwin

Format Published Date ISBN Price
Paperback 01/01/2025 9781071894248 $40.95
Lifetime 01/01/2025 9781071901472 $37.00

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.


Table Of Contents:

  • PART I. BUILDING STRONG READERS AND WRITERS
  • LESSON 1. RESPONDING TO READING
  • LESSON 2. WRITING FICTION FOR READERS
  • LESSON 3. WRITING ESSAYS ABOUT THE MORAL
  • FABLE THEMES 1–10
  • PART II. ASSESSING STRONG READERS AND WRITERS
  • LESSON 4. WRITING ANSWERS TO COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
  • LESSON 5. WRITING ANSWERS ABOUT THE AUTHOR’S CRAFT
  • FABLE THEMES 11–20
  • PART III. USING NONTRADITIONAL FORMATS
  • LESSON 6. THE QA12345 DIALOGUE
  • LESSON 7. INFOSHOT (CUBING): SHOW WHAT YOU KNOW
  • LESSON 8. BA-DA-BING
  • LESSON 9. THREE-THINGS RESPONSE
  • LESSON 10. ONE-LINERS
  • FABLE THEMES 21–30

Recent Product Reviews:

“These lessons help! When students have a choice, it allows them to answer a question based on the information that they know, and not based on what they think a teacher wants to hear.”
Ida Ferrazzano, Grade 5 Teacher, United ISD, Laredo, Texas
“What is beautiful about using these text structures to respond to text is that students go back into the text to support their thinking. This is what we want. We sat them to support their responses with evidence from the text. This makes it easy.”
Malene Golding
“The results of using text structures? Miraculous!”
Sheryl Stewart
“One of the things I appreciate most is that these lessons will prepare students for the tests without the typical test-prep materials.”
Dawn Lyssy

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