Connections: English Language Arts
Grades 6–12
Develop students' critical reading, analysis, and writing skills
- Literature you love—high-interest themes and thought-provoking essential questions build engagement as students become immersed in outstanding literary and nonfiction selections.
- Easy to use—the step-by-step lesson design focuses students on a key learning objective as they read the selection; annotate the text; apply the targeted skill; and respond through discussion, writing, and collaborative activities.
- Flexible—comprehensive standards coverage and a modular design permits easy integration into your curriculum; select exactly what you need for your students.
- All the support you need—powerful classroom management tools including assessments, differentiation support, performance reports, PowerPoint lessons, extension activities, and integration into your existing LMS.
- Interactive Editions feature a range of learning tools to improve comprehension (translation, text-to-speech, reading accessibility features), close reading and text analysis (annotation and note-taking tools), discussion and collaboration (real-time Collaboration Walls), and much more.
Literature Based Learning
- A thought-provoking essential question sets the context.
- Each reading of a selection has a purpose and employs a targeted reading or analysis skill.
- Using textual evidence, students apply the skill through discussion, collaborative activities, and writing.
Outstanding Literature
High-interest themes and thought-provoking essential questions in areas such as
- Current events—diversity in society; equality and justice; knowing right from wrong; trusting what you hear, see, and read; the impact of technology on jobs; the costs of innovation.
- Themes—family, decisions, story-telling, horror, journey, freedom, identity and the forces that shape us, physical appearance, crime and punishment.
- Culture and History—the Native American experience, how history shapes us, how ideas bring about change, the impact of war, the role of women over time.
Instructional Design
The step-by-step lesson design keeps students focused on the learning objective.
- Create context using introductory activities and discussions.
- Read the passage guided by close reading questions with comprehension support from Immersive Reader*.
- Identify and annotate textual evidence with support from the Interactive Text* to organize evidence and notes.
- Facilitate dynamic, inclusive discussions of evidence, ideas, and points of view in large and small groups; support online conversations with the Collaboration Wall*.
- Apply the skill and synthesize textual evidence in the "Focus On" activity.
- Assess progress with the quizzes and tests.
- Extend learning with project-based assessments and independent activities.
*Available with Interactive Edition.
Flexible
Comprehensive standards coverage and a modular design permits easy integration into your curriculum.
- Select the units, selections, or learning objectives you need.
- Assign lessons to the whole class, small groups, or individual students.
