These assessment questions for M.C. Higgins, the Great are modeled after current testing models requiring students to revisit the text for answers. Students have to support their opinions and inferences with examples from the text.

Full of life lessons about growing up, this well-known story will have students comparing and contrasting their own life experiences with those in the book by completing fun, challenging activities and lessons in this instructional guide for literature. These rigorous, cross-curricular lessons and activities work in conjunction with the text to teach students how to comprehend complex literature and help them understand the significance of the story. This resource supports this well-known novel and is packed with tools to teach students how to analyze story elements in multiple ways, practice close reading and text-based vocabulary, determine meaning through text-dependent questions, and more. This is the perfect way to add rigor to your students' explorations of rich, complex literature.

Students analyze M.C. Higgins, the Great using key skills from the Common Core. Close reading of the text is required to answer text-dependent questions. Included are student pages with the text-dependent questions as well as suggested answers.

Follow one boy's struggle as he faces many challenges that threaten the safety and livelihood of his family. Students fully comprehend the language of the novel with vocabulary practice. Explore the idea of phobias while relating it back to the character, M.C. Describe the tragic event that was narrowly averted due to the carelessness of the mining company. Predict how M.C. and the girl will make it to the end of the tunnel. Do some research and write a report on yodeling. Identify what is a fact and what is an opinion in the novel. Aligned to your State Standards and written to Bloom's Taxonomy, additional crossword, word search, comprehension quiz and answer key are also included. About the Novel: M.C. Higgins, the Great is a Newbery Medal-winning story about a young boy who is overcome with many challenges while living with his poor, African-American family on Sarah’s Mountain. M.C. Higgins must overcome the prejudice that surrounds his best friend with the help of a mysterious girl who appears on the mountain. Also, M.C. tries to get his mother’s singing voice recorded so he and his family can leave the mountain. The greatest challenge M.C. must face is a coal mining company that have been strip-mining the area above their house, leaving a huge pile of slag (spoil heap) piled dangerously on the mountain above their house. M.C. is convinced that the pile will one day give way and bury their house and everyone in it; therefore he stands guard by sitting on a high pole.

The Common Core State Standards have put close reading in the spotlight as never before. While elementary school teachers are certainly willing to teach students to closely read both literary and informational text, many are wondering what, exactly, this involves. Is there a process to follow? How is close reading different from guided reading or other common literacy practices? How do you prepare students to have their ability to analyze complex texts measured by Common Core assessments? Is it even possible for students in grades K–5 to “read to learn” when they’re only just learning to read? Literacy experts Diane Lapp, Barbara Moss, Maria Grant, and Kelly Johnson answer these questions and more as they explain how to teach young learners to be close readers and how to make close reading a habit of practice in the elementary classroom. Informed by the authors’ extensive field experience and enriched by dozens of real-life scenarios and downloadable tools and templates, this book explores *Text complexity and how to determine if a particular text is a right for your learning purposes and your students. * The process and purpose of close reading in the elementary grades, with an emphasis on its role in developing the 21st century thinking, speaking, and writing skills essential for academic communication and required by the Common Core. * How to plan, teach, and manage close reading sessions across the academic disciplines, including the kinds of questions to ask and the kinds of support to provide. * How to assess close reading and help all students—regardless of linguistic, cultural, or academic background—connect deeply with what they read and derive meaning from a complex text. Equipping students with the tools and process of close reading sets them on the road to becoming analytical and critical thinkers—and empowered and independent learners. In this comprehensive resource, you’ll find everything you need to start their journey.

Follow along as young Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn embark on various fun-filled yet risky adventures. Readers will be eager to analyze this well-known story by completing fun, challenging activities and lessons provided in this instructional guide for literature. This guide will make analyzing this literary piece fun and interesting for students. Exploring story elements in multiple ways, close reading and text-based vocabulary practice, and determining meaning through text-dependent questions are just a few of the many skills students will walk away with after interacting with the rigorous and appealing cross-curricular lessons and activities in this resource. Written to support this all-time favorite, each activity and lesson work in conjunction with the text to teach students how to analyze and comprehend complex literature.