The document outlines an approach for assigning weekly articles to students to build their background knowledge and reading skills. It recommends that students be assigned a current article each Monday and discuss it in class on Friday. Students are asked to closely read the article by annotating it with questions and comments, write a one page reflection, and extract a "window quote" that sums up the author's view. The goal is for students to read 35-40 articles over the school year to broaden their experiences and improve literacy.

1. Articles of the Week

2. Rationale: test scores
• “A
student
who
reads
15
minutes
a
day
will
increase
2
points
on
an
achievement
test.”
• “You
must
ins<ll
the
love
for
reading
by
example
and
by
seeing
that
your
students
read.”
• MNEA,
Raising
Test
Scores,
What
Teachers
Can
Do

3. Rationale: building
background
• “Part
of
the
reason
my
students
have
such
a
hard
3me
reading
is
because
they
bring
li8le
prior
knowledge
and
background
to
the
wri8en
page…
To
help
build
my
students’
prior
knowledge,
I
assign
them
an
“Ar3cle
of
the
Week”
every
Monday
morning.
By
the
end
of
the
school
year
I
want
them
to
have
read
35-­‐40
ar3cles
about
what
is
going
on
in
the
world…if
my
students
are
to
become
literate,
they
must
broaden
their
reading
experiences.”
• Kelly
Gallagher

4. Our articles....
• Will
be
assigned
on
Monday
and
will
be
due
on
Friday.
• Will
always
be
CURRENT
and
about
something
going
on
in
the
world,
but
will
not
necessarily
relate
to
the
current
topic
we
are
discussing
in
class.
• Outside
of
a
small
discussion
on
Friday
when
they
are
turned
in,
we
will
not
spend
class
3me
to
read
these
ar3cles
or
complete
this
assignment.

5. 3 Things
1. Show
evidence
of
a
close
read-­‐mark
up
the
text
with
your
ques3ons
and
comments.
2. Write
a
1-­‐page
reflec3on
on
your
own
sheet
of
paper.
3. Write
a
“window
quote”
for
the
ar3cle.

6. Annotating
• Reac3ons
• Connec3ons
• Ques3ons
• Comments
• Notes
for
further
research

7. Reflection
• Pick
a
line
from
the
ar3cle
and
respond
to
it
• Discuss
how/if
the
author’s
view
on
the
topic
relates
to
your
own
personal
view
• Make
predic3ons
about
the
follow-­‐up
that
may
happen
with
this
topic
in
the
future

8. Window Quote
• Choose
one
quote
from
the
ar3cle
that
“sums
up”
the
essence
of
the
author’s
view