The standards for these grade overlap- apps will coincide for middle school. The apps I have chosen are appropriate for all grades. In addition, they can be adapted for gifted and special-needs students.
The standard calls for the following skills:
- Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
- Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text
- Analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision.
- Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.
- Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.
Apps:
Minimod for inferences $3.99 Appropriate for 6th graders or students who may be struggling with this concept. Students will read a passage about the fascinating cultures of the Incas, Mayas, and Aztecs, then answer a question about the passage that requires inferential thinking.
Margins $3.99 Margins keeps notes organized by book and page number. Each note can contain a quote and a comment, so users know what caught their attention and why. Search for keywords in notes, too.
Literary Analysis Guide $2.99 By arranging the elements of literature graphically around three wheels (poetry, prose, and rhetoric), teachers and students are better able to visualize how the elements of literature develop style and meaning.
Total Recall Free A color-coded mind map to help students break down theme, central ideas, characters, etc.
Range of Reading and Text Complexity – grades 6-12
The standard requires that by the end of the year, students will read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
Apps:
3D classic Literature $.99 Over 10 free classic books to give teachers and students books to help work on the literature core standards.
Gutenberg 2300 audibooks $.99 Great for students with dyslexia, visual impairment or who learn better through sound. Over 2,000 free audiobooks in all genres, including many classics from Jules Verne to Jane Austin.
Vicki Windman is a special education teacher at Clarkstown High School South.
