English Language Arts and Reading.1.7.B

The student is expected to

write brief comments on literary or informational texts;

TEKS Talk image

Knowledge and Skills Statement

Response skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts. The student responds to an increasingly challenging variety of sources that are read, heard, or viewed.

Ask students to do one of the following:

  • Complete a story map or graphic organizer in response to a text.
  • Complete a reading response sheet to specific questions about a text.
  • Respond to a text by leaving a sticky note or comment card on the text.
  • Complete a journal reflection in response to a text.

Example reflection questions can include the following:

  • What does the story make you think of?
  • Did you like the story? Why or why not?
  • What was your favorite part of the story?
  • Who was your favorite character in the story?
  • Tell me about a part of the story or what happened in the story.
  • Would you recommend this story to someone you know? Why or why not?
  • What did you learn from reading this text?
  • What was the most powerful message of this story?
  • Does this story have similarities to another story? If so, what made it different?

When collecting responses, a teacher can evaluate students with a rubric like the following.

  1. The student is able to respond to text by giving an oral response or illustrating but cannot write comments about a text.
  2. The student is able to write brief comments on literary or informational texts, but requires teacher prompting and support to complete the task.
  3. The student is able to write brief comments on literary texts or informational texts independently but is limited on the types of responses she provides.
  4. The student is able to respond to literary and informational texts independently in a variety of formats.

Notes:

  • When assessing this standard, focus specifically on whether students are able to respond to a text in a logical manner and elaborate at an age-appropriate level.
  • Assessing this SE should be done in many ways throughout the year. Teachers are encouraged to use a combination of assessment strategies when collecting data on student responses.
Brief comments are not extensive reading responses, but rather one–two sentences in response to a text. The purpose of using brief comments is to teach the students to think about a text and jot down an initial thought quickly. In first grade, brief comments could include a student writing a question on sticky note left on the book after listening to a text or completing a sentence stem about a text (e.g., My favorite part of this book was _____. I like this book because ______. This book makes me think of ______.)
Informational texts are texts that present information in order to explain, clarify, and/or educate. In first grade, this could include procedural texts, magazines, newspapers, menus, nonfiction books, pamphlets, and textbooks.
Literary texts are written works that are generally recognized as having artistic value and have the purpose of entertaining the reader. In first grade, this may include narratives, drama, poetry, short stories, fables, folktales, fairy tales, and literary nonfiction.