Thanksgiving Reading Comprehension Passages - Close Reading Activities

Thanksgiving Close Reads with Mystery Pictures, provided in both DIGITAL and PRINT formats, are designed to engage students in analyzing text using close reading comprehension strategies.  This resource motivates students to persevere through the multi-draft reading process with the use of the mystery grid picture, making it a fun activity that students will ask for again and again! 

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This Thanksgiving set features three different texts about the holiday.  Students will love learning about Thanksgiving as they read 3 different texts about family traditions, Thanksgiving Day parades, and more, including two nonfiction passages and one fiction passages. 

These texts are DIFFERENTIATED at three reading levels, so all students will be appropriately challenged!  As they complete the close reading process, students will build comprehension by answering text-dependent questions. Here’s the fun part: their answers to the questions will help them “decode” and color the corresponding Thanksgiving-themed mystery grid picture! 

Graphic organizers and writing prompts are also included to enhance reading comprehension and can be used as you see fit!  Want to see for yourself? Check out this fun FREEBIE to see how the text levels and questions can work for your classroom! Update: Audio version is now available for every reading passage!

This activity is perfect for training students to read a text multiple times in order to truly understand it. By reading a text more than once, annotating it, and answering questions, students will learn to find and analyze:

• Author’s purpose
• Text structure
• Text-based evidence
• Central ideas

      ...And more!!

☆ Included in Every Set ☆

• Teacher Pages: explaining the different parts of the resource and how to use it in the classroom
• Digital Copies: of the student pages for assigning via Google Slides or Powerpoint + instructions
• 3 Different Texts: passages that are differentiated into three different reading levels. 1 fiction and 2 nonfiction texts
• 10 Text-Dependent Questions: corresponding to each passage (Option to use with or without the mystery grid)
• 3 Mystery Grid Pictures:  one for each passage, corresponding to the text-dependent questions
• 3 Writing Prompts: one for each passage
• Audio Files: audio for every passage included in digital versions and available for download
• Graphic Organizers: as an option to use with any of the texts
• Student Printables: close reading/annotating tip sheets to print for the students to keep/use during the process. Perfect for notebooks!

☆ Texts Included in this Resource ☆

❶ "Family Traditions" a fiction paired passage comparing Thanksgiving Day traditions of two different families

❷ "American vs. Canadian Thanksgiving" an informational passage about how Thanksgiving is celebrated in the US and Canada

❸ "Thanksgiving Day Parade" an informational passage about the largest parade in the World, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

☆ Options for Use in the Classroom ☆

Use these high-interest texts to practice close reading strategies, answering text-dependent questions, vocabulary, and responding to text in writing.

• Whole group
• Small groups
• Learning centers/stations
• Homework
• Sub Plans
• Test Prep
• Tutoring
• Room Transformations

TERMS OF USE - © Fun in 5th Grade & MORE

This item is a paid digital download from my TpT store

www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Fun-in-5th-Grade

As such, it is for use in one classroom only. This item is also bound by copyright laws. Redistributing, editing, selling, or posting this item (or any part thereof) on the Internet is strictly prohibited without first gaining permission from the author. Violations are subject to the penalties of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Please contact me if you wish to be granted special permission!

If you would like to contact me about pricing on a license for an ENTIRE school, county, or district, please email me at angie@funin5thgrade.com