Paired Texts - Close Reading and Essay Writing Lessons - Middle School Bundle

This bundle includes six of my paired texts lessons appropriate for middle school students. These lessons require students to think critically and synthesize their reading, identifying central ideas across texts. Each lesson guides them through close readings of texts that vary by genre, time period, and author; then, detailed before-, during-, and post-reading strategies help them construct connections between the texts. At the end of each lesson, students write a short essay.

The following texts, which are in the public domain, are included in the bundle:

• "Ain’t I a Woman?" by Sojourner Truth
• "We Wear the Mask" by Paul Laurence Dunbar
• "I’m Nobody! Who are you?" by Emily Dickinson
• "How the World Was Made" (Native American myth)
• "Demeter and Persephone" (Greek myth)
• "Harlem (Dream Deferred)" by Langston Hughes
• "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost

Online links are provided for the following texts, many of which are also available in school texts and anthologies:

• "First Lesson" by Philip Booth
• "Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden
• "Phenomenal Woman" by Maya Angelou
• "Naming Myself" by Barbara Kingsolver
• "My Name" by Sandra Cisneros.

Each lesson culminates in a writing task that imitates the style of a standardized assessment. These lessons incorporate all strands of the Common Core English Language Arts (ELA) Standards.

Each paired passage product includes the following:

-explicit lesson plans with identified Common Core ELA Anchor Standards

-anticipation guides

-contextual reading guides and sample annotation passages

-literature webs and poetry graphic organizers

-Venn diagrams

-literary analysis essay prompts

-rubrics

-answer keys (including detailed responses for all activities and sample essays)

This bundle includes 110 pages. If you complete one of these lessons each week, they will last you six weeks! Because of the text variety, they are also great for differentiating and meeting the needs of diverse learners. You will also find that with the detailed instructions and samples, many lessons contained in this bundle make excellent substitute plans.

If preferred, you may find each paired passage lesson available separately. Please note that all of these lessons are included in my Secondary ELA Mega Bundle and some are in my Original Paired Bundle of 16 texts. If you have purchased a previous bundle, please check to ensure you are not buying duplicate lessons.

In addition to these printable lessons, this resource may be used for online learning with EASEL by TpT.

If you use Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive, here are two digital versions of these lessons:

Digital Writing Task Road Not Taken & Harlem

Digital Writing Task Ain't I a Woman? and Phenomenal Woman

Meaningful and Memorable English Language Arts by © OCBeachTeacher ™

All rights reserved by author.

Limited to use by purchaser only.

Group licenses available.

Not for public display.