The School Play Gary Soto Short Story Unit Reading Comprehension Cite Evidence

Looking for a short story unit that carefully guides your students to a deep understanding of "The School Play" by Gary Soto? This ready to print short story unit gives you everything you need to teach "The School Play" and will give your students plenty of practice citing textual evidence, determining and anaylzing theme, and writing about a text.

In this unit, your students will cover numerous ELA standards in depth, progressing from literal comprehension through a full essay. You will have everything you need, ready to print, to teach a 5-8 day short story unit focused on one text. This unit is most closely aligned with 6th grade standards, as "The School Play" is commonly taught in 6th grade, but could be used in any middle school class.

This unit includes:

1. a comprehension worksheet aligned to Common Core Standard RL 6.1

2. a worksheet where students explore and analyze the elements of plot aligned to RL 6.3

3. a characterization and textual evidence worksheet aligned to RL 6.6 and RL 6.1

4. a close reading activity where students analyze theme, aligned to RL 6.2

5. a final essay with a scaffolded graphic organizer, aligned to RL 6.2

6. 4 exit tickets, each assessing a different reading skill

7. ANSWER KEYS

Your students will love being completely immersed in "The School Play," delving deep into themes that are relevant to any middle school student. You will love having everything you need to deeply address multiple reading and writing standards with one text.

Prep is easy, simply print the materials OR assign them in Easel or Google with the included digtial versions, suitable for distance, hybrid or in-person learning.

This short story unit is aligned to 6th Grade Common Core ELA standards, but could be used as a beginning of the year mini-unit in a 7th grade ELA class. It includes everything teachers need to execute, including an answer key. The text of the story is NOT included. “The School Play” is commonly taught in 6th grade ELA and is widely available online and in several textbooks. This deep dive takes between 5-8 days, depending on the length of your class period.

The Common Core aligned unit is suitable for middle school students at ALL levels, but includes scaffolded support for students who struggle in writing.

TEACHERS LIKE YOU SAID...

"This packet was a lifesaver. My students enjoyed working through the pages. It was a great way to provide immediate feedback."

"Amazing! I used this with my special education 6th graders! Great resource, and I wish you had something like this for all the stories."

"This unit is exceptionally thorough!"

Customer Tips

How to get TpT credit to use on future purchases:

Go to your My Purchases page (you may need to login). Beside each purchase you'll see a Provide Feedback button. . Each time you give feedback, TpT gives you feedback credits that you can use to lower the cost of your future purchases. I value your feedback greatly.

Click the Green Star to follow me to get updates on sales and new resources.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Literature Resources

The Sniper.

Ordeal By Cheque.

The Tell-Tale Heart.

The Tell-Tale Heart:Comprehension.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ELA Lesson Plans:

Growth Mindset.

Connotation and Denotation.

*****************************************************************************