Monthly Reading Focus The use of mentor texts and consistent lessons provided a systematic approach for introducing students to reading strategies.
Each year began with a warm-up unit to introduce students to three things they should do before beginning to read a text: 1. Identify its genre (fiction, poetry, biography, or other form of non-fiction) 2. Determine the author's purpose for writing the text (to persuade, to inform, to entertain) 3. Identify the text organization (cause/effect, problem/solution, sequence, compare/contrast) During the first week of each month, teachers used the mentor text and lesson plan to introduce the following strategies: September- Main Idea October - Elements of Fiction and Features of Non-fiction November - Inferences December - Text Organization: Problem/Solution, Question/Answer January - Text Organization: Sequencing, Cause/Effect February - Compare and Contrast March - Fact and Opinion South Western's Monthly Reading Focus Resources