Activities

1. Identify quotations that confirm the meaning or support the analysis of a text.
   
   
2. Make generalized statements regarding the text’s central message.
   
   
3. Draw on appropriate background knowledge to construct meaning from the text. 

4. Summarize main points from the story and state how they contribute to the text’s central message.
   
   
5. Explain inferences, conclusions, predictions, and generalizations by citing appropriate details and examples from the text.

6. Evaluate how a character’s implicit and explicit assumptions, beliefs, and character traits are developed in a story using textual evidence for support.
   
   
7. Assess the text’s central message using what is explicitly stated and through inferences and generalizations within the text.
   
   
8. Recognize where prior background knowledge may or may not be accurate and adjust understanding of the text accordingly.
   
   
9. Make, test, and revise predictions of the text’s meaning during reading.

Answer Key/Rubric

1. Student selects direct quotations from the text that point to the general meaning of the text.  These are quotations taken directly from the text and require no further analysis or interpretation to connect them to the text’s central message.
   
   
2. Student states what the text’s central message is.  Although he/she may not be able to draw inferences or make generalizations about what specific evidence in the text helped to formulate the central message, he/she is able to state the central message.
   
   
3. Student considers what he/she knows about the topic prior to reading the text and uses that information to construct meaning from the text. Students with no prior background knowledge of a topic may, if appropriate, enlist in opportunities to build background knowledge prior to reading the text.
   
   
4. Student identifies the text’s central message and is able to summarize the main points from the story that lead to the central message. This may be similar to a list of “evidence” supporting why the central message is what the student states it to be. This evidence should be logical, valid, and significant. Student may need to revise what is stated as the central message based on the evidence that is found.
   
   
5. Student makes inferences, conclusions, predictions, and generalizations about the text.  Furthermore, he/she is able to cite appropriate details and examples from the text that support and explain the inferences, conclusions, predictions, and generalizations. Those inferences, conclusions, predictions, and generalizations may be found to be valid or may need to be omitted or revised based on the evidence found in the text.
   
   
6. Student is able to find textual evidence to support a character’s explicit assumptions, beliefs, and character traits that are developed in a story. Strong characters are built by both explicit statements and by additional evidence woven throughout a text. The student is able to identify both and connect them.
   
   
7. Student is able to identify the text’s central message and support that central message with both explicitly stated evidence from the text and further by drawing inferences and/or making generalizations from the text. Explicitly stated evidence is accurate. Inferences and generalizations are logical, valid, and significant. Sufficient evidence to support the suggested central message of the text is provided.
   
   
8. Using evidence found in the text, student recognizes where his/her prior background knowledge is accurate or inaccurate and adjusts the understanding of the text appropriately. At times, further research beyond the story may be needed to more fully understand if or how the prior knowledge and the text are valid.
   
   
9. Throughout the reading process, the student is consistently making, checking, and revising predictions of the text’s meaning. As the student explains the text explicitly, draws inferences, and/or generalizes the text, he/she tests the new information against what was previously thought and revises the suggested meanings.