Invite Standards-aligned Reading Comprehension and Critical Thinking Practice to Your Classroom

After reading our articles, students answer grade-level appropriate critical thinking questions that align with Common Core and state standards for Reading Informational Texts, including those covering: Key Ideas and Details, Craft and Structure, and Integration of Knowledge and Skills. 

In 10 – 15 minutes a day studies show a dramatic improvement in reading scores after just 20 issues.

English Language Arts
Standards-aligned Reading Comprehension After reading a story, students answer a high-order critical thinking assessment that aligns with a grade-level appropriate Common Core or state standards for Reading Informational Text, including standards covering:
  • Citing evidence and identifying logical inferences
  • Determining central ideas and themes
  • Analyzing how individuals, events and ideas develop and interact
  • Interpreting words and phrases
  • Analyzing text structure
  • Assessing point of view
  • Integrating content from diverse sources
  • Delineating and evaluating arguments
  • Analyzing how different texts explore similar themes
In addition, a daily vocabulary exercise builds student understanding of how to clarify the meaning of unknown words or words with multiple meanings.

Social Studies, Science, and Mathematics

Standards focusing on reading and understanding informational/nonfiction text are relevant to other academic subjects, such as social studies, science and even mathematics, just as content taught in those disciplines are vital to understanding the news.This is why, in addition to aligning our quiz questions to reading standards, we tag each story to identify how it fits with other subject-specific standards.

 

Sample story tags (drawn from the nation’s social studies, science, and math standards) include:

Social Studies

Civics

Civics

Civic and Political Institutions

Economics

Economics

The Global Economy

Geography

Geography

Geographic Representations

History

History

Perspectives

Learn more about how we support literacy in the Social Studies classroom.

Science

Physical Science

Physical Science

Energy

Life Science

Life Science

Ecosystems

Earth & Space Science

Earth & Space Science

Earth and Human Activity

Engineering

Engineering

Engineering Design

Mathematics

Representing Data

Representing Data

Understanding and Analyzing Statistics

Understanding and Analyzing Statistics

Understanding Probability

Understanding Probability

Reasoning Mathematically

Reasoning Mathematically