In this page, you can find reading resources for our high-school readers. Send an email to Erica Choi or Guadalupe Nufio if you are looking for additional resources!
1. What learning resources does Study Buddies Connect recommend for high school readers?
Readworks is great for finding different types of texts and resources to challenge your students.
Username: studybuddies@a-b-c.org Password: StudyBuddies
IXL contains a breakdown of each topic with a quiz and lessons to help teach content. This website is particularly good for teaching grammar skills, reading techniques, and writing styles.
Contact SBC’s staff directly to receive your student’s IXL account.
Workbooks
SBC has a great library of workbooks for each grade level, including extensive comprehension questions.
Please contact Erica at echoi@a-b-c.org for access!
2. What skills are students expected to have by the end of each grade? (Expand by clicking on grade level)
Ninth-Tenth Grade Standards
- Demonstrate command of the conventions of academic English grammar and usage when writing or speaking
- Demonstrate command of the conventions of academic English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing
- Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening
- Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies
- Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings
- Acquire and accurately use general academic and content-specific words and phrases, sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening; demonstrate independence in applying vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression
- Click here to learn more about grammar standards & here to learn more about ELA standards for sixth graders
Eleven-Twelth Grade Standards
- Demonstrate command of the conventions of academic English grammar and usage when writing or speaking
- Demonstrate command of the conventions of academic English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing
- Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening
- Determine meaning of words using text, including figurative meanings
- Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies
- Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings
- Acquire and accurately use general academic and content-specific words and phrases, sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in applying vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression
- Click here to learn more about grammar standards & here to learn more about ELA standards for sixth graders
3. What books would Study Buddies Connect recommend for high school readers? (Expand by clicking on the header)
Classics
- Animal Farm by George Orwell
- Beloved by Toni Morrison
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
- The Color Purple by Alice Walker
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
- Lord of the Flies by William Golding
- Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
- Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
- Saint Joan by George Bernard Shaw
- Slaughter-House Five by Kurt Vonnegut
- Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
- The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
- The Martian by Andy Weir
- Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
- To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee
- Wuthering Heights by Elizabeth Bronte
- 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquéz
- 1984 by George Orwell
YA Novels
- American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
- American Street by Ibi Zoboi
- Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
- Dune by Frank Herbert
- Electric Arches by Eve Ewin
- Happily Ever Afters by Elise Bryant
- Home Is Not a Country by Safia Elhillo
- Ironheart Comics by Eve Ewing
- Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
- Persepolis by Marijane Satrapi
- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
- The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
- The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
- Torment by H.D. Hunter
4. What discussion questions should I ask before, during, and after we read together?
(Click here if you want to be able to download these questions to your personal computer)
Questions to ask before you start reading together
- What do you think the genre of this book is? Do you think it’s fiction or nonfiction? How do you know?
- What other books of this genre have you read?
- What is the title of the book? Does the title provide you with any clues as to what the book might include?
- Describe the images, artwork, or graphics on the front cover. Do the images, artwork, or graphics provide you with any clues as to what the book might include?
Basic understanding questions to ask as you read together
First, we want to make sure our students understood what they read by asking them to summarize the text. Ideally, summaries are concise and reflect the important and overarching ideas in information and texts. They should also be sequential and driven by cause-and-effect.
- Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.
- What was the problem in the story?
- How did the characters solve the problem?
- How did the story end? If applicable, what was the surprise at the end?
- What were the events that led to the ending?
- Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from the details in the text, including how characters in a story or drama respond to challenges or how the speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic; summarize the text.
- What new information did you learn about __?
More advanced questions to ask as you read together (predicting and inferring)
Predicting
- Based on what you know about a character, predict what he or she will do.
- Based on what you know, what might happen next? What clues from the book or personal experience helped you with this prediction?
- Has your prediction happened? How do you know? With new events in the story, how did you revise your prediction?
Inferring
- Look at the dialogue in the text. What does the dialogue tell you about how the characters are feeling or thinking?
- Why do you think the character felt ___ or acted _?
- Why did the character __? How do you know?
- How did the character change from _ to _? Why? How did the characters feelings towards each other change from _ to __? Why?
- How would you feel if ____ happened to you? Would you solve the problem the same way the character did?
- What is the big idea/theme of the text? How do they apply to our lives today?
- How do actions of one character affect another?
- What does the author mean by ___ (symbol – objects, events, motifs, characters)? How does it enhance the meaning of the story?
Questions to ask after you finish the chapter/ book (analyzing and critiquing)
Analyzing
- What did the author do to make the characters, situation, or topic interesting?
- What descriptive language did the author use? How did it add to your enjoyment or understanding of the text?
- What is the genre of the book? What are the aspects of this genre that you noticed? (realistic and historical fiction, complex fantasy, biography, autobiography, memoirs and diaries, myths and legends, hybrid texts and other nonfiction)
- Could this story really happen? Why or why not?
- Look at the way the writer ended the book. Do you think this was a good way to end? Why or why not?
- Show me a page where (identify a text structure element like motif, symbolism, metaphor).
Critiquing
- What did you like/dislike about this (book, beginning, characters, ending)?
- What did you think about (book, beginning, characters, ending)? Why?
- What was the most important part of the story? Why?
- Do you agree or disagree with __? Why or why not?
- Was the title of the text a good one? Why or why not?