Analysis of the Tuck Everlasting and The Birchbark House Text Exemplars

Looking to introduce some text-based questions into your ELA lessons? Practice the kinds of skills the Common Core demands with the seven text-based questions and the essay prompt provided here. Designed to be a three-day instructional activity, day one and two consist of answering short-response questions based on excerpts from Tuck Everlasting and The Birchbark House respectively. On day three, groups will work to answer a longer writing prompt comparing both of these texts. Because the text excerpts are brief, and there are only a few questions to be answered each day, these lessons are a great way for both you and your class to warm-up to new skills. Note that modeling a think-aloud is an important component of the instructional activity.