Revisiting Old School in a New Way
Okay, so I am probably dating myself right now, but I don’t care. Do any of you remember SRA cards? I used to love doing these in high school. I would pull a card from a certain color set, read the passage and then answer questions about the passage. Then I would mark off which ones I completed and answered right. I would complete a level and then move onto the next color.
Close Reads
Well, fast forward a few, many years and I have now done something similar in my classroom with close reads. First I took each set and put them into a binder (one set per binder).






Next, I trained my kids on how to use them. They take one passage out of the binder and read it. I made copies of the question sheets and put them behind the reading passage in the same plastic sleeve. Once they have read the passage, they answer the questions. Next, I check over the passage to make sure they are answering the questions correctly, using personal best writing, correct punctuation and finally making sure they are answering in a complete sentence. When they finish one, they can choose a different passage. I keep telling them that this is great practice for second grade. This activity is a choice for them when they are at the read to self time.
Once they have completed a passage, they mark that topic off on their check-off sheet I made for them. They love these!
My kids are obsessed. Now I do have a couple of sweeties in my class that cannot read these, so I pair them up with someone who can. They work on them together and they feel successful.
So that is my modern version of SRAs. Did you SRA?
Resources
Here are some close reads that I have in my store. You can find them here.
I did SRA's in Catholic school in the 70's! St. Mary's in Newport. Loved them too.
I loved SRA! I would love to see more Social Study based ones….maybe presidents? historical figures? inventors?