Routledge Textual Analysis Made Easy: Ready-to-Use Tools for Teachers, Grades 5-8

In this new book, you’ll learn how to teach evidence-based writing using a variety of tools, activities, and sample literary texts. Showing elementary and middle school students how to think critically about what they’re reading can be a challenge, but author C. Brian Taylor makes it easy by presenting twelve critical thinking tools along with step-by-step instructions for implementing each one effectively in the classroom. You’ll learn how to: Design units and lesson plans that gradually introduce your students to more complex levels of textual analysis; Encourage students to dig deeper by using the 12 Tools for Critical Thinking; Help students identify context and analyze quotes with the Evidence Finder graphic organizer; Use the Secret Recipe strategy to construct persuasive evidence-based responses that analyze a text’s content or technique; Create Cue Cards to teach students how to recognize and define common literary devices. The book also offers a series of extra examples using mentor texts, so you can clearly see how the strategies in this book can be applied to excerpts from popular, canonical, and semi-historical literature. Additionally, a number of the tools and templates in the book are available as free eResources from our website (http://www.routledge.com/9781138950658), so you can start using them immediately in your classroom. Review “Dr. Taylor’s Textual Analysis Made Easy needs to be the #1 teacher book within an arm’s reach at all times.  It is the kind of resource that you will use over and over because of the wide variety of lessons that are essential in the middle-level classroom. I can honestly say that the methods explained in this book are some of the most immediately effective strategies that I have used in my entire 22 years of teaching. What I found most amazing was that my students were able to automatically write critically about a text within just a few short months of introduction and practice. I cannot wait to move forward with my students next year and integrate The 12 Tools into my instruction.” –Leslie Snyder, 8th Grade ELA Teacher, Casa Grande Elementary School, Casa Grande, Arizona “Textual Analysis Made Easy has provided our teachers with strategies that can be used over and over to enhance our students' academic achievement. Teachers in our district have implemented Dr. Taylor's strategies, and immediately student response has been astounding!  Suddenly, writing is understandable and enjoyable. Not only is the content Dr. Taylor developed exciting; it is easy to understand and share with students of all ages. What a great resource for teachers who want to make evidence-based writing and literary analysis simple!” –Sherry Dorathy, Ed.D., Superintendent, Miami Unified School District #40, Miami, Arizona About the Author C. Brian Taylor serves as a teacher, K-12 ELA coach, and district consultant in the Safford Unified School District and throughout Arizona.