If you’ve ever searched online for close reading passages, you know it can be hard to find high-quality short texts to share with students. You might try a website like Learnzillion or ReadWorks to grab short passage, but what if you want an excerpt from a longer book? There is an iPad teacher hack that will help you locate a few pages of favorite texts to use with your students.
Close Reading Passages
Anytime you search for a book in the iBook Store (on iPads or Mac computers) you’re able to click on the title for more information. In addition to accessing reviews or related content, you can also download a sample of the book. When you download the sample of a book you are given access to a handful of pages – an excerpt – that will be automatically added to your iBooks library.
With this sample your students not only get a taste for a book they might want to explore in more depth, they also have a short passage to access for a close reading lesson. By using the samples of books this way students (and families) can be exposed to high-quality text that is easily accessible on their device. It also lets you quickly put a copy of a reading passage in front of the eyes of all of your students.
Here’s a link to a poster with favorite reading tools!
Grab a sample passage from one of these books:
- Charlotte’s Web (iBook Store | Paperback)
- The House on Mango Street (iBook Store | Paperback)
- Because of Winn-Dixie (iBook Store | Paperback)
Obviously, if you love the books I mentioned above you can can introduce the full text to students. All you have to do is purchase the book in the iBook Store or on Amazon, or grab it from your local library. The three on the list above are perfect for literature circles and independent reading as well as a close read of different excerpts from the text – they are also three of my personal favorites.
Do you have an iPad Teacher Hack to share? Add your favorite tip in the comments below!
