With the presidential election a few short weeks away, it’s the perfect time to incorporate informational texts on elections and candidates. It’s something kids don’t read often and should work well with a close reading approach and text dependent questions. So I thought this would be the perfect time to demonstrate the election-themed resources that are available from Classroom in the Middle. I’ll start, and end, with the FREEBIES!

Winning the Vote

Winning the Vote is an informational text article with everything needed for a full three readings. In addition to the full-page non-fiction article, there are text dependent questions and additional activities specific to each reading. Here is what is included – ready to use to cover all of the steps of close reading:

For the First Reading
Text Dependent Questions (TDQs)
Main idea and Supporting Details – Graphic Organizer

For the Second Reading
Text Dependent Questions (TDQs)
Vocabulary Graphic Organizer
Text Structure Graphic Organizer

For the Third Reading
Text Dependent Questions (TDQs)
Writing Prompt
The article and the TDQs are arranged in a landscape, two-column format so that they can be folded to fit easily into student’s notebooks. Here you can see sample pages – the article, and the questions and graphic organizer for the first reading.

Election Mania

Election Mania is a set of four close reading articles, each with a similar format to Winning the Vote and all of the follow-up resources as described above for each article. The four articles, written for middle grade students, are:

1. Make It or Break It Primaries
2. Love Those Campaign Buttons
3. The Best Voting Machines?
4. One Day on the Campaign Trail

The activities are similar to the ones listed above for all three readings. You can see sample pages below.

Peaceful Transition of Power

Peaceful Transformation of Power is an informational text activity about the way our democracy works after an election. Peaceful transition is an important and time-honored tradition in this form of government, and it seems especially relevant today. The resource includes a magazine-style reading page with several short articles plus two follow-up activity sheets. And this one is free too!

Here you can see the reading page. The follow-up activities include a page of multiple-choice questions and a write and draw page.