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Concept Ladder

This is a literacy strategy resource called “Concept Ladder,” an advanced organizer that helps students develop guiding questions for reading and understanding a text. Students create a question for each rung of the ladder based on prior knowledge or a shared reading experience, establishing a purpose for reading. The resource includes a blank concept ladder worksheet and a completed example using the concept of “positioning.”

At a glance

Learning objectives
  • Identify common themes and patterns in text, video or lecture information.
  • Articulate the importance of finding commonalities in information.

Downloads & Links

Aligned Standards

Common Core – Language

  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.6Acquire and use accurately general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.

Common Core – Reading: Informational Text

  • CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.9-10.1Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
  • CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.9-10.2Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
  • CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.9-10.4Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language of a court opinion differs from that of a newspaper).

Common Core – Writing

  • CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.2Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.4Produce clear and coherent writing the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

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