Critical Concepts
Critical concepts are essential words students need to know to understand the ideas in a text. Critical concepts typically provide rich context that students can use to improve their reading comprehension. Sometimes, critical concepts will appear in the text students are reading. Other times, teachers have to bring critical concepts to the text that students will need to know before they read.
Where is this in the Reading Process: Before the process
Explicitly Teach: Explain. Connect. Model. Practice.
Cycle of Independence: I do. We do. They do. You do.
Origin: Maxine Sagapolutele, El Cajon Valley High School
Critical Concepts Step-By-Step Process
Plan your lesson
Pathway
Teach the skill
Differentiate and support learning
Assess and track growth
Literacy Standards In Action
We've mapped our literacy lessons and reading, speaking, and writing skills to state standards, Common Core, and NGSS. The standards are "the what" to teach. Our lessons are "the how" to meet the expectations defined by the standards. Click on the links below to view our quick reference table that maps standards to literacy lessons.
