Social Studies Middle School Guide

Scaffold for Writing Text Dependent Questions Grade 6-12

Craft and Structure

Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone. ●​ What does ____ mean? What is your evidence? ●​ Let’s take apart this sentence. Who is “you”? Explain your thinking. ●​ How do you know? ●​ Any other phrases that are confusing? ●​ What is the difference between (2 vocabulary words)?Define _____. ●​ Where is (an apostrophe) used in this book? Where does it represent a contraction / possession?

Analyze the structure of texts including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole. different when the author used dialogue versus when the narrator just spoke / told the story? What do you learn when there is dialogue? ●​ How is dialogue used in this book? ●​ When there is dialogue, is the narrator speaking? Who is speaking? ●​ What point of view does ●​ How is this narrative the author use? How does that contribute to the story? sequencing of the text add to the meaning? ●​ Is the character good or bad at the end of the story? Why / why not? ●​ How does the author’s ●​ How does the

Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.

●​ When does our author use humor? Why did the author do that? ●​ What tone does the author use? Why? ●​ How do we learn the character’s name before the author told us? ●​ Why do you think the author chose (character) to be the smartest? ●​ How do the pictures tell the story? ●​ What is the symbolism of ____________? ●​ How does the author use descriptive language to influence the tone ●​ When the ________ speaks directly how does this influence the reader? ●​ What rhetorical devices does the author use, and what is their impact? ●​ What is conveyed through __________?

use of__________ impact the (central idea/ theme/ characterization etc.) of the text? foreshadowing affect the impact of the piece?

●​ How does the use of