Using Scope in the Classroom
Use the links below to find information on every feature and column that appears in Scope throughout the year, along with ways you can incorporate the magazine into your curriculum. Bonus activities, skills, standards, and ideas for engaging high achievers also included.
Student Edition:
- Scope 100
- Your World
- Readers Theater Play
- True Teen
- Author Interview
- Fiction
- Having Your Say
- Nonfiction
- Hot Topics (debate)
- You Be the Editor
- Back to You
- Dig Deeper
- Write Now
Scope 100: VOCABULARY ACQUISITION
Throughout the school year, Scope introduces 100 vocabulary words pulled from the SAT and ACT tests. Depending on the length of the issue, there will be 5 to 7 "Scope 100’s" per issue.
Each word is:
- defined with pronunciation and synonyms on the table of contents (p. 2).
- used once in context in the articles in the issue (highlighted in red, boldface type).
- reinforced with a matching exercise and fill-in-the-blank activity page called The Scope 100 Wordhunt.
- reinforced with an Antonym worksheet available online for each issue. Click here to download an example.
- reviewed in a Word Workout that appears 4 times a year in the TE (every 25 words learned). Click here to download an example.
In the classroom: Read the Scope 100 words listed on p. 2. Talk about each word and give examples of how it could be used. After you've worked through the issue, have the students complete the Scope 100 Wordhunt and the Antonyms online reproducible.
For high achievers: Before you pass out issues, write the words on the board. Give them a sentence with each word. Students copy down the words on their own paper and guess what the meanings are, based on prior knowledge and the context you provided. Then open the magazine to p. 2 and discuss the words together.
Bonus: Challenge students to use each word in casual conversation by the end of the week and share with the class how they used the words.
Standards/skills:
Your World
This three-page section features short, high-interest news items, each of which ends with a writing prompt or discussion question.
- p. 3 One big photo for writing prompts, plus one small news item
- p. 4 A lead story about a celebrity, movie adaptation of a classic author or text, or literary news, with the etymology of an interesting word used in that story
- p. 5 Bite-size items that may range from interactive match-the-author-to-the-novel games to student writing to a cool new YA book
In the classroom: Use this section to ease students into longer articles. It's also a way to learn how literary news impacts their lives. Let them pick one article and one writing prompt to do as homework or during the class period.
Bonus: Challenge students to rewrite the headlines for each story. Talk about what makes headlines compelling versus boring.
Standards/skills:
- vocabulary acquisition
- visual literacy
- reading for information
- appreciating authors and literature
- joining the broader literacy community
- reading and writing for pleasure
- making personal connections to texts
- word origin
Readers Theater Play
Every issue contains a play adapted from a new movie, play, book, or classic text like a Shakespeare play or Charles Dickens novel.
In the classroom: Before starting the play, refer to the companion activities and resources, including Pre-Reading Strategies, in the TE. Then, assign a student to each character listed in the box on the first page of the play. Starred roles require the most reading. Encourage students to be as animated as possible. They can also keep a list on their own paper of any words they aren't sure of. They should use context clues to guess word meanings and then look up the words. After reading the play, test comprehension with the Play Skills activity that follows every play. A range of additional activities are available as online reproducibles.
Bonus: At the end of the year, divide students into groups and let each group choose one play from the year of Scope. They should act out the play in front of the class. Encourage them to be as creative as they want with costumes, soundtracks, multimedia elements, and props. (Just be sure to approve song lists in advance to avoid anything inappropriate.)
Standards/skills:
- fluency
- reading with expression
- comprehension
- listening skills
- understanding plot, setting, theme, characters, etc.
- making inferences and predictions
True Teen
These articles are written in first person by teens who have overcome some obstacle or are helping to make the world a better place. Your students will be inspired by how their peers have handled difficulties or worked to improve their worlds.
In the classroom: After reading a True Teen story, you may choose to talk about point of view and the narrator's voice, since these articles are always written in first person. You can also ask them to write a letter to the narrator.
Bonus: Ask students to write their own first-person accounts of how they overcame an obstacle. Or have them conduct an imaginary interview with the narrator.
Standards/skills:
Author Interview
These stories feature an interview with a young-adult and/or contemporary author. They usually explore a number of writing aspects. Topics may include ideas, characterization, writing environments, overcoming writer’s block, making revisions, and more.
In the classroom: After reading an author interview, ask students to summarize what they read. Then ask them what they found interesting or surprising about what the author had to say. How did his or her writing process differ from what they might have expected?
Standards/skills:
- author's purpose
- reading for information
- developing a main idea and supporting details, understanding character, plot, theme, tone, editing, understanding the writing process, and more
Fiction
Fiction articles are short stories or excerpts from novels by contemporary and classic authors.
In the classroom: When applicable, have students write the next chapter to the story. Students should use a writing style that matches the author's voice and tone, and the characters' behavior should be consistent with the excerpt. Prior to writing, have students organize their thoughts with a character-traits graphic organizer or storyboard, available as online reproducibles.
Standards/skills:
- variety of reading genres
- reading for pleasure
- elements of fiction, such as figurative language, plot, theme, tone, literary devices, etc.
Having Your Say
Student writing includes poems, essays of all kinds, paragraphs, short stories, and music, movie, book, and play reviews. Encourage your class to submit their writing to Scope for a chance to get published.
Standards/skills:
Nonfiction
Nonfiction articles vary widely in subject matter. These stories may explore history tied into that issue's play, or they can be about the environment, politics, or pop culture. They occasionally tie into a heritage month or holiday, such as Martin Luther King Jr. Day or National American Indian Heritage Month.
In the classroom: Since these stories vary widely, how you work them into your class will also vary. Check the TE for corresponding lesson plans, activity ideas, and resources.
Standards/skills:- variety of reading genres
- inference
- reading for information
Hot Topics (debate)
This column challenges students to form their own opinions about an issue in the news or an issue that is particularly relevant to their teen lives. Past topics include: Should ads be allowed on video games; has reality TV gone too far; is the digital world making teen less connected; and should the voting age be lowered. Debate prompts usually appear at the end of articles.
In the classroom: Read the article as a class. Divide students into two groups: the Yes and the No. Explain that part of being a skilled debater is the ability to argue effectively for or against an issue, regardless of personal conviction. Give each group 10 minutes to flesh out their arguments, and appoint three spokespeople. Then, you can moderate a class debate on the subject. If you don't have time for a formal debate, use these questions to generate a class discussion or as a writing prompt:
- Do you agree with how the issue is presented in the article? Why or why not?
- What relevant information is missing?
- What is your opinion and why?
Standards/skills:
You Be the Editor
Though the subject matter in this column varies widely, the concept is always the same: Students must edit an article to correct mistakes, such as punctuation errors, misplaced modifiers, misused homophones, capitalization errors, run-on sentences, subject-verb disagreement, etc.
In the classroom: Have students read and correct the article on their own, then discuss how everyone did as a class. An accompanying worksheet will always appear as an online reproducible. This will give students a refresher on the grammar lesson of the column.
Bonus: Have students write their own sentences with mistakes, then pass to their friends to correct.
Standards/skills:
Back to You
The back page of each issue is interactive. You'll find a reading-comprehension activity, like a crossword puzzle based on one article in the issue, a write-the-caption for the wacky photo, a quotation for students to interpret and write about, and an episode of our comic strip series “Jane & Austin’s Literary Laughs.” Each comic relates to grammar or literature in some way.
In the classroom:
- Have students complete the puzzle on their own or in groups.
- Students may respond to the quotation in writing, or you can use it for class discussion.
- For the write-the-caption activity, you can have a contest for the best caption (with students voting for their favorite), or simply assign it as homework. Be sure to talk about what makes a good caption: It can have a pun, play on words, or comment on the photo in a humorous or ironic way. Captions also convey information that help the reader understand and interpret the image.
- Each episode of Jane & Austin is accompanied by at least two online reproducibles: a storyboard so they can write their own episodes (and send to us!), and a companion activity related to the theme of the episode. For instance, if the episode deals with misplaced modifiers, there will be a misplaced-modifier online reproducible to help students appreciate and master the concept.
Dig Deeper
Dig Deeper is a 1/3 vertical column that appears after most fiction and nonfiction articles. It contains three reading-comprehension questions that require different skills, such as inference, plot, detail, main idea, fact vs. opinion, etc.
In the classroom: Use this section to evaluate comprehension and to have students respond to articles through writing.
Bonus: Ask students to write their own comprehension questions and swap with a partner.Write Now
Write Nows are small boxes that follow stories and ask students to respond to what they just read. You'll find Write Nows peppered throughout every issue, with additional writing prompts in the TE. They also appear in Dig Deeper.
In the classroom: After reading an article, give students 10 minutes to respond to the Write Now. Or, after completing an entire issue, let students choose their favorite prompt.
Standards/skills:
- reflecting
- summarizing
- interpreting
- critical thinking
- making connections
- forming an opinion
- creative writing
- text-to-self
Scope Skills (in the TE): Additional issue-specific and general Skills Pages (usually grammar exercises) can be found here.
Writer's Toolbox (in the TE): These activities get students into genre writing. Throughout the school year, students will try memoir, interviewing, poetry, persuasive writing, journaling, autobiography, biography, and critical reviews of music, movies, plays, and books. Some activities focus on the craft of writing, such as how to construct introductions and conclusions. Others help students brainstorm and organize essays. Every issue comes with a “Student Writing Rubric” online reproducible, available here.
Graphic Organizer (in the TE): Every TE comes with a graphic organizer, which is a tool for students to visualize various elements of literature. The graphic organizers usually correspond to one or more of the articles in the student edition.
Teacher's Corner (in the TE): The Teacher's Corner appears several times a year on p. T-2 or p. T-4 of the TE. It contains writing prompts, teaching tips, resources from the editors such as cool Web sites, writing opportunities for your students, and more.
Skills and Standards Grid (in the TE): On p. T-2 of every TE, you’ll find a graph that shows the skills and standards associated with each article in the student edition. The chart also contains a list of each online reproducible and TE activity, and how it relates to the article. Using the online reproducibles ensures that you cover more skills and get students thinking more deeply about what they read.
How do YOU use Scope in your classroom? We want to hear all about it! Send e-mail to scopemag@scholastic.com.
Every TE can be downloaded as a PDF. Click here for a sample.
LESSON PLAN
UNIT PLAN
ONLINE ACTIVITY
