Pairing Texts to Enhance Instruction

This workshop guides educators in using paired texts to enrich literacy instruction and deepen student comprehension. Participants explore how strategically combining texts can increase student engagement, promote critical thinking, and help students make cross-textual connections. The session examines the English Standards for each grade level and introduces seven evidence-based purposes for pairing texts. Educators are provided with lesson plans and practical activities to support instructional integration and scaffold analysis across genres, formats, and structures.

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• Surface-level comprehension due to isolated reading experiences
  
  
• Difficulty fostering critical thinking and analytical reading through traditional single-text approaches
  
  
• Limited use of instructional strategies to connect texts meaningfully
  
  
• Lack of accessible, standards-aligned resources for pairing literary and informational texts
  

1. Understanding Seven Purposes for Pairing Texts
   Educators will gain insight into seven distinct purposes for using paired texts—including comparing literary elements, analyzing text transformations, and integrating information across texts—to guide planning and standards-based instruction.
   
   
2. Designing Lessons that Promote Higher-Order Thinking
   Participants will learn how to develop lessons that prompt students to compare themes, structures, and central ideas, supporting skills such as inference, synthesis, and evaluation through purposeful pairing.
   
   
3. Implementing Paired Text Activities in the Classroom
   Teachers will leave with adaptable lesson plans and resources that align with English Standards across grade levels. These materials can be used to facilitate thoughtful discussion, writing, and analysis using fiction, nonfiction, and multimedia texts