It s not easy for teachers to hold the attention of today's junior high students! They re easily distracted and lose interest quickly. Here s a reading curriculum designed to challenge them to think. Written by an experienced reading teacher and workshop leader, it features 45 high-interest lessons on topics like jeans (The Never-Fading Popularity of Levi's Jeans) and Buying Your First Car. You ll'find 15 story lessons and activities—each story includes a brief overview of the story s topic a word list to introduce unfamiliar words recommended books, videos, CDs, records, and cassettes related to the subject crafts, projects, role-playing, games, and other activities that tie into the story reproducible comprehension questions and extension activities such as plays, projects, and other activities to allow students to experience the subject beyond the story. This comprehension program poses literal, fact-based questions as well as interpretive questions that ask students to draw logical conclusions based on what they ve read. It s flexible enough to be used effectively with poor readers, average readers, upper level readers, and special needs students in the classroom.