Xtra Weekly

An interactive curriculum geared for students in Grades 3 – 8 that uses current, high interest nonfiction articles from national newspapers to engage students in reading, writing, and critical thinking. Based on myriad conversations with teachers, principals, curriculum leaders and superintendents, we recognized the need for a comprehensive and targeted critical reading/thinking skills curriculum that would address the dearth of nonfiction, current events reading materials used in schools across the nation. With encouragement from seasoned education professionals, XTRA Weekly was created in 2006 to provides articles published by national recognized media companies that are easy to access online, easy to use and manage, and address topics of interest to students in Grades 3-8. Our 32 weekly lesson plans are common core standards-based, with a focus on reading, writing and speaking activities that address higher-order thinking skills. Feedback from our XTRA Weekly customers consistently tout each of the lessons’ ability to:* provide critical background information for students – a key contributor to enhancing reading comprehension;* enable the students to practice a variety of learning styles and skills – reading, writing and speaking;* enhance students’ knowledge of current events on a weekly basis.