Affective Jacob's Ladder Reading Comprehension Program: Grades 6-8

The Affective Jacob's Ladder Reading Comprehension Program uses a models approach to scaffold student learning and promote inquiry-based discussions of texts. This series of Jacob's Ladder:

• Focuses specifically on supporting advanced students' social-emotional needs.
• Includes high-interest reading selections in the following genres: short stories and media, poetry, and speeches, essays, and biographies.
• Moves students from lower to higher level skills of self-awareness, metacognition, and goal setting.
• Integrates reading comprehension and analysis skills with affective and social-emotional needs.
• Asks students are asked to apply themes, character or real-life experiences, and lessons from texts to their own lives.

New ladders were specially designed for this series and derived from relevant theories about empathy, risk and resilience, achievement motivation, and mindsets and practices for cultivating talent. The Affective Jacob's Ladder guides provide teachers with an explanation of the nature and substance of the theoretical constructs for each ladder. Also included are an overview of the goals and objectives of each ladder and suggestions for how to implement the ladders in the classroom in a way that supports students' academic and social-emotional needs at the same time.