Stretch lessons are an instructional tool that teachers can use to help students build a bank of strategies they can apply when encountering text that is too difficult (or when faced with words that they don’t know). This section contains two parts: the Stretch Article and Stretch Activity. Both are available with 5-Step Lessons and appear just after the Write step. Students should have finished the Ready, Read, Respond, Reflect, and Write steps before working with the Stretch components. The Stretch Article and Activity can be accessed from the Lesson Page by clicking on the tabs above the lesson content. The questions are available under To-Do.
The Stretch Article provides students with the opportunity to demonstrate independence with complex informational texts. This gives students the option to work with the same article they saw in the Second Step (Read) of the 5-Step Literacy Routine, but this time at their Stretch level. Students that are currently below grade-level expectations will be stretched to grade level, while students currently meeting grade-level expectations will be stretched one Lexile band higher. This encourages them to apply reading skills with material of greater complexity! The Stretch Activity measures student proficiency of specific standards after reading the Stretch article.
It's important to note that direct instruction is recommended to support students with this more rigorous text. Students should not be reading it independently.