A bite-sized interview with a young adult in an interesting career, designed to introduce students to the hard and soft skills required for real-world success.

Activity/Skill Focus: Comprehension

A short, timely nonfiction article about a current event relevant to teens, explained in a way they can understand and relate to.

Activity/Skill Focus: Summarizing

A profile of an incredible teen written in the first or third person and often focusing on a teen who has overcome a hardship, beat the odds, or stood up for what they believe in.

Activity/Skill Focus: Text Structure

A beautifully crafted six-page work of narrative nonfiction that delves into an important and highly engaging topic, often connected to social studies and science content areas. Typical selections present significant events in history, natural disasters, and inspiring figures from the past or present.

Activity/Skill Focus: Text Evidence

In alternating issues, read-aloud plays provide a perfect opportunity to practice fluency and learn about the features of drama. Action plays are often adapted from classic short stories, myths, or biographies, or they introduce students to significant historical events.

Activity/Skill Focus: Inference

High-quality fiction by renowned authors in alternating issues, leveled for struggling readers and made more accessible with guiding questions. Stories often address themes relevant to teens, including identity, change, bullying, and friendship. Genres include realistic fiction, science fiction, and fantasy.

Activity/Skill Focus: Inference

Super-short nonfiction, often presented in the following formats: Where in the World (a geography focus), Time Machine (a history focus), or Weird But True (a culture or science focus).

Activity/Skill Focus: Paragraph Writing

Debates on hot-button topics and relatable moral dilemmas prompt students to read and analyze a text or texts that explore both sides of an issue. After identifying points on both sides of the debate, students use our differentiated graphic organizers to write an argumentative essay or paragraph.

Activity/Skill Focus: Central Idea and Supporting Details, Argumentative Writing

Two texts united by topic or theme—for example, two nonfiction articles, or a nonfiction text paired with a poem, interview, or other genre. Topics often draw on science, social studies, current events, and social-emotional learning concepts.

Activity/Skill Focus: Compare and Contrast or Synthesis

Some issues of Action feature scaffolded poems by poets such as Carl Sandburg, Tupac Shakur, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Jason Reynolds.

Activity/Skill Focus: Close Reading

Most issues of Action include infographics that convey facts and data about a teen-friendly topic using photos, graphs, charts, and other images. Students draw on the information presented to complete an activity online.

Activity/Skill Focus: Text Features