Help your students get the most out of their textbook with LaunchPad Solo for Literature.

LaunchPad Solo for Literature is packed with digital content designed to help students sharpen their close reading abilities and promote the development of critical thinking skills. The following tips will help you and your students get the most out of the great resources LaunchPad Solo for Literature has to offer.

Respond to a reading.

Through marginal questions that refer to specific moments in the publisher-provided selection, students are asked to read carefully and think critically about important issues raised by the text. Once submitted, the student’s responses report to the instructor grade book.

Draw connections.

For this assignment, students are asked to read and compare two publisher-provided texts that illuminate each other. Each of the texts has been annotated to highlight key moments and helpful contextual information. Students are able to download both of the texts to facilitate comparison. Students are asked to respond in writing to a series of questions that highlight important similarities and differences between the two texts. Once submitted, the student’s responses will report to the instructor grade book.

Engage in collaborative classroom reading.

For this instructor-led assignment, instructors can upload their favorite text or choose from publisher-provided texts in order to create a customized lesson on close reading. Using the highlighting tools and the notes feature in LaunchPad, the instructor can post notes or questions about specific moments or issues in a text, prompting students to respond with their own comments, questions, or observations. Students can also respond to each other, further contributing to this collaborative reading, and deepening their understanding of the text.

Get advice from well-known authors.

Author videos on the elements of literature are perfect for the YouTube generation and include T.C. Boyle on comedy in fiction, Anne Rice on transitions in fiction, and Frank McCourt on voice. Using the video editing tools in LaunchPad, instructors can annotate, assign, and add questions or comments to these videos, as well as apply these tools to videos that they upload themselves.

Test student understanding.

LaunchPad Solo for Literature includes close to 500 reading comprehension quizzes on commonly taught stories, poems, plays, and essays. These multiple choice quizzes report to the instructor gradebook and help students test their understanding of a specific literary selection.