Teaching Literacy Strategies for Content Area Reading Lesson Plan

Your Name: Jenny Bayer Grade Level: 6th

Content Area: Science Theme/Topic: Solar System

Bibliographic Entry for Text Used in this Lesson

Newsla Article:
Earth, our constantly changing home. (n.d.). Retrieved June 30, 2017, from
https://newsela.com/articles/lib-nasa-earth-overview/id/21946/

Exerpt:

Orbit And Rotation

Earth rotates, or turns, once every 24 hours. One complete rotation of the Earth is what we call a day.

Earth also orbits the sun. It takes the Earth around 365 days to complete one trip around the sun. One
complete orbit is called a year.

During part of the year, the Northern Hemisphere, or top half, of the Earth is tilted toward the sun. At
the same time, the Southern Hemisphere, or bottom half, is tilted away from the sun. The stronger
sunlight in the north makes it summer there. Weaker sunlight makes it winter in the south.

Six months later, things are reversed. Then, it is winter in the north and summer in the south.

Formation

Earth is about 4.5 billion years old. It formed after gravity pulled swirling gas and dust into a ball.
Gravity is a force that pulls things together. It is what keeps us from floating into space.

Like the other terrestrial planets, Earth has a central core, a rocky mantle, and a solid crust.

Techniques Selected
What you’ll do as the teacher to support the reader before, during and/or after reading.

Name, and provide the reference for, each of the three different techniques you will be using.
 Name of Technique Reference for Technique (book & page # or website)
Before I’m Curious Handbook of Content Area Literacy Strategies CH 5
During X Marks The Spot Handbook of Content Area Literacy Strategies CH 6
After Turn and Talk Subjects Matter CH 5 pgs 124-137

Before Reading: I’m Curious

Purpose
I would like to use this strategy because it provides the students to connect with the text before reading. The
students will be using questioning and critical thinking to investigate the topic at hand: Earth in our Solar
System. The students will come up with questions or statements that they would like to find the answer to in the
reading. This will support student connection. The students will be coming up with their own motivations for
reading this article. This will also give myself and the students on the background knowledge that they currently
possess.

General Literacy Objectives

After this lesson, the student will: Students will be able to recognize the purpose of the article by using their
inferencing skills upon a first glance. Students will also be able to make connections between this text, their
own experiences, and prior knowledge that they may have about this topic.

Assessment of Objectives
To assess that students are meeting the stated objectives, I will have the students create a “pre-read poster”. To
do this, students-while in small groups- will create a poster/chart of their questions/comments that they have
come up with. They will also be asked to show potential connections that they were able to make to the text.
They may do this any way they see fits best. This allows for student creativity and freedom. I will also have the
students attach their individual papers to the back of the poster. This will show me that each student made
connections and identified questions they may be curious about.

Procedure
1) Show students the article on the board/ projector- just the title.
2) Have students, individually, create and record at least 2 “I’m curious” statements
a. I will model this by creating my own “I’m curious” statement
3) Now, I will have the students record at least 2 connections that they think they will be able to make with
this text that could be beneficial to their reading experience
a. I will explicitly model this by drawing my own connection to the text
4) Once students have made their connections and “I’m curious” statements, I will split them into small
groups- no larger than 4 students per group.
5) Now the students will be given a poster or chart paper to create their group’s poste. They will be
allowed the rest of class time to finish the project. I will encourage students to be as creative and
innovative as they possibly can.
6) After they are finished, each group will connect their individual papers to the back of their posters.
7) I will ask each group to partner with at least 1 other group and share their “I’m curious” statements
and connections with each other.
8) I will collect the posters to look over for myself and then display the posters around the room for the
remainder of the unit.
During Reading: X Marks the Spot

Purpose
This technique encourages to interact with the text as they read by marking their pages with symbols. Through
this strategy, students will identify important information, information that they may have questions on, and
new, interesting information. This promotes a deeper connection to the text and will require students to read it
and have an understanding of what it is saying.

General Literacy Objectives

After this lesson, the student will:

 Determine importance in the text provided while highlighting the important ideas/facts
 Synthesize the information they gain while reading to question and make further connections to
the text.

Assessment of Objectives
To assess that students are able to determine important facts in the story, I will have the students record their
findings on an online blog post for the class. For the post, students will be asked to share at least 3 important
facts/points that they found within the text while reading, list 2 questions that they had while reading, and at
least 1 new/interesting thing that they learned. They will then be asked to respond to 2-3 of their fellow
classmates. I will view these posts to check for understanding and completion of the objectives. I will use a
checklist for each student to ensure that they have completed the assignment and gained importance from the
reading.

Procedure
 Hand out articles to each student
 Allow each student to choose their own writing utensil to use (this allows for some sort of choice,
maybe using a purple pen will get them more excited to complete the assignment!)
 I will explain the process of using “X marks the spot”
o I will model this by using a different article that relates to the topic- this way students cannot
use any facts that I identify as their own to complete the assignment
 I will list the symbols to use for this on the board so that students can refer back to them if needed
 The students will be set free to complete the reading on their own, marking their papers as necessary
 After they are finished reading, the students will pick up a laptop (or we can go to a computer lab)
and begin composing their blogpost
 After completing their blogpost, students will file their articles away in their journal for this lesson
 After all students have completed a blog post, the students will return to the computers and
read/respond to the necessary posts (2-3 classmates)

After Reading: Turn and Talk

Purpose
This technique will encourage further collaboration between students. It will allow them to speak freely and
reflect on what they read.
General Literacy Objectives (Do not include content objectives in this plan.) What should students be able to
do regarding their literacy as a result of this lesson? This is a good place to refer to the strategies, but you
may also need to include certain skills. One or two objectives are sufficient.
After this lesson, the student will:
 Evaluate and critique the text
 Retell and summarize the text

Assessment of Objectives
I will use a checklist as I circulate the room to listen to student conversations. The checklist will simply be to
identify that each student has spoken and made a valid point. I will also be taking notes on the discussions that
I hear.

Procedure
 Split students into small groups- potentially the same groups used for the pre-reading activity
 Introduce the discussion’s guiding topics
o The students will be discussing what they learned, important information, and questions
o Students will also make further connections to the text- now students will connect this new information to other
texts they have read and knowledge within the topic of the Solar System
 As the questions are introduced, students will try to use the text, connections, and prior knowledge to answer their peer’s
questions.
 As the students are discussing, I will be circulating the room and sitting down with each group for 5 minutes at a time. If
conversation is still going strong after I have sat down with each group, I will begin circulating again.

Additional Sections

Other Materials Needed

 Active/smart board
 Posters/anchor charts
 computers

Adaptations
Newsla has the ability to change the article based on Lexile levels. For students with special needs, if their
reading abilities are below that of their peers, I will have them read the article at a lower Lexile level. I will
also be sure to pay closer attention to these students within the group conversations and group work. I could
also use an additional graphic organizer or reading guide to guide the student during their reading so that
they can draw meaning from the text.
Another adaptation, would be to take these students and put them into a group that will read the text aloud and
follow along on their own papers. By working in small groups, the students will not have to worry as much
if their writing skills are not as developed as peers, they will be able to use discussion to get ideas across.

Assessment Charts
 Example of During Reading Checklist
Blog post

Student name: .
The student:

/3 Included at least 3 facts/important points

/2 Included at least 2 questions

/1 Included at least 1 new fact

/2 Meaningfully responded to at least 2 discussion posts

Comments about post:

Total: /8
 Example of After Reading Discussion
Turn and Talk Discussion

Group: .

Student: .

Spoke during discussion

Student comment(s):

Student: .

Spoke during discussion

Student comment(s):

Student: .

Spoke during discussion

Student comment(s):

Student: .

Spoke during discussion

Student comment(s):