NAME: Helena McKendrick

Mini Lesson Planning Subject/Grade Level: 6th Grade Science

Sheet Length of lesson: 45 minutes
Skill/Strategy/Focus: Comprehension in Non-fiction through
Understanding Text Features: Headings, Inferring

Format Activities

Objectives ● Students will identify and read the headings in the

Clearly state what article and verbally predict the meaning of them
children will do and how ● Students will be able to summarize text from the
they will do it section in writing on a graphic organizer, and create a
new, clearer heading for the section.

Standards English Language Arts:

· Include PA
Common Core Standard - CC.1.2.6.E
Standards
· Include Content Analyze the author’s structure through the use of paragraphs,
chapters, or sections
Area AND
Reading/Writing Science:

Standard - 3.1.6.C1

Differentiate between instinctive and learned animal behaviors

that relate to survival.

Formative &
Summative Assessment
· Explain how
teacher will
determine whether
objectives are met
What evidence will you
have that the objectives
were met? What,
specifically, are you
looking for?
● At the end of the lesson, the teacher will collect the
graphic organizer to assess for understanding, and the
students success in recognizing the headings,
summarizing the text within the headings, and creating
a new heading (Objectives 1 and 2).
● During the guided practice, the teacher will have each
group write their new heading on the board. The
teacher will assess the success of the task live, in front
of the whole class, so students have a few examples of
what the teacher is looking for (Objective 2).
● Throughout the guided practice and independent
practice, the teacher will walk around the room and
 listen to student conversations, specifically observing
students successes in predicting the meaning of the
original heading, and creating a new, clearer heading
(Objective 1)

Materials ● Printed out Article from National Geographic Kids

· State the entitled, “Welcome to the Jungle Gym” (one per
materials to be used student)
in the lesson ○ http://content.yudu.com/A2j1h9/sample/resourc
es/index.htm?referrerUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fww
w.ngkids.co.uk%2Fentertainment%2FSample-
Issue
● Projector
● iPad with Apple Pencil (& hdmi converter)
● Graphic organizer handout (one per student).
● Writing utensil to complete graphic organizer
● White board and dry erase marker

Introduction ● Estimated time: 5 min

CONNECT ● The teacher will begin the lesson by saying, “Often, in
· Gain children’s informative, non-fiction texts, writers will chunk the
attention information into multiple sections according to what
· Name the skill they are about. Each section will typically have a
and tell students heading, or a title that describes the section. Headings
when they would use can be really helpful tools in non-fiction texts to
the skill navigate lengthy texts in search of information, and
· Relate to prior better comprehend smaller sections of the larger text.
knowledge Many times the headings are simple and descriptive--
· Explain why the like a stop sign--and tell the reader exactly what to look
skill is for in that section. “
useful/important to ○ The teacher will display a photo of a stop sign
know on the projector.
 ● The teacher will continue to say, “However, sometimes
writers choose clever titles for the sections (or
headings), which make the meaning of the section a lot
more unclear--like this road sign.”
○ The teacher will display a picture of this road
sign on the board. The sign has arrows pointing
in many directions, and is not as simple as the
stop sign.

● “In order to best comprehend non-fiction texts, like we

encounter a lot in science class, we need to be sure we
know why headings are important, and some ways we
can decode unclear, clever headings. Today, I will
model how I make sense of unclear headings, and give
you the opportunity to practice inferring the meaning of
some tricky headings with a partner, and eventually on
your own.”

Teacher Modeling ● Estimated time: 10 min

TEACH ● The teacher will say, “Since we are currently in the
· Explicitly show middle of our unit on Animal Behavior and Survival,
children how to use the text we will be working on today is from National
the strategy/skill Geographic Kids, and tells the story of a sanctuary in
· Include all think Southeast Asia that aids orphaned orangutans.”
alouds ● Using an iPad and Apple Pencil connected to the
Write out what you projector, the teacher will project the article onto the
will say! screen.
● The teacher will say, “As I begin to look at this article,
the first thing I notice are all of the text features: the
large picture of an orangutan, the small maps, the
 captions on the photos, and of course, the title and
headings.”
○ As the teacher lists the text features, they will
gesture to each one on the screen so students
can make connections with the vocabulary
associated with text features.
● “I start by reading the title, and in this case, the brief
introductions to the article.
○ The teacher will read these parts of the text out
loud to the class.
● “From these sections, I immediately know this text will
have something to do with orphaned orangutans at a
sanctuary. From the title, “Welcome to the Jungle
Gym,” I can guess that these animals are very playful,
since you typically play on a jungle gym.”
● “Looking ahead, I can see the first heading is, “A
Shaky Start.” When I read this, I immediately make a
prediction about what this section could be about.
Since I know these orangutans are orphans, I predict
this section will talk about how the orangutans have
lost their parents and found the sanctuary. Let's read
the section together.
○ The teacher will read the section out loud.
○ The teacher will use the Apple Pencil to
highlight important points in the text.
■ Ex) “one of 25 orangutans living at the
Sepilok Rehabilitation Center” will be
highlighted.
● After reading the section, the teacher will say, “now
that I have read the section, and highlighted some key
points, I’ll summarize the main idea. Usually, this is
something I would do in my head, but sometimes it is
helpful to write down to help collect your thoughts.
Today, we will write out a brief, informal summary in
this graphic organizer.”
○ Teacher will hand out graphic organizer
● “As you can see, I’ve already written the first heading
in the left column, and a summary in the middle
column. Now, I’ll utilize my summary to create a new
heading that is more clear. Since this section is about
 one of the orphaned orangutans, named Ceria, who
was separated from his mother, and then kept by a
human who did not know proper diets, I think a good,
simple heading would be, “The Early Life of an
Orphaned Orangutan.”
● “Now that I have created a simple, straight forward
heading based on my understanding of the section, I
can now easily understand the actual heading, “A
Shaky Start.” And, I see my prediction was not too far
off!”
● “Moving forward to the rest of the text, I have now
ensured I really understand the first section, and the
author’s intention when creating this section.”

Guided Practice ● Estimated time: 5 min

ENGAGE ● The teacher will say, “Now, you will work with a
· Provide an partner to complete the graphic organizer for the next
opportunity for section, “Lost in the Forest.”
students to try the ● “To help you practice this, I provided you with some
strategy with teacher sentence starters under “this section is about.” Work
and/or peer guidance with your partner to read the section out loud. Then
and support utilize the sentence starters to complete a summary of
the section. Finally, work together to think of a new
title (or heading) for the section.”
● “When you are finished, come write your new heading
on the board.”
○ Anticipated responses
■ Why orangutans become orphans
■ What happens to orphaned orangutans
● Allow students around 5 minutes to complete this task.
● When every group has completed the task, the teacher
will go through each title as a whole class and find
commonalities between the titles, and points of praise,
so students have an idea of what works going into
independent practice.
Independent Practice ● Estimated time: 20 min
& ● The teacher will then say, “Now that I have shown you
Application ENGAGE how I make sense of headings, and you have practiced
· Children try the doing so with a partner, you will have a chance to
strategy on their own practice on your own!”
or in a new situation ○ The teacher will give students about 20 minutes
to go through each heading, summarize the
section, create a new heading, and fill out as
much of the worksheet as they can in the given
time frame.
○ The teacher will explain that if students need
help they should first consult with their partner,
and if they are still confused, ask the teacher.
● The teacher will walk around the room and assist when
needed, while also observing students' understanding of
both the skill and content area.

Closure LINK ● Estimated time: 5 min

· Provide closure ● After giving students the time to practice
through reflection, independently, the teacher will bring the class back
extension, and/or together for a whole class discussion.
summarization ● The teacher will say, “While a graphic organizer like
· Tell students this is a great way to map out your thoughts, and
how they should use ensure comprehension of the article, you will
the strategy skill eventually feel comfortable enough to analyze headings
in your head. It will become second nature. However, I
hope that through this activity you were able to see the
value of headers, and their ability to show the purpose
of the way the author structured the text.”
● “Now, I’ll collect your graphic organizers so I can
check your understanding of the skill and content and
give you feedback before we discuss the story of the
Rehabilitation Center more tomorrow (and how it
connects to our Animal Behavior unit).”

Differentiation (content, ● The graphic organizer used in this lesson can be easily
process, product) leveled based on the academic needs of the students in
· Tell how the class.
your methods ○ For example, for students performing below
support the grade level, the worksheet could have sentence
children’s reading starters (like provided in the guided practice) for
development needs each heading. This way, students can focus less
(below level, above, on the summarizing aspect, which is not the
ELL) main goal for this mini lesson, and more on
inferring and synthesizing a new title.
○ For students performing above grade level, I
may ask them to provide 2 or 3 alternative
headings as enrichment. I would also encourage
them to not utilize the sentence starters for the
guided practice. Additionally, these students
may choose to create their own , different clever
title for the section.
○ For English Language learners, I would also
provided sentence starter suggestions for each
heading, and possibly even a fill in the blank
model for the summary section. This way, they
can focus on comprehension of the bigger
picture, and creating a new, alternative title
rather than on each specific word, and forming
sentences.
● The content of the lesson will not be differentiated.