Language Dive: “This Is How the Space Race Changed the Great Power Rivalry Forever” | EL Education Curriculum

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ELA 2019 G6:M4:U1:L6

Language Dive: “This Is How the Space Race Changed the Great Power Rivalry Forever”

In this Lesson

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Focus Standards: These are the standards the instruction addresses.

  • RI.6.1, RI.6.2, RI.6.5

Supporting Standards: These are the standards that are incidental—no direct instruction in this lesson, but practice of these standards occurs as a result of addressing the focus standards.

  • RI.6.6, RI.6.10, W.6.10, SL.6.1
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Daily Learning Targets

  • I can determine the central ideas and how they are conveyed in a text about the Space Race. (RI.6.2)
  • I can analyze how the sentence fits into the structure of the overall article. (RI.6.5)

Ongoing Assessment

  • Opening A: Entrance Ticket: Unit 1, Lesson 6 (RI.6.1, RI.6.6)
  • Work Time A: Language Dive: "This Is How the Space Race Changed the Great Power Rivalry Forever" note-catcher (RI.6.1, RI.6.2, RI.6.5)
  • Work Time B: Annotate Text: The Space Shuttle Decision Excerpt (RI.6.2, RI.6.10)
  • Closing and Assessment A: Exit Ticket: Unit 1, Lesson 6 (RI.6.1, RI.6.2, W.6.10)

Agenda

AgendaTeaching Notes

1. Opening

A. Engage the Learner - RI.6.6 (5 minutes)

2. Work Time

A. Language Dive: "This Is How the Space Race Changed the Great Power Rivalry Forever" - RI.6.2 (20 minutes)

B. Read and Annotate The Space Shuttle Decision Excerpt - RI.6.2 (15 minutes)

3. Closing and Assessment

A. Exit Ticket - RI.6.2 (5 minutes)

4. Homework

None for this lesson

Alignment to Assessment Standards and Purpose of Lesson

  • RI.6.1 – Work Time A: Students participate in a Language Dive, using textual evidence to answer questions about a key sentence from “This Is How the Space Race Changed the Great Power Rivalry Forever.”
  • RI.6.2 – Work Time A: During the Language Dive, students analyze a sentence that presents the central idea of the text.
  • RI.6.5 – Work Time A: During the Language Dive, students examine how the sentence fits into the structure of the overall article.
  • RI.6.1 – Work Time B: Students read and annotate a new text, The Space Shuttle Decision. They use textual evidence to answer questions about the text.
  • RI.6.2 – Work Time B: During the close read, students identify details that convey central ideas in the text.
  • RI.6.1 – Closing and Assessment A: Students complete an exit ticket in which they use evidence to help explain a central idea of The Space Shuttle Decision.
  • RI.6.2 – Closing and Assessment A: Students complete an exit ticket in which they explain how a central idea of The Space Shuttle Decision is developed.

Opportunities to Extend Learning

  • An optional Mini Language Dive, intended for use after students read and analyze the excerpt of The Space Shuttle Decision during Work Time B, is available in the Teacher’s Guide for English Language Learners. ▲
  • Encourage students to explore the USA Today project “1968: The Year That Transformed the Nation” (http://eled.org/0266) to build more background knowledge of the time period that is the focus of this module. Allow students to decide how they want to demonstrate their learning for their peers (e.g., bulletin board, slide show, or audio recording).

How It Builds on Previous Work

  • In the previous lesson, students participated in a close read to determine the meanings of unfamiliar words by utilizing context, their knowledge of affixes, and reference resources.

Support All Students

  • Students may need additional support with recording their answers on their note-catchers. Group those students together for additional support when necessary.

Assessment Guidance

  • Review students’ Language Dive note-catchers to ensure they understand the central ideas of the article and how these ideas relate to the module guiding question: what were the main events of the Space Race, and in what scientific, political, and social context did they occur?

Down the Road

  • In the next lesson, students will revisit the texts they read in this lesson and analyze for the authors’ points of view and argument. In Lesson 8, for the End of Unit 1 Assessment, students will answer selected response questions to trace and evaluate the author’s argument and analyze the author’s point of view.

In Advance

  • Preview the Language Dive materials to see what will be required of students.
  • Post the learning targets and applicable anchor charts (see Materials list).

Tech and Multimedia

  • Work Time A: Use a brief, age-appropriate video to provide students with more context on the Cold War and the political relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union at that time.

Supporting English Language Learners

Supports guided in part by CA ELD Standards 6.I.B.6, 6.I.B.7, 6.I.B.8, 6.II.A.1, 6.II.A.2, and 6.II.C.6.

Important Points in the Lesson Itself

  • To support ELLs, this lesson contains a Language Dive focused on one of the key sentences from "This Is How the Space Race Changed the Great Power Rivalry Forever," which students read in the previous lesson. In this lesson, students also read an excerpt of a text, "The Space Shuttle Decision," which describes the relationship between the Space Race and the Civil Rights Movement; more specifically, it introduces the idea that the funds and attention devoted to the Space Race should have instead been directed at problems on Earth, like poverty, hunger, and injustice. This text is critical in helping students build the background knowledge necessary to understand the end of unit assessment text of Lesson 8.
  • ELLs may find it challenging to determine the central idea of the new supplemental text. Remind them that the Annotating Text protocol is intended to help them isolate key parts of the text that support their understanding of the central idea.

Vocabulary

  • N/A

Materials from Previous Lessons

Teacher

Student

  • Questions We Can Ask During a Language Dive anchor chart (example for teacher reference) (from Module 3, Unit 1, Lesson 9, Work Time B)
  • Questions We Can Ask During a Language Dive anchor chart (one for display; from Module 3, Unit 1, Lesson 9, Work Time B)
  • Text: "This Is How the Space Race Changed the Great Power Rivalry Forever" (one per student; from Module 4, Unit 1, Lesson 5, Work Time A)

New Materials

Teacher

Student

  • Entrance Ticket: Unit 1, Lesson 6 (example for teacher reference)
  • Language Dive Guide: "This Is How the Space Race Changed the Great Power Rivalry Forever" (for teacher reference)
  • Language Dive: "This Is How the Space Race Changed the Great Power Rivalry Forever" Sentence Chunk Chart (for teacher reference)
  • Language Dive: "This Is How the Space Race Changed the Great Power Rivalry Forever" note-catcher (example for teacher reference)
  • Exit Ticket: Unit 1, Lesson 6 (example for teacher reference)
  • Entrance Ticket: Unit 1, Lesson 6 (one per student)
  • Language Dive: "This Is How the Space Race Changed the Great Power Rivalry Forever" note-catcher (one per student and one for display)
  • Colored markers or pencils (blue; one per student or pair)
  • Language Dive: "This Is How the Space Race Changed the Great Power Rivalry Forever" sentence chunk strips (one per pair of students and one for display)
  • Sticky notes
  • Text: The Space Shuttle Decision Excerpt (one per student and one for display)
  • Exit Ticket: Unit 1, Lesson 6 (one per student)

Assessment

Each unit in the 6-8 Language Arts Curriculum has two standards-based assessments built in, one mid-unit assessment and one end of unit assessment. The module concludes with a performance task at the end of Unit 3 to synthesize students' understanding of what they accomplished through supported, standards-based writing.

Opening

Opening

A. Engage the Learner - RI.6.6 (5 minutes)

  • Repeated routine: Follow the same routine as in previous lessons to distribute and review Entrance Ticket: Unit 1, Lesson 6. Refer to Entrance Ticket: Unit 1, Lesson 6 (example for teacher reference) for possible responses.
  • Repeated routine: Follow the same routine as in previous lessons to review learning targets and the purpose of the lesson, reminding students of any learning targets that are similar to or the same as previous lessons. Invite students to choose a habit of character focus for themselves for this lesson.

Work Time

Work TimeLevels of Support

A. Language Dive: “This Is How the Space Race Changed the Great Power Rivalry Forever” – RI.6.2 (20 minutes)

  • Review the learning targets relevant to the work to be completed in this section of the lesson:

“I can determine the central ideas and how they are conveyed in a text about the Space Race.”

“I can analyze how the sentence fits into the structure of the overall article.”

  • Ask students to retrieve Text: “This Is How the Space Race Changed the Great Power Rivalry Forever.”
  • Tell students they will now participate in a Language Dive to analyze a sentence from the conclusion of “This Is How the Space Race Changed the Great Power Rivalry Forever.” This sentence reiterates a main claim and central idea of the text.
  • Remind students that they will be more independent as they think about and discuss the chunks in their groups. Reassure students that they will continue to be supported as they grapple in the Language Dive.
  • Refer to the Questions We Can Ask During a Language Dive anchor chart, and ensure students understand how to use these questions. Explain that the underlined questions on the anchor chart are questions that students should always ask when they dive into a sentence.
  • Tell students they will now begin the Language Dive. Reread paragraph 14 aloud from “This Is How the Space Race Changed the Great Power Rivalry Forever.”
  • Focus students on the following sentence:
    • “One thing is for sure though—if there had been no Space Race, then surely the world of space research and space missions would be quite different from what it is today.”
  • Use the Language Dive Guide: “This Is How the Space Race Changed the Great Power Rivalry Forever” (for teacher reference) and the Language Dive: “This Is How the Space Race Changed the Great Power Rivalry Forever” Sentence Chunk Chart (for teacher reference) to guide students through a Language Dive conversation about the sentence. Distribute and display the Language Dive: “This Is How the Space Race Changed the Great Power Rivalry Forever” note-catcher and the Language Dive: “This Is How the Space Race Changed the Great Power Rivalry Forever” sentence chunk strips. Refer to the Language Dive: “This Is How the Space Race Changed the Great Power Rivalry Forever” note-catcher (example for teacher reference) as necessary.
  • Repeated routine: invite students to reflect on their progress toward the relevant learning targets.

For Lighter Support

  • As an extension to the Language Dive of Work Time A, challenge students who need lighter support to generate additional sentences that use the past unreal conditional. Provide playful sentence starters as needed to spark student thinking. For example:
    • If I had been born one hundred years ago, __________.
    • If human beings had never made it to the moon, ________.
    • I would never have met my best friend if _______.

For Heavier Support

  • As an extension to the Language Dive of Work Time A, invite students who need heavier support to practice reordering the if- and then- chunks of the Language Dive sentence (i.e., "If there had been no Space Race, surely the world of space research and space missions would be quite different from what it is today" vs. "Surely the world of space research and space missions would be quite different from what it is today if there had been no Space Race"). Students can compare and contrast the two versions of the sentence in terms of meaning, emphasis, and punctuation. This exercise will help students better understand the cause-effect relationship indicated by the conditional mood.

B. Read and Annotate "The Space Shuttle Decision" Excerpt - RI.6.2 (15 minutes)

  • Review the learning target relevant to the work to be completed in this section of the lesson:

"I can determine the central ideas and how they are conveyed in a text about the Space Race."

  • Tell students that they are going to read an excerpt of another informational text related to the Apollo 11 mission.
  • Remind students that the Annotating Text protocol requires a purpose for annotation. Tell students that the purpose for today's annotations will be to determine central ideas conveyed by the text. Students should be circling, underlining, and adding annotations that help them better understand the central ideas in the text.
  • Distribute and display Text: The Space Shuttle Decision Excerpt.
  • Strategically group students in pairs. They should begin by reading the text, either silently or aloud to one another. Once they have finished the first read, they retrieve colored markers or pencils and begin their collaborative annotation.
  • Monitor students' work, and support as needed.
  • Direct student pairs to partner with another pair and compare their annotations. Use variations of Goal 4 Conversation Cues to help them build upon the ideas of their classmates. Some examples are given below:
    • "Do you agree or disagree with what your classmate has written? Why?" (Goal 4)
    • "Who can add on to what your classmate wrote?" (Goal 4)
    • "Who can explain why your classmate came up with that annotation?" (Goal 4)
  • Repeated routine: invite students to reflect on their progress toward the relevant learning targets.

For Lighter Support

  • In Work Time B, after students read and annotate the excerpt from The Space Shuttle Decision, invite students to participate in a Mini Language Dive in small groups to analyze the argument and main claims presented in a sentence from the text (RI.6.8). Students examine the author's use of words with specific connotations, which convey a key figure's point of view toward space travel (RI.6.4, RI.6.6).
  • As an extension to the Mini Language Dive, and to reinforce work with RI.6.4, consider developing an activity that invites students to explore the connotation of the word asserted in the Mini Language Dive sentence. Students can examine the definition of the verb assert (to state something in a strong or definite way) and compare the impact of that verb to the impact of similar reporting verbs like said, declared, stated, claimed, or remarked. Use probing questions to support students' analysis (e.g., In what context might it be appropriate to use declared, but not claimed ?).

For Heavier Support

  • Before the Mini Language Dive, consider offering students who need heavier support simple paraphrases of the Mini Language Dive sentence (e.g., "Abernathy believed that, if people are suffering on Earth, then it is wrong to put money into space travel"). A firm understanding of the sentence's meaning is necessary before students can dissect the impact of the author's point of view.

Closing & Assessments

Closing

A. Exit Ticket - RI.6.2 (5 minutes)

  • Distribute Exit Ticket: Unit 1, Lesson 6, and read the directions aloud.
  • Invite students to answer the questions independently.
  • Refocus whole group. Review answers, referring to Exit Ticket: Unit 1, Lesson 6 (example for teacher reference) as needed.
  • Repeated routine: invite students to reflect on their habit of character focus for this lesson.

Homework

Homework
  • None for this lesson

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