Unit 1 Assessment: Using Strategies to Read Informational Text | EL Education Curriculum

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ELA G2:M3:U1:L6

Unit 1 Assessment: Using Strategies to Read Informational Text

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These are the CCS Standards addressed in this lesson:

  • RI.2.1: Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.
  • RI.2.2: Identify the main topic of a multiparagraph text as well as the focus of specific paragraphs within the text.
  • RI.2.3: Describe the connection between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text.
  • RI.2.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 2 topic or subject area.
  • RI.2.5: Know and use various text features (e.g., captions, bold print, subheadings, glossaries, indexes, electronic menus, icons) to locate key facts or information in a text efficiently.
  • RI.2.6: Identify the main purpose of a text, including what the author wants to answer, explain, or describe.
  • RI.2.7: Explain how specific images (e.g., a diagram showing how a machine works) contribute to and clarify a text.
  • W.2.7: Participate in shared research and writing projects (e.g., read a number of books on a single topic to produce a report; record science observations).
  • W.2.8: Recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.
  • L.2.4d: Use knowledge of the meaning of individual words to predict the meaning of compound words (e.g., birdhouse, lighthouse, housefly; bookshelf, notebook, bookmark).

Daily Learning Targets

  • I can efficiently find information to answer questions about what plants need to grow. (RI.2.1, RI.2.2, RI.2.3, RI.2.4, RI.2.5, RI.2.6, RI.2.7)
  • I can write supporting details about what a plant needs to grow and survive. (W.2.7, W.2.8)

Ongoing Assessment

  • During the Opening, listen for students to share a growing knowledge about compound words. (L.2.4d)
  • During Work Time C, circulate and observe whether students are able to write supporting details about plant needs and their related plant parts. (W.2.7)
  • During the Closing, listen as students share their writing. Notice whether they are able to speak clearly to share their work and listen respectfully as a classmate shares.

Agenda

AgendaTeaching Notes

1. Opening

A. Poem and Movement: "Plants around the World" (10 minutes)

2. Work Time

A. Unit 1 Assessment: Using Strategies to Read Informational Text: Seed to Plant, Pages 14-15 (20 minutes)

B. Reading Aloud to Research Plant Needs: Seed to Plant, Pages 14-15 (15 minutes)

C. Independent Writing: Plant Needs (10 minutes)

3. Closing and Assessment

A. Sharing Our Work: Informational Paragraphs (5 minutes)

Purpose of lesson and alignment to standards:

  • Continue to nurture an inquiry-rich classroom environment by inviting students to think and wonder about how plants grow and survive as they read informational text and engage in the Unit 1 Assessment. Recall that students should experience the assessment as another learning engagement that provides opportunity to practice their reading skills.
  • Also during Work Time B, students engage in a sorting activity with a partner using pictures of plant parts and needs. This activity serves as a scaffold for the writing they complete in this lesson. Providing structured and interactive scaffolds coupled with opportunities to speak and write about those experiences honors young learners' natural curiosity while building their language skills.
  • During Work Time C, students write the body of a paragraph for a teacher-provided introduction and conclusion. This is intended to be a quick write of one to two sentences to support students in building increased knowledge of plant parts and needs.

How this lesson builds on previous work:

  • In Lessons 3-5, students were guided through using different text features to help make meaning of informational text. In this lesson, they read independently and answer text-dependent questions for the Unit 1 Assessment.
  • This lesson continues the compound word routine established in Lesson 5.

Areas in which students may need additional support:

  • Similar to previous assessments, this assessment involves students reading and answering text-dependent questions. However, this is the first assessment in which the assessment text is not read aloud. While assessment questions are read aloud for clarification, students work through the reading and assessment questions at their own pace. Teachers should support students as needed.

Down the road:

  • In Lesson 7, students will continue reading the rest of Seed to Plant with a partner while answering text-dependent questions. Students will use this as a time to practice reading informational textsand to preview the ideas of pollination and seed dispersal. These ideas will be explored further in Lessons 8-9.

In Advance

  • Prepare Plants and Pollinators Word Wall card for the word sunlight.
  • Pre-distribute Materials for Work Time B in the whole group area.
  • Preview the Unit 1 Assessment questions and consider those for which your students may need additional clarification.
  • Post: Learning targets and applicable anchor charts (see Materials list).

Tech and Multimedia

Continue to use the technology tools recommended throughout Modules 1 and 2 to create anchor charts to share with families; to record students as they participate in discussions and protocols to eview with students later and to share with families; and for students to listen to and annotate text, record ideas on note-catchers, and word-process writing.

Supporting English Language Learners

Supports guided in part by CA ELD Standards 2.I.B.5, 2.I.B.6, and 2.I.C.10

Important points in the lesson itself

  • The basic design of this lesson supports ELLs by inviting them to complete assessment tasks similar to the classroom tasks completed in Lessons 3-5. Students have the opportunity to work with Seed to Plant to answer selected response questions with information found using text features.
  • ELLs may find the assessment challenging. Encourage students to consult classroom resources and give them specific, positive feedback on the progress they've made learning English.
  • Allow students to review note-catchers, the Frayer models, Plants and Pollinators Word Wall, and their Plants and Pollinators research notebook.
  • Ensure ELLs understand the assessment directions. Answer their questions, refraining from supplying answers to the assessment questions themselves (see Meeting Students' Needs column). ?After the assessment, ask students to discuss which assessment task was easiest and which was most difficult, and why. In future lessons, focus on the language skills that will help students address these assessment challenges.

Universal Design for Learning

  • Multiple Means of Representation (MMR): To set themselves up for success for the assessment, students need to generalize the skills that they learned from the previous lessons. Before administering the assessment, activate their prior knowledge by recalling the learning targets from the previous lessons and the work with plant parts that they have already completed. Additionally, present the directions for the assessment both visually and verbally.
  • Multiple Means of Action & Expression (MMAE): During the Opening, students read aloud the poem, "Plants around the World" with the teacher. Continue modeling fluent reading andproviding mentors as necessary.
  • Multiple Means of Engagement (MME): Continue to support students with limiting distractions during the unit assessment and varying assessment times as necessary. Consider breaking the assessment into two parts and offering breaks at certain times., as well as providing scaffolds that support executive function skills, self-regulation, and students' abilities to monitor progress before and after the assessment (e.g., visual prompts, reminders, checklists, rubrics).

Vocabulary

Key: Lesson-Specific Vocabulary (L); Text-Specific Vocabulary (T); Vocabulary Used in Writing (W)

New 

  • prediction (L)
  • sunlight (T)

Review 

  • compound words, efficient (L)
  • plants, roots, leaves (T)

Materials

  • "Plants around the World" (from Lesson 5; one to display; for teacher read-aloud)
  • Compound Words anchor chart (new; teacher-created; see supporting Materials)
  • Compound Words anchor chart (example, for teacher reference)
  • Unit 1 Assessment: Using Strategies to Read Informational Text: Seed to Plant, Pages 14-15 (one per student; see Assessment Overview and Resources)
  • Answering Selected Response anchor chart (begun in Module 2)
  • Seed to Plant (from Lesson 3; one per student)
  • Unit 1 Guiding Question anchor chart (begun in Lesson 2)
  • Picture card sets (one set per pair)
  • Sentence frame (one per pair)
  • Plants and Pollinators Word Wall card (new; teacher-created; one)
  • Plants and Pollinators Word Wall (begun in Lesson 3; added to during Work Time B; see Teaching Notes)
  • Plant Frayer Model anchor chart (begun in Lesson 3; added to during Work Time B; see supporting Materials)
  • Plant Frayer Model anchor chart (begun in Lesson 3; example, for teacher reference)
  • Plants and Pollinators research notebook, Part I (begun in Lesson 2; page 6; one per student and one to display)
  • Plants and Pollinators research notebook, Part I (begun in Lesson 2; page 6; example, for teacher reference)
  • What Researchers Do anchor chart (begun in Lesson 3)
  • Back-to-Back and Face-to-Face anchor chart (begun in Module 1)

Materials from Previous Lessons

New Materials

Assessment

Each unit in the K-2 Language Arts Curriculum has one standards-based assessment built in. The module concludes with a performance task at the end of Unit 3 to synthesize their understanding of what they accomplished through supported, standards-based writing.

Opening

OpeningMeeting Students' Needs

A. Poem and Movement: "Plants around the World" (10 minutes) 

  • Gather students whole group.
  • Display "Plants around the World" and invite students to join you in reading only the compound words in the poem chorally.
  • Review the definition of a compound word (a word that is made up of two or more words joined together).
  • Introduce a movement for students to use when saying compound words in the poem (e.g., showing a fist as each individual word is said, and then moving fists together).
  • Model using this movement to say the word wildflower.
  • Reread the poem chorally, inviting students to join in and use the movement each time a compound word is read aloud.
  • Direct students' attention to the Compound Words anchor chart.
  • Orient students to the first three columns by reading aloud the first example listed:
    • "sun"
    • "flowers"
    • "sunflowers"
  • Focus students on the far right-hand column and read the heading:
    • Prediction: I think this new word means..."
  • Share that a prediction is like a guess: If you know the meaning of the first and the second word, you can predict what the compound word means.
  • Turn and Talk:

"If you know the meaning of the words sun and flowers, what do you think the word sunflowers might mean?" (flowers that looks like the sun, flowers that loves the sun)

  • Refocus students whole group and invite several students to share their responses. Record a definition of the word sunflower in the Prediction column of the Compound Words anchor chart. Refer to the Compound Words anchor chart (example, for teacher reference) as necessary.
  • Read aloud the other compound words listed on the Compound Words anchor chart, and share that tomorrow students will predict the meaning of these words.
  • For ELLs and students who may need additional support with comprehension: (Color Coding: Compound Words) Color code each part of the compound words in a different color to more explicitly define them. For heavier support, invite students to annotate the margins around each word with illustrations. (Example: Draw a sun and a flower next to the word sunflower.) (MMR)

Work Time

Work TimeMeeting Students' Needs

A. Unit 1 Assessment: Using Strategies to Read Informational Text: Seed to Plant, Pages 14-15 (20 minutes) 

  • Direct students' attention to the posted learning targets and read the first one aloud:
  • "I can efficiently find information to answer questions about what plants need to grow."
  • Review the meaning of efficient (operating well without much waste) and tell students that they will independently practice reading and answering text-dependent questions about an informational text, Seed to Plant. Remind students that they will need to be efficient in the use of informational text features while reading.
  • Distribute the Unit 1 Assessment: Using Strategies to Read Informational Text: Seed to Plant, Pages 14-15. Preview the questions by reading them aloud to the class and answering clarifying questions.
  • Direct students' attention to the Answering Selected Response anchor chart and review the steps as needed.
  • Invite students to read pages 14-15 in their copies of Seed to Plant and to independently answer the questions based on the text.
  • Circulate and support students as needed while they work.
  • After 20 minutes, refocus whole group and collect students' assessments.
  • For ELLs and students who may need additional support with comprehension and engagement: (Working on Same Learning Target) Students discuss how they previously worked toward each of the learning targets. (MMR, MME)
  • For ELLs: (Reading Aloud and Monitoring Assessment) Read aloud the entire assessment. Rephrase directions. Monitor to see that students correctly complete the assessment.
  • For students who may need additional support with reading: Offer alternatives to visual representation by also providing auditory representation of information. (Example: Read aloud each question and possible responses to individual students as they work through Unit 1 Assessment.)

B. Reading Aloud to Research Plant Needs: Seed to Plant, Pages 14!-15 (15 minutes) 

  • Invite students to the meeting area with their copy of Seed to Plant.
  • Direct students' attention to the posted Unit 1 Guiding Question anchor chart and read it aloud:

"How do plants grow and survive?"

    • Remind students that we have been learning about plant parts and the plant life cycle.
    • Tell them that understanding how plants grow and survive will help us better understand how we get fruits, flowers, and vegetables.
  • Tell students that they will now reread and discuss the information on pages 14-15 as a class to better understand how plant parts help meet the survival needs of the plant.
  • Display pages 14-15 and read them aloud as students follow along in their book. Cue students to listen for plant needs and the related plant parts.
  • Tell students that you have chosen some important words from the text that they will now discuss with a partner.
    • Move students into pairs and distribute picture card sets and sentence frame.
    • Direct pairs to use the cards and sentence frame to practice explaining the information.
    • Students should articulate one sentence with evidence of a plant need and one sentence with elaboration about the related plant part.
    • Refocus whole group. Turn and Talk:

"Which plant need from the text is a compound word?" (sunlight)

    • Show students the Plants and Pollinators Word Wall card for sunlight (light from the sun) and follow the same process established in Modules 1 and 2: provide its definition, clap out its syllables, use it in a sentence, and place the Word Wall card and picture for it on the Plants and Pollinators Word Wall.
    • Invite student pairs to share the sentences they made using the picture cards and sentence frame.
    • Use student responses as a guide to add to the Plant Frayer Model anchor chart. Refer to the Plant Frayer Model anchor chart (example, for teacher reference) as necessary.
  • Tell students they will now synthesize their learning from the text by writing the body of an informational paragraph about how plant parts help meet the needs of plants.
  • For ELLs: (Whole Class Practice: Sentence Frames) Work as a class to practice using a picture card to complete a sentence frame.
  • For students who may need additional support with oral language and processing: Pair students with strategic elbow partners to ensure that they have a strong, politely helpful partner to support their efforts as they share their thinking. (MMAE)

C. Independent Writing: Plant Needs (10 minutes) 

  • Direct students' attention to the posted learning targets and read the second one aloud:
  • "I can write supporting details about what a plant needs to grow and survive."
  • Reread the learning target, emphasizing these words: "I can write supporting details about what a plant needs to grow and survive."
  • Using a total participation technique, invite responses from the group:

"What does this learning target mean?" (write something important about plant needs)

  • Tell students they will now write the supporting details of a paragraph to show their current understanding of what plants need to grow and survive.
    • Display page 6 in the Plants and Pollinators research notebook, Part I. Show students where they are provided with a focusing statement and conclusion, and space to write two sentences of supporting details.
    • Review parts of a paragraph as needed. Refer to Module 2, Unit 1, Lesson 10 for additional guidance.
    • Circulate to support students. Encourage them to use classroom resources (picture cards, sentence frame, Word Walls, high-frequency word lists, and alphabet or letter sound combination charts). Pre-select a few students to share out with the whole group in the closing.
  • For ELLs and students who may need background knowledge support: (Reviewing Work) To refresh students' memories about informational paragraphs, briefly display and review an informational paragraph created in Module 2, Unit 1. (MMR)
  • For ELLs: (Sentence Frames: Heavier Support) Provide sentence frames to support writing supporting details.
  • For students who may need additional support with organizing their thinking for written expression: Invite students to first orally share the sentences they plan to write in their Plants and Pollinators research notebook. (MMAE)

Closing & Assessments

ClosingMeeting Students' Needs

A. Sharing Our Work: Informational Paragraphs (5 minutes) 

  • Gather students whole group.
  • Direct students' attention to the What Researchers Do anchor chart and say: "As researchers today, you have been taking initiative to gather information from text, and to share and discuss ideas."
  • Turn and Talk:

"What did you learn about plants by taking initiative to use these research skills?"(Responses will vary.)

  • Tell students they are going to use the Back-to-Back and Face-to-Face protocol to share their informational paragraphs. Remind them that they used this protocol in Modules 1 and 2 and review as necessary using the Back-to-Back and Face-to-Face Protocol anchor chart. (Refer to the Classroom Protocols document for the full version of the protocol.)
  • Guide students through the protocol using their informational paragraphs.
  • If productive, cue students to compare their ideas:

"How is what Nava said the same as/different from what Rebecca said? I'll give you time to think." (Responses will vary.)

  • Invite students to shake hands with their partner and return to the whole group space.
  • As time permits, invite two to three students to share their informational paragraph with the group
  • For students who may be uncomfortable sharing their own paragraph with the entire class: Consider allowing them to share their partner's work so that they still have a chance to speak in front of the class. (MME)

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