Reading Informational Texts: Researching How Kids Have Taken Action | EL Education Curriculum

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ELA G4:M4:U3:L2

Reading Informational Texts: Researching How Kids Have Taken Action

In this Lesson

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These are the CCS Standards addressed in this lesson:

  • RI.4.1: Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
  • W.4.7: Conduct short research projects that build knowledge through investigation of different aspects of a topic.
  • W.4.8: Recall relevant information from experiences or gather relevant information from print and digital sources; take notes and categorize information, and provide a list of sources.
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Daily Learning Targets

  • I can organize my research into categories. (W.4.7, W.4.8)
  • I can cite evidence from the text to support answers to my questions. (RI.4.1, W.4.8)

Ongoing Assessment

  • Taking Action Research note-catcher (RI.4.1, W.4.7, W.4.8)

Agenda

AgendaTeaching Notes

1. Opening

A. Reading for Gist and Unfamiliar Vocabulary: Expert Group Texts (10 minutes)

B. Reviewing Learning Targets (5 minutes)

2. Work Time

A. Generating Categories to Organize Research (10 minutes)

B. Guided Practice: Researching How Kids Have Taken Action (15 minutes)

3. Closing and Assessment 

A. Expert Group Work: Researching How Kids Have Taken Action (20 minutes)

4. Homework

A. Accountable Research Reading. Select a prompt and respond in the front of your independent reading journal.

Purpose of lesson and alignment to standards:

  • In this lesson, students consider the unit research question and develop specific categories for research. Then, in small groups, students read texts about how kids have made a difference and take notes using those categories (RI.4.1, W.4.7, W.4.8).
  • W.4.8 requires students to gather information from print and digital sources. As such, this lesson is designed for students to use internet sources as texts. If the technology necessary for students to complete the reading is unavailable, give them printed copies of possible texts from which to choose. Note that "Protecting Our Planet" is not a website and is provided (see supporting materials).
  • Students who finish quickly or require an extension can use a search engine to find their own sources.
  • In this lesson, students focus on working to become effective learners by focusing on a characteristic of their choice as they work in expert groups to begin their research.

How this lesson builds on previous work:

  • In the previous lesson, students were introduced to the research question and watched a video about how kids can make a difference with the help of grown-ups. In this lesson, they read informational articles to continue their research.
  • Continue to use Conversation Cues to promote productive and equitable conversation.

Areas in which students may need additional support:

  • Some students may need additional support with reading texts in digital form. Consider sending home a printout of relevant web pages for students to spend additional time reading before the lesson.

Assessment guidance:

  • Review students' Taking Action Research note-catchers to initially assess how well they can take notes and categorize information and to identify common issues to use as whole group teaching points in Lesson 3.

Down the road:

  • Students will share their research in mixed groups in the next lesson, adding to their note-catchers. As the unit continues, they will add to their notes using evidence from the videos they watch when practicing SL.4.3, as well as the texts they work with on the mid-unit assessment.
  • Students will use their research as they develop their own class service project, as well as when they write their PSAs about the importance of kids taking action to make a difference in the second half of the unit.

In Advance

  • Pre-determine four groups for reading the research texts. Note that texts at varying levels have been provided. The Lexile measures are as follows:
    • "Protecting Our Planet" (740L)
    • "15-year-old girl launches 'locker' to give back" (860L)
    • "Cards for Hospitalized Kids helps kids deal with loneliness" (990L)
    • "Teen's vision: Help children see clearer" (1050L)
  • Prepare the technology necessary for students to access the links provided on the Kids Making a Difference Links sheet (see materials list).
  • Post: Learning targets and applicable anchor charts (see materials list).

Tech and Multimedia

  • Continue to use the technology tools recommended throughout Modules 1-3 to create anchor charts to share with families; to record students as they participate in discussions and protocols to review 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.
  • Opening A and Closing: Students use web research to answer the question. There is a page of links (Kids Making a Difference Links) provided for them to quickly locate the answers.
  • Consider that YouTube, social media video sites, and other website links may incorporate inappropriate content via comment banks and ads. Although some lessons include these links as the most efficient means to view content in preparation for the lesson, preview links and/or use a filter service, such as www.safeshare.tv, for viewing these links in the classroom.

Supporting English Language Learners

Supports guided in part by CA ELD Standards 4.I.B.5, 4.I.B.6, 4.I.B.8, 4.I.C.10

Important points in the lesson itself

  • The basic design of this lesson supports ELLs with opportunities to read expert group texts for gist before reading them for research; work in supportive research groups; and participate in guided practice of organizing research before they have to do so in groups. 
  • ELLs may find it challenging to comprehend the expert group texts and keep pace with their group. Be sure that there is at least one strong reader in each group, and seriously consider the reading levels of students and Lexile measure of the texts when assigning texts to groups (see Levels of support and Meeting Students' Needs).

Levels of support

For lighter support:

  • Challenge students to repeat and rephrase all lesson questions for students who need heavier support.
  • Challenge students to underline key phrases and sections of their expert group text that highlight information students need to collect in the Taking Action Research note-catcher. Students who need heavier support can then use the underlined information to help them complete their note-catcher during the Closing.

For heavier support:

  • Prepare sticky notes with pre-written words or drawings based on the gist of the different sections of each text in Opening A. As students read the texts, they can match the gist represented on the sticky notes with each section of the text they are reading.
  • During the Closing and Assessment, distribute a partially filled-in copy of the Taking Action Research note-catcher. This provides students with models for the kind of information they should enter for their expert group text, while relieving the volume of writing required. Refer to Taking Action Research note-catcher (example, for teacher reference) to determine which sections of the note-catcher to provide for students in each expert group.

Universal Design for Learning

  • Multiple Means of Representation (MMR): Continue to support active information-processing skills as students integrate new information with prior knowledge. Provide options for comprehension by linking to and activating relevant prior knowledge.
  • Multiple Means of Action and Expression (MMAE): Continue to support a range of fine motor abilities and writing need by offering students options for writing utensils. Also consider supporting students' expressive skills by offering partial dictation of student responses. Recall that varying tools for construction and composition supports students' ability to express knowledge without barriers to communicating their thinking.
  • Multiple Means of Engagement (MME): Similar to previous lessons in this unit, students have opportunities to share ideas and thinking with classmates in this lesson. Continue to support students' engagement and self-regulatory skills during these activities by modeling and providing sentence frames as necessary.

Vocabulary

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

  • cite, support, categories (L)

See Textual Analysis Resources for additional academic vocabulary to teach with:

    • "Protecting Our Planet"
    • "15-year-old girl launches 'locker' to give back"
    • "Cards for Hospitalized Kids helps kids deal with loneliness"
    • "Teen's vision: Help children see clearer"

Materials

  • Device (one per student; used by students to read the Kids Making a Difference Links)
  • Kids Making a Difference Links (one per student and one to display)
  • "Protecting Our Planet" (one per student in this group)
  • Close Readers Do These Things anchor chart (begun in Module 1)
  • Sticky notes (four per student)
  • Working to Become Effective Learners anchor chart (begun in Module 1)
  • Performance Task anchor chart (begun in Unit 1, Lesson 1)
  • Taking Action Research note-catcher (one per student and one to display)
  • Taking Action Research note-catcher (example, for teacher reference)
  • "The Girl Who Acted before Rosa Parks" (from Unit 1, Lesson 9; one per student and one to display)

Materials from Previous Lessons

New Materials

Assessment

Each unit in the 3-5 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 their understanding of what they accomplished through supported, standards-based writing.

Opening

OpeningMeeting Students' Needs

A. Reading for Gist and Unfamiliar Vocabulary: Expert Group Texts (10 minutes)

  • Tell students that today they will work in expert groups to read a new text about how a kid took action to make a difference.
  • Move students into pre-determined groups, allocate devices, and distribute the Kids Making a Difference Links. Distribute "Protecting Our Planet" to the students in this group.
  • Model how to open and navigate the links. Assign each group a text and invite students to use the corresponding link to access their text.
  • Invite students to read their group's text on their own, and then briefly discuss with their group what the text was about.
  • Tell students that in a moment they will reread their group's text for gist, and reread it later in the lesson to add to their research notes.
    • Direct students' attention to the Close Readers Do These Things anchor chart and review as necessary.
    • Remind students that being willing to struggle is one key to being a strong reader of difficult texts.
    • Tell students to use the vocabulary strategies listed on the Close Readers Do These Things anchor chart to help determine the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary.
    • Distribute sticky notes and invite students to begin working. Remind them to record the gist of each paragraph and unfamiliar words on their sticky notes.
  • For ELLs: (Strategic Grouping) Create expert groups with varying levels of language proficiency. Alternatively, group students according to home language.
  • For ELLs and students who may need additional support with vocabulary: (Fishbowl: Unfamiliar Vocabulary) Invite one or two students to share an unfamiliar vocabulary word they encountered in the text they read, and then demonstrate for the rest of the class what strategy they used to determine the meaning of the word. (MMR, MMAE)

B. Reviewing Learning Targets (5 minutes)

  • Direct students' attention to the learning targets and read them aloud:

"I can organize my research into categories."

"I can cite evidence from the text to support answers to my questions."

  • Review the following words and their definitions:
    • cite (to quote or use evidence from a text)
    • support (to prove a point with reasons and evidence)
    • categories (groups of things with shared characteristics)
  • Turn and Talk:

"What do you think you will be doing in this lesson? What makes you think that?" (reading informational texts; using evidence from the texts to record notes and sort them into research categories)

  • Focus students on the Working to Become Effective Learners anchor chart, and invite students to read the habits of character on the chart to themselves. Tell students to choose a habit to focus on as they research today.
  • For ELLs and students who may need additional support with motivation: (Summarizing the Target) Ask students to summarize and then to personalize the learning targets. (MME)

Work Time

Work TimeMeeting Students' Needs

A. Generating Categories to Organize Research (10 minutes)

  • Draw students' attention to the Performance Task anchor chart and reread the prompt. Remind students that they are working toward developing their own project to take action in their community and writing a press release about the impact of their project.
  • Tell students that in order to plan their own project, it would help them to research ways kids have already worked to make a difference. This will give them ideas for their own project.
  • Distribute and display the Taking Action Research note-catcher and focus students on the research question at the top. Remind students that this is the focus of their research in this unit:
    • "How can kids take action to make a difference?"
  • Think-Pair-Share:

"What kind of information do we need to find in order to answer this question?" (Responses will vary, but may include ideas like who made a difference, what he or she did and why, and how it helped make a difference.)

  • Remind students that, as they did in Module 2, when they are researching in this unit they will need to categorize the information they collect.
  • Using a total participation technique, invite responses from the group:

"What categories can we use to organize the information you collect?"

  • Select volunteers to share their ideas for categories. Guide students to consider the following:
    1. Who took action?
    2. What problem was he or she trying to address?
    3. How did he or she take action?
    4. How did this action make a difference?
    5. Source.

Conversation Cue: "Can you give an example that would fit that category?" (Responses will vary.)

Conversation Cue: "Who can repeat what your classmate said?" (Responses will vary.)

  • Record the chosen headings in the displayed Taking Action Research note-catcher. Refer to Taking Action Research note-catcher (example, for teacher reference) as necessary.
  • For ELLs and students who may need additional support with comprehension: (Concrete Examples) To help students generate categories of information for organizing their research about real-life kids taking action, invite them to think about the character of Chloe in The Hope Chest. Point out that even though she is a character from a book, Chloe is an example of a kid who took action to make a difference. Ask: "What information would you want others to know about Chloe?" (Responses will vary, but may include: who she was, what she fought for, how she fought for it, and what the outcome was.) (MMR)
  • For ELLs: (Noticing Parts of Speech) Invite students to think about the part of speech and the meaning of the word address in the question "What problem was he or she trying to address?" (Address is a verb that means to deal with or give attention to.) Challenge students to think what other part of speech the word address can be and to define it. (Address can also be a noun referring to the words and numbers identifying the location of a place.)
  • For students who may need support with oral language and processing: Allow ample wait time as students respond during the discussion. (MMAE, MME)

B. Guided Practice: Researching How Kids Have Taken Action (15 minutes)

  • Tell students that before they reread their expert group's text, they will practice researching as a class how kids have taken action to make a difference.
  • Distribute and display "The Girl Who Acted before Rosa Parks." Remind students that they closely read this text in Unit 1.
  • Read the text aloud, inviting students to follow along on their copies.
  • Using a total participation technique, invite responses from the group:

"What was this text about?" (It was about Claudette Colvin and when she refused to give up her seat on a bus in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama.)

  • Remind students of the research question. Tell students they will reread the text to try to find answers to the question. Point out that some of the answers will be explicitly stated in the text, but other answers will need to be inferred.
  • Think-Pair-Share:

"Reread this text. Who took action? How did she take action?" (Claudette Colvin; she refused to get out of her seat on a bus when the driver asked her to move so a white woman could sit.)

  • Select volunteers to share out. Point out that this information is explicitly stated in the text. Model recording students' thinking on the displayed Taking Action Research note-catcher, inviting students to take notes on their own copies. Refer to Taking Action Research note-catcher (example, for teacher reference) as needed.
  • Think-Pair-Share:

"Reread the text again. What problem was she trying to address? What, in the text, makes you think so?" (segregation of Montgomery's buses; "Bus drivers had the authority to make black passengers move for white passengers, even if they were sitting in the black section."; "Though her friends' seats (one next to Colvin and two across the aisle) were now vacant, the white woman refused to sit in them because, according to Jim Crow laws, black people could not sit next to next to white people."; "She replied, "because it's my constitutional right," and told him she was not breaking the segregation law by sitting there.")

  • Select volunteers to share out. Point out that this information was inferred from the text. Model recording students' thinking on the displayed Taking Action Research note-catcher, inviting students to take notes on their own copies. Refer to Taking Action Research note-catcher (example, for teacher reference) as needed.
  • Repeat this process with the remaining research category: How did this action make a difference?
    • Think-Pair-Share.
    • Model recording on the displayed research note-catcher.
    • Invite students to take notes on their own copies.
  • Model recording the source in the appropriate spot on the note-catcher.
  • For ELLs and students who may need additional help with activating prior knowledge: (Activating Prior Knowledge) Before reading, invite students to turn to an elbow partner and share what they recall about the text "The Girl Who Acted before Rosa Parks." (MMR, MME)
  • For ELLs and students who may need additional support with strategy development: (Modeling and Thinking Aloud: Identifying Relevant Information) Consider modeling and thinking aloud the process for identifying information in the text that belongs in each category on the Taking Action Research note-catcher. (MMAE)
  • For ELLs and students who may need additional support with vocabulary: (Sharing Strategies) Invite students to turn to an elbow partner and share strategies they used to determine the meaning of any unfamiliar vocabulary words they encountered in the text. (MMR) 

Closing & Assessments

ClosingMeeting Students' Needs

A. Expert Group Work: Researching How Kids Have Taken Action (20 minutes)

  • Tell students that they will now work with their expert group to research how kids can take action to make a difference.
  • Tell students they will follow the same steps they used when adding notes about Claudette Colvin: They will reread their text, looking for information for the research categories, and add notes to the next row on their Taking Action Research note-catcher.
  • Invite students to begin working. Circulate to support students. Refer to Taking Action Research note-catcher (example, for teacher reference) as necessary.
  • Tell students that in the next lesson, they will meet in mixed groups to share their research.
  • Use a checking for understanding technique (e.g., Red Light, Green Light or Thumb-O-Meter) for students to self-assess against the learning targets and how well they worked to become effective learners in this lesson.
  • For ELLs and students who may need additional support with sustained effort: (Jigsaw) To lighten the research load for groups, invite them to break into pairs. One pair can be responsible for looking for information in the text that answers the question "How did he or she take action?" and another for the question "How did this action make a difference?" Pairs can then come back together and share what they learned and where they found the information in the text. (MME)

Homework

HomeworkMeeting Students' Needs

A. Accountable Research Reading. Select a prompt and respond in the front of your independent reading journal.
  • For ELLs and students who may need additional support with written expression: (Oral Response) Read aloud, discuss, and respond to your prompt orally with a partner, a family member, or a student from Grades 3 or 5, or record an audio response. (MMAE)

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