science literacy reading mini-lessons grade 6

St. Paul Public Schools Reader’s Workshop

Science Literacy

Reading Mini-Lessons

Grade 6

Saint Paul Public Schools – Elementary Literacy – The Center for Professional Development. May be reproduced by SPPS staff for instructional purposes only. Last revised 1/25/11. 2

Grade 6 Science Literacy: Reading Mini-lessons Nonfiction asks readers to engage in learning that is significant, learning that will shape them as lifelong learners who question, wonder, and challenge their own understandings. ~Linda Hoyt Science literacy helps students to deepen their understanding of science concepts by requiring students to relate what is read to relevant prior knowledge. Questions generated through experiments in the science lab can be answered through reading informational texts, poetry, and literature. Questions and wonderings raised by readers can be explored through observation and experiments in the science lab. These lessons are interdisciplinary, linking the learning in the science curriculum with the learning in the literacy curriculum. Prior to these lessons, the students have learned about matter and filters in science through the Foss Mixtures and Solutions curriculum. The Science Literacy lessons support the concepts developed in the Engineering is Elementary curriculum: Water, Water Everywhere: Designing Water Filters. The sixth grade Science Literacy lessons provide students with an opportunity to engage in asking questions and finding answers through mini-lessons and independent reading. During these two days, teachers will use their small group instruction to support the reading of the text, Saving Salila’s Turtle. During these lessons, students will use the Engineering is Elementary curriculum and books to learn how characters around the world use science and engineering to solve problems. As students read, think and talk about Saving Salilia’s Turtle, they will build a definition of environmental engineering. This story will help contextualize the Engineering Design Process, as Salila uses her knowledge of science and filters to solve a problem of polluted water near her home in India. Following these mini-lessons in the Reader’s Workshop, students may return to the science curriculum where they will use the procedure at the end of the story to design a water filter. Students will develop two essential understanding through these lessons:

• Asking questions and finding answers is a strategy for both readers and engineers • The steps in the Engineering Design Process


The following reading mini-lessons address sixth grade reading and science standards.

Lesson Number

Reading Mini-lesson Focus Pages in Saving Salila’s Turtle

1 • Preview text to activate and connect prior knowledge to make predictions prior to or during reading

• Ask questions of the author to understand the author ‘s bias, purpose or point of view

Chapters 1-6

2 • Skim text to isolate relevant text passages and further information to answer questions related to the Engineering Design Process

• Interpret visual information, such as diagrams, photographs and process steps to form new understandings

Chart, The Engineering

Design Process

Design a Water Filter

To support students’ independent reading during the Literacy Work Time, a collection of poetry, fiction and nonfiction texts are provided for each classroom. See the Appendix for a list of titles.

CSI Resources: The table below lists nonfiction CSI resources that have been presented in sixth grade whole-class mini-lessons prior to the beginning of the Science Literacy lessons. Refer back to these shared experiences to connect students’ previous learning with the teaching foci of the SPPS Science Literacy Lessons.

Genre/Text Type Title Teaching Focus

Social Studies Literacy: Autobiography

The March of the Mill Children

Asking Questions Readers ask questions (before, during and after reading) to enhance their understanding, find answers or specific information, discover new information and understand the value of research.

Social Studies Literacy: Expository

CSI Cooperative Activity: Go Fish

Asking Questions Readers ask questions (before, during and after reading) to enhance their understanding, find answers or specific information, discover new information and understand the value of research.

Science Literacy: Expository Devil Guts Plant Smells Victims

Asking Questions Readers ask questions to enhance their understanding of expository texts.

Science Literacy: Expository

CSI Cooperative Activity; Marathon Man

Asking Questions Readers ask questions to enhance their understanding of expository texts.


District Sixth Grade Guided Reading Resources: Genre/Text Type

Title Teaching Focus

Expository Level T-U

Properties of Matter, Chemical Reactions

• Make Inferences Combine information from the text with information that your already know

• Set a Purpose for Reading A collection of text at Level R: Narrative, Expository, Graphic Literature, Procedural, Journal

The Nature of Matter • Metacognitive Strategies Visualizing, Determining text importance

• Compare and Contrast

The tables below list leveled nonfiction texts and lesson foci found in the Mondo Bookshop Reading Lesson Plans: InfoPair resources in each building. Although some students may have read these texts, teachers may want to search out these texts to use with 6th grade students who have not read them.

Leveled Mondo Bookshop InfoPairs Titles to Support SPPS Science Literacy Reading Mini-lessons

Level Theme Title Teaching Focus F-H

(Gr. 2) Matter and Energy 1A How to Make Scrambled Eggs

2B Sound Waves: How Dolphins Echolocate

• When reading doesn’t make sense, stop, reread, and use all sources of information to regain meaning

• Interpret charts and diagrams to draw personal connections

• Isolate relevant knowledge form other texts and link with specific information in text to construct deeper understanding of text

L-N (Gr. 3)

Cycles (Science)

1A The Four Stages of the Water Cycle 2B From Egg to Frog to Egg Again!

• Combine context with relevant prior knowledge to create personal meaning from text

• Preview text to activate and connect prior knowledge to make predictions prior to and/or during reading

• Link features of text to knowledge of texts to deepen understanding

Q-R (Gr. 4)

Rivers

1A Settling the Mighty Misi Sipi 2B Saving the Columbia River Salmon

• Identify the main idea by determining what is important in text

• Infer cause-and-effect relationships implied in texts

• Identify similarities and differences within or across texts to deepen understandings

R/S (Gr. 5)

Engineering (Science)

1A Building Hoover Dam: Facts for Young Engineers 2B Beavers: Nature’s Architects

• Use notetaking strategies for to record main ideas, supporting details, and questions

• Combine context with relevant prior knowledge to create personal meaning from text

• Relate text to outside personal experience by making text-to-text connections to construct meaning


Literacy Work Time Independent Reading Students become better readers by reading. Motivation is key to reading engagement. John Guthrie has identified the following motivational practices used by teachers to increase reading engagement: relevance, choice, collaboration, success, conceptual theme (Guthrie John, Contemporary Educational Psychology Volume 32, Issue 3, July 2007, Pages 282-313). To support these motivational practices, a classroom library of 15 books has been provided for the classrooms of teachers who attend the district workshop on this lesson sequence.

Motivation Goal Looks Like Independent Reading Connection

Relevance Hands-on activities, connecting reading to background knowledge, connecting reading to the real world

Procedural texts with experiments that use water Texts that reinforce and extend understandings gained from classroom experiences (Foss kit, designing an alarm)

Choice Asking individual questions and reading to find answers, selecting texts, pursuing interests

Texts that students can read to answer questions raised as they completed the experiments

Collaboration Reading in partners and pairs, exchanging ideas with peers, sharing knowledge

Reading partnerships and idea circles that enable students to work together to create a common understanding of a concept

Success Using strategies to read well Text sets including texts at, above and below targeted sixth grade reading level

Conceptual Theme Connecting reading to concepts Texts that connect reading to the science concepts of the water cycle, water contamination & purification, matter, and/or engineering

(adapted from CORI Teacher Training Module, McPeake & Guthrie, 2007)


Skills Block

“Words don’t jingle around inside of us like loose change but naturally attach to concepts and ideas we already know or learn. This is the power of a word-rich classroom: connections.” Nancy Akhavan (2007) Accelerated Vocabulary Instruction, Strategies for Closing the Achievement Gap for All Students, Scholastic

Sixth graders are introduced to content vocabulary throughout the Engineering is Elementary curriculum. Vocabulary growth occurs when students are able to make connections to words. The following principles guide best practice vocabulary instruction: Plan to create a word-rich learning environment. Plan to teach concepts, not words. Plan to show children how to make connections between words. Plan to spiral learning by using familiar activities with new words.

The following suggested vocabulary activities can be used during the Skills Block, and referred to during the Reader’s Workshop and science instruction. The activities take 10- 15 minutes. Other concepts and words can be added from either the book, Saving Salila’s Turtles, or the Water, Water Everywhere: Designing Water Filters science curriculum. Vocabulary Activity (See Appendix)

Purpose Concepts or Words

Concept Map • Words are categorized • Focus on how words connect

to each other • Categories can include

examples, properties, non-examples, definitions

technology, engineer, environment, pollution, water purification, evaporation, filter

Alphaboxes • Before reading: insert words that reflect prior knowledge

• During reading: record words or phrases that are important to the study

• After reading: add words that reflect inferences and conclusions related to the reading

Saving Salila’s Turtle: bacteria, chlorine, contaminant, engineer, environment, evaporation, filter, water vapor, ultraviolet light. liquid, purify, water cycle, water purification, monsoons, habitat Designing Water Filters: criteria, teamwork, particles, redesign, requirement, solution

Four Square Word Map • Teach words that represent broad ideas

• Have students think of examples of the word

• Connect other terms to the word by having students describe the word

Filter, contaminant, bacteria, microbes, artificial, constraint, purify, evaporation


Reader’s Workshop Plan

Science Literacy Mini-lesson #1

Grade Level: 6 Minnesota Standards: Literacy in Science Standard:

6.13.6.6Analyze the author’s purpose in describing phenomena, providing an explanation, describing a procedure, or discussing/reporting an experiment in a text.

Science Standards:

6.1.2.1.1 Identify a common engineered system and evaluate its impact on the daily life of humans. For example: Refrigeration, cell phone or automobile. 6.1.2.1.2 Recognize that there is no perfect design and that new technologies have consequences that may increase some risks and decrease others. For example: Seat belts and airbags. 6.1.2.1.4 Explain the importance of learning from past failures, in order to inform future designs of similar products or systems. For example: Space shuttle or bridge design. 6.1.2.2.1 Apply and document an engineering design process that includes identifying criteria and constraints, making representations, testing and evaluation, and refining the design as needed to construct a product or system that solves a problem. For example: Investigate how energy changes from one form to another by designing and constructing a simple roller coaster for a marble.

English Language Arts Standards:

6.4.1.1Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. 6.4.2.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments.

Focus of lesson: • Preview text to activate and connect prior knowledge to make predictions • To help students ask questions of the author to understand the author’s bias, purpose

or point of view .

Mini-lesson (5-15 min.) •Key idea: Mini-Lesson is a short lesson that focuses on one main teaching point. •Teacher resources… •What students bring to lesson…

Key idea:. Asking questions of the author while we read helps us understand the text. Teacher resources: • Copy of Water, Water Everywhere: Designing Water Filters • Copies of Saving Salila’s Turtle – one for each student • Blank Concept Word Map, pages 13-14 • Prepared anchor chart with possible questions for use in the Questioning the Author

strategy.

Connection: How this fits in with what we’ve been doing…

Sixth graders, over the last month we have been learning about mixtures and solutions in science together. When we worked with the Mixtures and Solutions experiments in science, we learned about filters. How would you define the word filter? (Construct a Concept Word Map for “filter” or write the students’ definition and post it.),Over the next two days, we are going to read Saving Salila’s Turtle. In this story the main character designs filter to solve a problem.

Note to Teacher: In science, students developed an understanding of filters through the Foss kit, Mixtures and Solutions. The focus of this sixth grade reading mini-lesson builds upon students’ earlier work with filters. Students will extend their understanding of water filters as applied technology, and build a working definition for an environmental engineer as they read, think and talk about Saving Salila’s Turtle.


Today we are going to use the strategy of Questioning the Author to deepen our thinking and help us to understand the author’s purpose in writing this story.

Teach: Direct instruction •Set purpose •Tell Students what we want them to focus on/learn/know Model/Think Aloud for students: something we’d like them to try… Activate prior knowledge or Build background knowledge

This story is called Saving Salila’s Turtle. Take a few minutes to orient yourself to the text. (Notice if students read the title, back of the book, chapter titles and pictures) What do you think this story will be about? Today we will think about some of the questions you might ask the author as you read to help you understand the author’s purpose. Why is it important to consider the author’s purpose as you read? ( helps you to understand the main idea, deepens your understanding of the topic). Let’s look at the “Questioning the Author” strategy chart. What kinds of questions can you “ask the author” as you read? Refer to the Questioning the Author anchor chart. (Why did the author write this? Why did the author choose this setting? Why did the author choose to include these details? What does the author want us to know?). As we read today, we will add other questions to the chart. Follow along while I read Chapter 1 aloud. Read to “My name, Salila, is the Hindi word for water.” When I read this I want to ask the author, “Why did you choose to name her water?” I think that the Salila is the main character and so water might be really important in the story.

Active Involvement: •Think-Pair-Share •Turn and Talk •Buddy Share •Triads/Peer Support

Take a few moments now and finish reading the first chapter with your Learning Partner. Question the Author as you read, and consider what the answers might be. Learning Partners take turns reading the chapter and asking questions of the author. Students may jot down their questions on post-it notes or in their Reader’s Notebooks. What questions did you ask the author? (Add the students’ questions to the chart). How did it help you to question the author as you read? Have 2-3 partners share their thinking.

Link/Off you go: Send off with a purpose…

When you read, it’s helpful to question the author while reading, or ask questions about the author’s choices. This helps you better understand the author’s purpose or point of view. Today during Literacy Work Time you will finish reading the story. As you read, stop and ask yourself, “Why did the author write this?” or “ Why did the author write it this way?” Put a post-it note in the text where you asked the author a question.

Literacy Work Time and Conferring (35-45 min.) •Guided Oral Reading •Reciprocal Teaching •Book Club •Independent Reading •Reading Partnerships •Targeted Literacy Activities •Conferring

Teachers will not meet with small groups today for guided reading. Teachers may choose to gather students who may need the support to read Saving Salila’s Turtle and read the story aloud as an interactive read aloud.

Share (5-10 min): Today when read Saving Salila’s Turtle, we asked questions about why the author


Sharing what happened. . . •Link to focus •Reinforce teaching point •Demonstrate new learning •Popcorn share •Celebrate learning

included certain details or events. Why do you think the author wrote this story? (to give us an example to the engineering process;to help us understand what an environmental engineer does; to make us aware of how dirty water effects all living things) Partner share: Ask students to share a question they asked the author and the answer they came up with. Have some students share how questioning the author helped them to understand the text better. Next time you read something, ask yourself, “Why did the author write this?” or “Why did the author write it this way?” The answers you come up with will deepen your understanding of what you read.

Sample Anchor Chart

Questioning the Author

• Why did the author write this? • Why did the author write it this

way? • Why did the author choose to

include these details? • What does the author want us to

know?


Reader’s Workshop Plan Science Literacy Reading Mini-lesson #2

Grade Level: 6 Standard: Minnesota Standards: Literacy in Science Standard:

6.13.6.6Analyze the author’s purpose in describing phenomena, providing an explanation, describing a procedure, or discussing/reporting an experiment in a text.

Science Standards: 6.1.2.1.1 Identify a common engineered system and evaluate its impact on the daily life of humans. For example: Refrigeration, cell phone or automobile. 6.1.2.1.2 Recognize that there is no perfect design and that new technologies have consequences that may increase some risks and decrease others. For example: Seat belts and airbags. 6.1.2.1.3 Describe the trade-offs in using manufactured products in terms of features, performance, durability and cost. 6.1.2.1.4 Explain the importance of learning from past failures, in order to inform future designs of similar products or systems. For example: Space shuttle or bridge design. 6.1.2.2.1 Apply and document an engineering design process that includes identifying criteria and constraints, making representations, testing and evaluation, and refining the design as needed to construct a product or system that solves a problem. For example: Investigate how energy changes from one form to another by designing and constructing a simple roller coaster for a marble.

English Language Arts Standards: 6.4.1.1 Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. 6.4.2.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments. 6.5.3.3 Analyze in detail how a key individual, event, or idea is introduced, illustrated, and elaborated in a text (e.g., through examples or anecdote

Focus of lesson: Skim and scan to identify the steps in the Engineering Design Process

Mini-lesson (5-15 min.) •Key idea: Mini-Lesson is a short lesson that focuses on one main teaching point. •Teacher resources… •What students bring to lesson…

Key idea: Readers scan text to locate relevant information. Teacher resources:

• Copy of Saving Salila’s Turtle • Student clipboards or another writing surface used during the mini-lesson • Copies of the Salila and the Engineering Design Process p. 1-5 • Student pencils • Chart paper • Markers

Connection: How this fits in with what we’ve been doing…

Yesterday we read the story Saving Salila’s Turtle and learned that both readers and engineers ask questions and find answers. When readers want to clarify their thinking, they sometimes skim and scan text to find the information to deepen their understanding.

Teach:

Today as we learn more about the Engineering Design Process we are going to look at a chart readers use to help them think about a process, and then scan parts of the story


Direct instruction •Set purpose •Tell Students what we want them to focus on/learn/know Model/Think Aloud for students: something we’d like them to try… Activate prior knowledge or Build background knowledge

to find important details that will help us. Turn to the inside of the back cover to the flow chart. Read the title and scan the chart. What do you notice? Explain how to read the flow chart diagram. Let’s read the chart together. In the story Salila used the Engineering Design Process to build a filter. Pass out the graphic organizer, “Salila and the Engineering Design Process,” to each student (found on page 1-5 in the Water, Water Everywhere: Designing Water Filters notebook) When readers read the steps in a process, it helps to visualize each step. To visualize, we need to think of an example. Let’s scan the story to find out how Salila used each step, and then we will write what she does in the box next to the step. For example (p. 18):I remember that Salila asked question of Dr. Gadgil about pollution. I keep scanning and here it says “You’ve already started by asking lots of questions about water pollution and ways people purify their water.” This is the first step—Ask. Now I am going to write explain how Salila used this step. What’s the next step?

Active Involvement: •Think-Pair-Share •Turn and Talk •Buddy Share •Triads/Peer Support

Think-Pair-Write With your Learning Partner, scan the text and find the part where Salila imagines. Then talk with our partner about how Salila completes this step. Together, write your explanation on your chart.

Link/Off you go: Send off with a purpose…

Today, during independent reading, you will continue to work with your reading partner to scan the text for an example of Salila using each step and to explain it in the box. Finding examples of the steps in the story will deepen your understanding of the flow chart.

Literacy Work Time and Conferring (35-45 min.) •Guided Oral Reading •Reciprocal Teaching •Book Club •Independent Reading •Independent/Small Group Literacy Activities •Conferring

During the work time, students continue to scan Saving Salila’s Turtle to find where Salila used the steps in the design process. Before you send the students off to do their reading work, you may want to introduce the Water Text Set from the classroom library, encouraging students to browse the books and choose one to read independently. As students work, the teacher(s) may work with a flexible group, guiding the scanning of the text to find examples of the Engineering Design Process.

Share (5-10 min): Sharing what happened. . . •Link to focus •Reinforce teaching point •Demonstrate new learning •Popcorn share •Celebrate learning

Gather students for the Share. Ask students to bring their graphic organizers. In groups of three, ask students to share their explanations with each other. As students talk in their triads, listen in on their conversations. Invite a few students to share their questions with the larger group. Remind students of today’s focus: Readers deepen their understanding of steps in a process by scanning texts to find examples.


Appendix

Concept Word Map

Alphabox Template

Four-Square Word Map Template

Water Text Set List


Concept Maps

Teaching Points: • Use for “big ideas”: habitat, ocean, environment. • Words are categorized as they relate to the concept. Prep Tips: • Assign students to cooperative groups of 3-4 members. • Give each group a piece of chart paper and markers. Teaching Tips: • Use the gradual release model to teach the vocabulary strategy. • Model concept map to by creating a class concept chart through a whole

group interactive think aloud. • Next divide the students into small groups, with each creating a concept map

using the same concept and categories. • Then, each group may have the same concept when creating a concept map,

but choose their own categories; or, each group may have a different concept related to a topic and may be assigned some categories and choose one or two from a menu.

Lesson Focus:

1. Identify the concept being learned. 2. Ask students to discuss what they think the word means. Record student

ideas in the appropriate box on the chart. 3. Ask students to share their examples from their own experience. Record

these examples. 4. Add boxes, as needed, for additional responses:

Related questions Synonyms Characteristics Places Sketches Examples Description/explanation Kinds How it works Careers People Uses History Events Sources


Concept Map

Filter

Uses Kinds

Made from


Alphaboxes

Teaching Points: • Use to activate prior knowledge. • Use to reflect on a story or a unit of study. • Use as a content area word wall, adding new vocabulary as it is introduced. Prep Tips: • Create a poster size alphabox. • Make copies of the alphabox for each cooperative group and/or each student. Teaching Tips: • After reading, students work in partners or small groups to reflect on

significant events, character and/or themes in the story. Students add their words to the corresponding alphaboxes on the chart. Students tell how the word relates to the story or topic.

• Alphaboxes can support students with the academic vocabulary in all content areas.

• Ask students to reflect: How did using the alphabox help me as a learner? Lesson Plan: 1. Write the key concept word, for example, “water,” at the top of the chart.

2. Give students 3-5 minutes to write down all of the words that come to mind when they think of the key word.

3. Have students share the words on their alphaboxes with a partner, explaining how each word relates to the topic.

4. Partners can “borrow” words from each other, adding them to their own charts.

5. Partners share with another partnership, adding new words to their charts. 6. Reflect: How did the alphabox help you as a reader?

Adapted from Revisit, Reflect, Retell by Linda Hoyt


Alphaboxes

Topic__________________________________

A

B C D

E

F G H

I

J K L

M

N O P

Q

R S T

U

V W XYZ


Four Square Word Map Teaching Points: • Help students develop a word concept by focusing on images describing a

word and images that are non-examples of a word. Prep Tips: • Have copies of the template available for partners to use. (You can also

use a piece of 11x 14 paper, folded in fourths) Teaching Tips:

• The most important part of this activity is to ask students to write their own definition of the word after they have given some examples and non-examples.

• Have students work in partners or teams---it is their conversations that will help add to their understanding of new words.

Lesson Plan: Write the target word in the box, giving the word in a sentence or reading the sentences from the book that contain the word.

• In the second box, list the images that come to mind when you think of the word. Have students brainstorm and add their words.

• In the fourth box write down words, phrases, ideas that come into your mind that are non-examples. These are not to be confused with antonyms; non-examples are not always antonyms. Have students focus on the image of the non-example.

• In the third box have students construct a definition of the word, using their own words. Students may also draw/sketch a picture of this word in the box.

• Go back to the first box and read a dictionary definition of the word. Write it down and compare it to the students’ definition.

• Add the word to the Alphabox.


Four Square Word Map Name________________

Word: Dictionary Definition:

Examples:

My Definition:

Non-Examples

Word: Dictionary Definition:

Examples:

My Definition:

Non-Examples


Water Text Set for the Classroom Library

A Drop Around the World by Barbara Shaw McKinney A Drop of Water by Walter Wick Clean Water by Beth Geiger Kids Discover Matter Kids Discover Mississippi River Planet in Crisis: Water Supplies in Crisis by Russ Parker The River by Gary Paulsen Song of the Water Boatman and Other Pond Poems by Joyce Sidman The Water Crisis The Water Cycle by Bobbie Kalman The Water Cycle by Sally Morgan Where the River Begins by Thomas Locker Salamander Rain, a Lake and Pond Journal by Kristin Joy Pratt-Serafini Water Dance by Thomas Locker Water Music by Jane Yolen Web Sites

http://water.epa.gov/learn/kids/drinkingwater/kids_4-8.cfm US Environmental Protection Agency, Drinking Water for Kids grades 4-8 http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/ US Geological Survey, Water Science For Schools http://projectwet.org/water-resources-education/water-conservation-education/ Printable booklets from Project Wet, Kids in Discovery series (KIDs) Activity Booklets http://www.groundwater.org/kc/kc.html The Groundwater Foundation http://www.nationalgeographic.com/signsandsolutions/ National Geographic, Signs and Solutions: How Much Water Does the World Have to Go Around? (High reading level) http://www.pbs.org/now/science/water2.html Water Facts, PBS

science literacy reading mini-lessons grade 6

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