Second Grade Exemplar
The Secret Life of Trees by Chiara Chevallier
(Harcourt Brace Trophies Basal Reader Our World Book 2-1)
Unit: Three
Learning Objective:
The objective is to give second grade students an opportunity to explore complex text. Through teacher read aloud and scaffold discussion of text-dependent questions and vocabulary words, students will gain content information from close reading. Writing as a response to literature will assist with further understanding of what is read.
Reading Task:
The students will listen to the teacher read the text aloud in its entirety at least one time. The teacher will reread the text to have students clarify the meaning of what they read. The teacher will ask questions and ask for student’s ideas and thoughts to guide them through purposeful interaction with the text.
Discussion/Language Task:
Through the use of a series of text-dependent questions, the students will be guided to look at text closely and engage in thinking that will deepen their understanding.
Writing Task:
Create a fact book about Tree Life and Kinds of Trees using the text to supply facts and definitions.
Common Core State Standards that are addressed in this unit:
RL.2.1, RL.2.2, RL.2.3, RL.2.4, RL.2.5, RL.2.6, RL.2.7, RL.2.9, RL.2.10
RI.2.1, RI.2.2, RI.2.3, RI.2.4, RI.2.5, RI.2.6, RI.2.7, RI.2.8, RI.2.9, RI.2.10
RF.2.1, RF.2.2, RF.2.3, RF.2.4
W.2.1, W.2.2, W.2.3, W.2.5, W.2.6, W.2.8
SL.2.1a-c, SL.2.2, SL.2.3, SL.2.4, SL.2.5, SL.2.6
L.2.1a-f, L.2.2a-c, L.2.3, L.2.4a-e, L.2.5a-b, L.2.6
Formative Checkpoints:
Turn and Talk
Journal Entries
Exit Tickets
Literacy Structure/Components:
Interactive Read-Aloud, Small Group Instruction/Guided Reading and Independent Reading
Teacher Instructions
Preparing for Teaching
1. Read the Big Ideas and Key Understandings and the Synopsis. Please do not read this to the students. This is a description for teachers about the big ideas and key understanding that students should take away after completing this task.
Big Ideas and Key Understandings
Trees are living things that have basic needs for survival. Trees can be grouped according to their structures and physical properties.
Synopsis
Why do trees lose their leaves in winter? How do insects hide on bare branches? Let the trees themselves reveal their many secrets just to you. This informational book discusses different characteristics of trees, different kinds of trees, and how trees change with the seasons.
2. Read the entire selection, keeping in mind the Big Ideas and Key Understandings.
3. Re-read the text while noting the stopping points for the Text Dependent Questions and teaching Tier II/academic vocabulary.
During Teaching
1. Students read the entire selection independently.
2. Teacher reads the text aloud while students follow along or students take turns reading aloud to each other. Depending on the text length and student need, the teacher may choose to read the full text or a passage aloud. For a particularly complex text, the teacher may choose to reverse the order of steps 1 and 2.
3. Students and teacher re-read the text while stopping to respond to and discuss the questions, continually returning to the text. A variety of methods can be used to structure the reading and discussion (i.e., whole class discussion, think-pair-share, independent written response, and group work)
Text Dependent Questions
Text-dependent Questions / Evidence-based Answers1. What does the bark of a tree look like?
(Page 342) / The bark at the bottom of the tree is old. It is rough and cracked. At the top, the bark is young and smooth.
2. What information does the author give you about tree roots? (Page 344) / Tree roots push their way through the thicker earth. They can spread out through the soil as far as the tree is high.
Teacher note: “Rooting Around” provides more information
3. How do different parts of a tree help it grow? (Page 345) / A tree needs sunlight and water to grow. High above the ground the tree leaves use energy from the sun to make food. Below ground, the tree’s roots spread out in search of water.
4. According to page 346, what animals can a tree provide home for? / A tree provides a home for many animals, such as birds, wasps, insects, bugs, rabbits, and badgers.
5. How is a badger’s home like a rabbit’s home? (Page 347) / A badger’s home is like a rabbit’s home because they both dig their homes under the roots of a tree.
6. Reread page 348. What information does the author give us in this section: Kinds of Trees? / The author tells us that there are two main types of trees: broad-leaved trees and conifers.
7. What happens to the leaves of most broad-leaved trees through the year? (Pages 350-351) / In winter the broad-leaved trees have no leaves. In spring fresh, new leaves open from buds. By summer, the tree is covered with bright green leaves. In autumn the leaves change color.
8. What’s another word you could use in place of brilliant to describe the red leaves? Why would this be a good word? (Page 351) / Possible responses are: bright, vivid, radiant.
9. What are conifer trees? (Page 352) / Conifer trees have short, sharp needles that shed snow easily.
10. What are the differences between broad-leaved trees and conifers? (Pages 349-353) / Broad-leaved trees lose their leaves in winter. Buds grow new leaves in spring. Conifers do not lose their leaves in winter.
11. Why does a tree that doesn’t shed its leaves called an evergreen? (Pages 352-353) / An evergreen is a conifer tree, which doesn’t lose its leaves in winter. It stays green through all the seasons.
12. Reread the Bouncy Branches section on page 352. Why do conifers have bouncy branches? / The branches of conifers are extra bouncy because they don’t snap even when covered with thick snow.
13. Why do conifer trees produce cones?
(Page 354) / Conifer trees produce hard, scaly cones to protect their seeds.
14. How does a pine cone help forecast the weather? (Page 355) / When it is warm the scales of the pine cone open up. They close again when a storm is on the way in order to keep the seeds dry.
15. In what ways are trees useful to people?
(Pages 356-358) / Trees give us fruits and nuts such as avocadoes, dates, and coconuts. Trees are also used to make paper, and wood from trees is used for making furniture.
16. Look back through the text. How does the author let you know what each box of information is going to be about? / Each box has a bold-faced heading.
Tier11/ Academic Vocabulary
KEY WORDS ESSENTIAL TO UNDERSTANDINGWords addressed with a question or task / WORDS WORTH KNOWING
General teaching suggestions are provided in the Introduction
TEACHER PROVIDES DEFINITION
not enough contextual clues provided in the text / Page 342 – coast
Page 345 – energy
Page 345 – recorded
Page 351 – shelter
Page 351 – brilliant
Page 352 – shed
Page 355 – forecast
Page 358 – source / Page 341 – discover
Page 349 – shady
Page 351 – misty
Page 357 – strangle
STUDENTS FIGURE OUT THE MEANING
sufficient context clues are provided in the text / Page 344 – underground
Page 347 – disguise
Page 350 – buds
Page 354 – scaly / Page 348 – wide-spreading
Page 356 – tropical
Culminating Writing Task
Create a fact book about Tree Life and Kinds of Trees using the text to supply facts and definitions.
Teacher Instructions
1. Students identify their writing task from the prompt provided.
2. Students complete an evidence chart as a pre-writing activity. Teachers should guide students in gathering and using any relevant notes they compiled while reading and answering the text-dependent questions earlier. Some students will need a good deal of help gathering this evidence, especially when this process is new and/or the text is challenging!
Additional Tasks
· Identify and list the many different ways in which trees are used by people to meet human wants and needs.
· Create a shape poem about trees.
Branches
Shade, rubber
fruit, clothes
paper wind barrier fuel
furniture resources nuts
Tree houses maple syrup park
Multiple uses seeds oxygen
Lumber habitat energy
Building materials
Baseball bats leaves
Photosynthesis
Roots
Gum
Cork
Books
Paint
Coca
Sponge
Note to Teacher
Model how to write a shape poem with students and read different shape poems to students.