Title: Unit 1 Strategies for Nonfiction

Name: Deborah Breen

School: Highland ParkMiddle School

Subject Area: Language Arts

Grade Level: 6,7,8

Lesson Summary: Students will preview a nonfiction article to prepare for reading. In the next step, they will read and make connections to the text. Finally they will summarize the reading. This will all take place over several lessons.

Instructional Objectives:

  1. Students will be able to use strategies before, during, and after reading to aid and monitor comprehension – preview, connect, recall.
  2. Students will be able to identify text structure for nonfiction.
  3. Students will be able to connect new learning to previous knowledge.
  4. Students will be able to summarize nonfiction text.

Materials Needed: role cards, task rubrics, nonfiction text, preview sheet, quiz, peer rating of team members, process rubric

Time Required: 4 class periods

Group Size: 3-4 students

Assignment to Groups: Groups will be somewhat heterogeneous within a homogeneous class.

Roles:

  1. Recorder – writes down all information to be handed in
  2. Reporter – presents group work to teacher and class
  3. Team Leader – keeps group on task, encourages all to participate
  4. Reader – reads aloud all directions, questions, and book text

Task:

Day 1

  1. Review the strategy of previewing. “What do we read or study from the text before we read it? How do we use this information to prepare for reading?”
  2. Present cooperative learning format. “You will practice and demonstrate your ability to use this strategy as a group.” Explain roles, task, and grading.
  3. Groups will then preview the text and complete the preview and predicting sheet. This is due at the end of class.

Day 2

  1. Review connecting strategy. “What is a connection? What are the two parts you must have to make it a connection?”
  2. Present task to groups.
  3. Groups will read. In this part of the reading groups must make and record 2 connections. They must also evaluate the predictions made during previewing.

Day 3

  1. Groups will read. They are responsible for making 2 additional connections and recording them. They will also evaluate the predictions made during previewing.

Day 4

  1. Present and explain a graphic organizer to be used for writing a summary.
  2. Groups will complete the graphic organizer and use it to write a summary in paragraph form. Both are due at the end of class.
  3. Complete evaluations of group members.

Positive Interdependence: “Your grade for the assignments will be given to your group. All members of the group will earn the same grade.”

Individual Accountability: “You will also earn a grade as an individual through: a quiz on the article, evaluation by your peers, daily participation.”

Criteria for Success:

  1. Rubric for preview sheet
  2. Rubric for connections
  3. Rubric for graphic organizer and summary
  4. Rubric for participation
  5. Peer evaluation
  6. Quiz

Expected Behaviors: “Each student will have a job in his or her group. I expect that each of you will complete your job and work positively with others in your group. Each day you will change jobs until you’ve experienced each of them.” Also review participation rubric.

Monitor For: Use the participation rubric for each student. Mark the date in the appropriate box for each category. This will show a progression of skill and cooperation over the course of the 4 classes.

Intervene If: The entire group has stopped functioning as a group by identifying the problem and listing ways to solve it with the group.

Process By: Sharing individual rubrics with students, have students evaluate the other members of the group.

End By: Presenting group work. Ask students their opinions of the process. How was working cooperatively better or worse than working alone or as a whole class?

Names ______Previewing Sheet

______

______

______

Preview the article and respond to the prompts below.

1. What is the title?

2. List the headings throughout the article

3. Vocabulary words we already knewVocabulary words we didn’t know

4. What do the visual aids tell you? (Answer in your own words.)

5. Read the first sentence of each section (by headings) and make a prediction or ask a question you want answered about that section.

Section Title

/ Prediction or Question / Evaluation or Answer

6. Why do you think the article was given its title?

Previewing Sheet Rubric

Category

/ 4 (100%) / 3 (75%) / 2 (50%) / 1 (25%)
Completion / All parts of the activity were completed / All parts of the activity were completed / Most of the activity was completed / Few parts of the activity were completed
Quality / Answers were in the group’s own words and written in complete sentences / Answers were mostly in the group’s own words written in complete sentences / Answers were not in the groups own words and some were complete sentences / Answers were copied from the book and were not in complete sentences
Presentation / The group reported their results clearly to the class / The group reported their results acceptably to the class / The group was not effective in presenting their results to the class / The group did not fully report their results to the class

Connections and Evaluations Rubric

Category

/ 4 (100%) / 3 (75%) / 2 (50%) / 1 (25%)
Connections / All 4 connections were completed and had both parts / All 4 connections were attempted but may not have had both parts / At least 3 connections were completed and some had both parts / 2 or fewer connections were completed and did not have both parts
Evaluations or Answers / All predictions were evaluated or questions answered / Most predictions were evaluated or questions answered / About half of the predictions were evaluated or questions answered / Few predictions were evaluated or questions answered
Presentation / The group reported their results clearly to the class / The group reported their results acceptably to the class / The group was not effective in presenting their results to the class / The group did not fully report their results to the class

Graphic Organizer and Summary Rubric

Category

/ 4 (100%) / 3 (75%) / 2 (50%) / 1 (25%)
Content / The summary represented all of the important information from the article in the students’ own words / The summary represented most of the information from the article in the students’ own words / The summary represented some of the information from the article and not all writing was in the students’ own words / The summary was lacking a good deal of information and the writing was not in the students’ own words.
Organization / The content was organized similar to the article itself / The content was organized but did not follow that of the article / The content was somewhat disorganized / The content was disorganized and difficult to understand
Mechanics / All writing used correct spelling, punctuation and capitalization / A few errors in spelling, punctuation or capitalization / Consistent errors in spelling, punctuation and capitalization / Errors made the writing difficult to understand
Presentation / The group reported their results clearly to the class / The group reported their results acceptably to the class / The group was not effective in presenting their results to the class / The group did not fully report their results to the class

Peer Rating of Team Members

Your Name ______

Please write the names of all your team members, INCLUDE YOURSELF.

Then rate each member on how well he or she worked with the team.

The ratings you may choose from are listed below.

Excellent – Worked each day for the whole period and often did more than his or her share of the work.

Good – Worked most of the time on the assignment and did his or her share of the work.

Needs Improvement – Was often not working with the group and did not complete his or her share of the work.

No Show – Did not do any of the work assigned to the group and did not perform his or her job each day.

Name of Group Member
/
Rating
/
Comments

Turn to the back of the paper, and please answer the two questions there.

  • What did you like and dislike about working as a team?
  • How is it better or worse than working alone or as a whole class?