This cluster includes the following access points.
Vetted resources educators can use to teach the concepts and skills in this topic.
| Name |
Description |
| Making It Rain: | This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text that addresses how different types of precipitation are formed. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Options to extend the lesson are also included. |
| Banana Bonanza: | The students have been hired as consultants to analyze data and recommend a new farm location for a fruit company. The students will learn about climate, weather changes, and develop a proposal for the Organic Inc. company. Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom. |
| Calling All Student Leaders: | In this lesson, students will observe a speaker and analyze a piece of informational text (an excerpt from Bill Clinton's 1993 Inaugural Address) to further develop their knowledge of summarizing, identifying central ideas and relevant details, and identifying claims and supporting reasons with evidence. Students will then play the role of the speaker and create their own writing on a topic they think would be important to kids, why they would be a good candidate for president, or how they might motivate other kids. At the lesson's end, students will present their speech to the class. A graphic organizer, student handouts, and rubrics are provided for the writing and speaking activities. |
| Solar Cooking: | This is a 5th grade MEA designed to have students compare different types of solar cookers based on temperature, cook time, dimensions, weight, and customer reviews.
Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom. |
| Close Reading of the National Geographic article "Animal Farm": | In this lesson, students will complete a close reading of "Animal Farm," a nonfiction article found online at National Geographic that describes the incredible work one man accomplished as he turned a cattle ranch in Costa Rica into a national wildlife refuge. The students will conduct three close readings of the article, each time for a different purpose. The students will create vocabulary charts and find evidence in the article to answer a set of text-dependent questions. Students will then write an informative essay where they explain how the work of Jack Ewing changed this land. Sample responses are provided along with a writing response rubric. |
| Close Reading: The Great Chicago Fire: | This close reading lesson will engage students in discussions that involve how two authors in different genres describe the same event. These short texts, the poem "The Great Chicago Fire" and the informational text "Chicago," will require students to analyze text, make inferences based on text evidence, and defend their understandings through discussion and close reads. Students will use context clues to determine word meaning and unfamiliar phrasing in both texts. Students will participate in partner and small group work throughout the lesson. For the summative assessment, students will write an explanatory essay about the main ideas and key details of each text, as well as analyze the similarities in how each author describes the Chicago fire. |
| Not Such a Secret: Summarizing, Central Idea, and Vocabulary: | In this lesson, students will be read the non-fiction article, "A Well-Kept Secret." The students will work to determine the meaning of selected vocabulary from the article and find evidence in the passage to answer a set of text-dependent questions. Students will also explain how the relevant details support the central ideas and summarize the article. |
| Name |
Description |
| What Makes it Rain?: | This informational text is intended to support reading in the content area. The text informs readers about how several types of precipitation are formed in the atmosphere, including rain, hail, freezing rain, and snow. |
| Why Amazonian Butterflies Hover over Yellow-Spotted Turtles: | This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The text details the intriguing relationship between turtles and butterflies in the Amazon rainforest: butterflies drink the turtles' tears to get their sodium fix! The article also explores how both organisms are affected by this relationship. |
| Sleet and Freezing Rain: What's the Difference?: | This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article and graphics explain the atmospheric conditions needed to form different types of precipitation: snow, freezing rain, and sleet. |
| Your Amazing Brain: | This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This National Geographic article describes the amazing attributes of the human brain, comparing its features to everyday objects like a light bulb or a computer. |
| Sea Horses and How They Use Their Heads: | This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article describes how the dwarf seahorse's head shape allows it to be a better predator. |
| Carniverous Plants Say 'Cheese': | This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article describes how, through high-speed video, scientists are able to see how bladderworts (carnivorous plants) trap small animals very quickly. |
| A Matter of Mixing: | This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article describes properties of items as hyrdophobic or hyrdophilic and how they work. |
| The Comet that Came in from the Cold: | This resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The comet ISON, believed to originate from the frozen Oort cloud, has been studied in order to make predictions about its destiny – will it be destroyed by, or slung around, the sun? |
| The Water Cycle Adventure: | This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article walks the reader through the water cycle, from the point of view of a drop of water. |
| Water Cycle: | This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article discusses the steps in the water cycle. |
| Restoring a Sense of Touch: | This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This text explores the possibility of creating a prosthesis (artificial limb) that can feel things. |
| The Bad Breath Defense: | This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article describes the ability of the hornworm caterpillar to defend itself against predators using its food source. |
| Caught in the Act: | This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article discusses the study of a population's ability to adapt to the environment. The section of focus is on the cichlid population in Lake Victoria. |
| Secrets of the World's Extreme Divers: | This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. "Secrets of the World's Extreme Divers" explores the reason sea mammals are able to hold their breath for long periods of time. |
