** I chose these texts because they are a part of our Social Studies unit. Students are using this information as part of an American Symbols unit. The Common Core Standards encourage students to build and use academic vocabulary to build knowledge in the Social Studies and Science disciplines. This lesson exemplifies a key shift in the CCSS towards developing students’ academic vocabulary across the disciplines. In this lesson, students are learning how to use context clues and informational text features to define the vocabulary. (RI.2.4)
I've done several lessons with the SIP strategy with informational text. They include Wording Creates Images and New Words and Connecting Ideas.
Underlined words below are lesson vocabulary words that are emphasized and written on sentence strips for my Reading & Writing word wall. I pull off the words off the wall for each lesson, helping students understand this key 'reading and writing' vocabulary can be generalized across texts and topics. The focus on acquiring and using these words is part of a shift in the Common Core Standards towards building students’ academic vocabulary. My words are color coded ‘pink’ for literature/’blue’ for reading strategies/’orange’ for informational text/'yellow' for writing/’green’ for all other words)
Common starting point
Give the purpose of the lesson
Introduce strategy - teacher models
Practice strategy - guided practice
Assign Task
Formative Assessment
Show and compare
Create the Project
Scaffolding and Special Education: This lesson could be easily scaffolded up or down, depending on student ability.
Students with academic challenges should perhaps work with a partner to read the text and try to define words. They could help look at the illustrations and the partner could perhaps read the sentence.
Students with more vocabulary and language should be challenged to create a true 'definition' of the word vs just a phrase or synonym. They typically have a higher level vocabulary and may already know a word, but informational text tends to have more specific vocabulary that they may not be familiar with.