Grade 5 Subject ReadingUnit name The Making of a

ScientistLesson The Making of a Scientist – close

readingLesson # 2 of 5 (40 minute

lessons)Teacher David Liben

CC StandardsforEnglish Language Arts

Reading Standards (page 14)RI5.1 – Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.RI5.2 – Determine two or more main ideas of a text and explain how they are supported by key detailsRI5.4 – Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases

Writing Standards (pages 20 and 21)W5.9 – Draw evidence from informational text to support analysis

Speaking and Listening Standards (page 24)SL5.1 – Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussion, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly

Unit Overview: the full unit plan is available as a PDF in the links and ideas section of this module on the website.

Lesson plan: The Making of a Scientist, lesson 2

Overview: Before today’s lesson, the teacher had read aloud the entire text of the piece with the students following along in the text. After that the students read it independently. The teacher had discussed that vocabulary that cannot be determined from context.

In this lesson the teacher asks the class to discuss the first set of text-dependent questions and perform targeted tasks about the passage, with answers in the form of notes and annotations to the text.

SECTION TIME SHIFT DETAILIntroduction 5 minutes

Evidence from text

Students read first three paragraphs independently.

Individual activity for class:Find what the mother says and what the father says – highlight or underline.

Evidence from text

Call on student volunteers to read these experts aloud.

Group discussion question:Who is saying “So he started very early to tell me about the world and how interesting it is.”

Call on students to answer:Who is the ‘he’ and who is the ‘me’?

Drawing inferences from evidence

10 minutes

Evidence from text

Have students re-read first three paragraphs independently then answer this question in groups:

What was Feynman’s father trying to teach his son with the tiles?

Call on students to answer to whole class.Students will likely say that he was teaching his son about patterns or possibly that he was teaching him math. Ask students to go back into the text to find the main point—something even more important than patterns and math that his father was trying to teach him: “he started very early to tell me about the world and how interesting it is.”

Vocabulary in context

5 minutes

Academic vocabulary

Have students re-read paragraph 4. Pose question to class and have class discussion:There’s a small word in the middle of that paragraph. What does it mean when it says “…we would be reading ‘say’ about dinosaurs…”

Drawing inferences from evidence

5 minutes

Evidence from text

Have students re-read paragraph 5.

Call on students to answer: In the sentence that says: “That would mean if he stood in our front yard he would be tall enough” what does he mean in the sentence?

Why was Feynman’s father telling him that?

Vocabulary in context

3 minutes Academic vocabulary

Class discussion – direct students to, and re-read the sentence containing the word ‘magnitude’: What do you think the word “magnitude” means in that sentence?

Draw together student answers to clarify the meaning from the text.

Drawing inferences from evidence

7 minutes Evidence from text

Have class discuss in groups then call on students to answer:

“Everything he read to me he would translate as best he could into some reality. “What does this sentence mean?

Follow up with class discussion about close reading and understanding in depth.

Drawing inferences from evidence

5 minutesEvidence from text

Have students re-read paragraph 6.

Group discussion then call on students: What is the lesson that Feynman’s father is teaching him in this paragraph?

Sidebar: Website on Tyrannosaurus rexIf students are intrigued to learn more about Tyrannosaurus rex, direct them to the informative National Geographic webpage on that dinosaur:http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/prehistoric/tyrannosaurus-rex/