Subject area: Language Arts Grade level: 6th Lesson length: 2-3 days Lesson Objectives (I cans): * Note:

I Can statements are district-wide objectives that are written in a student-friendly way. 1. I can determine a central idea of the text and how it is communicated through particular details. 2. I can take notes that show how supportive details of a text relate to larger main ideas. 3. I can write a cohesive summary of the text that includes important main ideas and supporting details. Content Standards: Note: The standards correspond to the College and Career Readiness anchor standards by number and align with English Language Arts Common Core Standards. CCR 2: Determine central ideas of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas. CCR 5: Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text relate to each other and the whole. Essential Questions: 1. How do I read for information? 2. How do I take notes in a way to help me keep track of what I've learned? 3. How do I write a cohesive summary of a text to show what I've learned from it? Technology Required: Students will use the Bubbl.us website to take notes for their assigned expository text article. They will later save and print the file to use for their summary which will serve as the final assessment. Materials needed: Literature books which contain assigned expository text articles, computers to use the bubbl.us website, as well as a sheet of paper for their summaries. Lesson Procedures Day 1: Objective: Determine a central idea of the text and how it is communicated through particular details. Lesson explanation: 1. Students will learn about various features found in expository text that will help them write their summaries. These features include the following: title, headings, sub-headings, bolded words/phrases, and italics. They will first read about each one in their literature books. As a class, we will go through each one and discuss how they're shown in actual expository examples. I will reiterate that we are reviewing these features because they are key to writing good summaries for expository texts. I will remind them they will need to apply this skill in our next unit for the research project, where they'll be expected to write at least three full summaries for three different articles they use for their research project. 2. Next, we will read an expository article where the title and subheadings for the sections are left out. Students will work in partners to figure out possible subheadings for each of the sections,

as well as the title. Some students will use a phrase bank to match subheadings to the section they believe it fits while others will have to write their own.This is a differentiation technique so students who need to be challenged more will take part in the second activity mentioned. At the end of this quick activity, we will go over the answers and discuss how it shows supportive details connecting with larger main ideas. Day 2 Objective: Practice how to take notes in a way that keeps track of learning. 1. Students will be introduced to bubbl.us as a technology tool for help with organizing their note taking. I will show my bubbl.us example that aligns with the expository article we used for the text features article from the previous day and will share my thinking with how I began with the title or topic of the article in the center. From there, I break off into the sub-topics that go along with the sub-headings of the text, stopping after each sub-heading to provide important details for each which will break off from the sub-heading circle. I will model this for the first two sections only, and then share my thinking with students for the third section, typing their responses onto bubbl.us on the Smarboard. For the last one or two, I will have students do it completely on their own and go over their answers until I feel they have mastered the skill. This scaffolding it intended to build students toward success with managing this skill on their own for the assignment and final assessment. 2. Students will start with their bubbl.us concept map assignment by reading an assigned piece of text of choice (out of the three I provide them) and should get about halfway through creating their concept map. I will end the lesson with 5 minutes left of class to go over with them how to save their work to their h:drives so they can upload it from home and complete it as homework. They will be expected to come in with their concept maps completed for the following day. Day 3 Objective: Write a cohesive summary of a text to show understanding of main ideas and supporting details. 1. Students will meet with at least one other person who shared their article and check each other's concept maps, going through a checklist to make sure they each have successfully completed their maps. 2. I will then model how to use the concept map to write a cohesive and well organized summary of the article. During this time, I will show them how the first sentence should include the title of the article itself and identify the main topic that the article covers. From there, I go back to the first sub-topic on my concept-map and include it in my summary after the introduction sentence. I will stop and go back to add additional details for the sub-topic which also come from the concept map. I will continue demonstrating this, stopping more to ask for students' help, until I feel like they're comfortable writing their own summaries on a lined sheet of paper or typed. I will also show them what a high quality summary looks like, explaining how it conveys only the most important points (main ideas and key supporting details) of the article. I will compare my final summary to the concept map to show them how the latter is a blueprint for the former. Content: This lesson highly scaffolded to support student's needs for mastering the skill of note taking and writing a cohesive, well organized summary. The lesson is scaffolded to help students master each step important to the process of developing a quality summary. Throughout this process, students have

opportunities to learn within different contexts, which range in level of independence; each day begins with direct instruction to model the skill, followed with partner or small group practice, and eventually on their own. Students also have the opportunity to use a computer program called Bubbl.us to more actively engage with the note taking process. Bubbl.us is a more visually appealing way for many students to take notes as opposed to just pen and pencil. Through this description, one can see how it appeals to both a constructivist as well as behaviorist learning approach. Being able to work with classmates allows students with a wide range of abilities help one another through each lesson, and the bubbl.us program appeals to learners who are more privy to visual and kinaesthetic learning styles. Content & Pedagogy: The concept mapping could also be done through traditional pen and paper, but learning the strategy through a more interactive, engaging platform may raise the interest level for certain students. Regardless if the skill was taught using the bubbl.us strategy or through more traditional ways such as pen and paper, the important characteristic of teaching the concept map for this lesson seems like a solid strategy to show students the relationships between main ideas, sub-topics, and supporting details because it is visually laid out for them. This is why I chose this strategy. A constraint with this strategy is it does require computer access, which is not always available for my kids. Therefore, I'd have to plan far in advance before using something like bubbl.us with them to ensure I had the proper materials needed. Technology: My students and I will be using a program called bubbl.us, a free mind-mapping website. As mentioned before, this technology is not imperative to mastering the objective, since another note taking skill could be used and probably still achieve the same goal or students could do the conceptmapping skill with a pencil and paper. Bubbl.us more so fits under the content-general technologies that will help students better understand the relationships of text features and how they can use it to write a cohesive, well organized summary. Technology & Pedagogy: My theories of learning align with both the cognitive and constructivism approaches that skills first need to be modeled for students and gradually the load is shifted to students. This was easy to do through the use of bubbl.us because I was making my thinking visible through the program itself. After modeling, students need to practice the skill and work towards mastery by producing their own product, which is the expectation for the bubbl.us assignment. I also wanted to foster an environment where active learning can take place, so this is why I made the decision to have them use something like bubbl.us vs. traditional pen and paper. Both aim to help them master the objective, but bubbl.us allows them to do so in a more interactive, engaging way because they are working with text, color, and design. Technology & Content: Through my three years of teaching, I've seen firsthand how students struggle with effectively taking notes in a way that supports the main idea; they have a tendency to write too much unnecessary details or leave out important ones. My assumption is that this partially stems from the fact they fail to understand the relationships among text features, which is integral in understanding how it all comes together. Therefore, teaching them an alternative way to take notes through conceptmapping on the bubbl.us site specifically addresses this concern and essential question that aims to help them understand it. They are actively making bubbles for the topic, sub-topics, and supporting details that branch off from one another to show these relationships between larger and smaller aspects of the central text. Thus, it helps them organize their understanding of the text. Assessment: Students will demonstrate their understanding of how to read and understand an informational text piece through their written summaries, which serve to demonstrate their understanding of not only the main idea, but important main ideas and supporting details. Their summaries will allow me to make sure they have reached the third objective, which is to write a cohesive summary that includes the main ideas and key supporting details. This summary also implies they have mastered the other two objectives, since they are embedded in the assessment as important

steps that work toward it. These include (1) determine a central idea of the text and how it is communicated through particular details and (2) take notes that show how supportive details of a text relate to larger main ideas. In other words, to produce a quality summary (the final assessment) achievement for the other two objectives will be reflected within the paper.