TM Celebration Press Reading DRA2 Level 34 Guided Reading Level O Genre: Nonfiction Reading Skill: Understand Nonfiction Text Structure Playground Science By Elizabeth Paren Playgrounds are great places to explore basic science. Playground Science uses balls, slides, and swings to demonstrate important concepts, such as gravity, friction, and momentum. Features of This Text Supportive Features Text contains short, simple sentences Labeled drawings make concepts easier to visualize Text uses real-life examples familiar to students Challenging Features Text contains abstract concepts and technical terms (e.g., gravity and momentum) Difficult final chapter Use of diagrams Focus for Instruction Reading Skill: Understand Nonfiction Text Structure: and Word Study Mini-lesson: Prefixes Vocabulary brake pads (p. 12) gravity (p. 5) forces (p. 4) momentum (p. 11) friction (p. 8) reversed (p. 7) gear (p. 12) steeper (p. 8) Additional Activities Comprehension: Make Connections Writing: Write a Description Use this book to inform instruction in the following area: Show student how to use key words to identify specific information from the text Use the following Words Their Way: Word Study in Action sort with this book: Level D, Sort 30 Shared Reading Connections: Unit 5, Week 2 (pp. 256 267) Unit 5, Week 3 (pp. 268 279) DRA2 Level 34 Teaching Plan 19
Guiding the Reading Day 1 (pp. 3 9) In This Section Readers learn about the forces that make things move, such as gravity and lift. Simple playground machines, like seesaws and slides, are explained, using the scientific terms lever, fulcrum, and friction. Before Reading Focus Attention Ask students to describe the games they like to play or activities they like to do on a playground. Some of these games will involve throwing or kicking balls. Others will involve playground equipment, such as the seesaw, the slide, and swings. Explain to students that they are going to read a nonfiction book that looks at the playground in a different way. We all know how playground equipment works. This book asks us to think about why it works. Have students turn to the contents page and read aloud the section headings. Point out that most of the section headings are questions. Students will learn the answers to these questions as they read. Vocabulary Hold up a pencil and let it drop. Tell students that gravity is what causes the pencil to drop to the floor. Explain to students that gravity (p. 5) is the force that pulls things back to Earth. Ask students what would happen to the pencil if there were no gravity. Point out that if there were no gravity, the pencil, you, and everything else on the planet would float off into space. Have students determine the meaning of steeper (p. 8), using the following sentence: That hill is steeper than the driveway up to my house. If necessary, explain that steep is a word used to describe the angle of a slope. When a road begins to climb a mountain, we say that the climb has gotten steeper. Ask students to name other things or places that are steep. Other Words to Know forces (p. 4): what make things move friction (p. 8) the force generated when one object rubs against another reversed (p. 7): changed direction and moved backwards Understand Nonfiction Text Structure Explain to students that authors of nonfiction texts organize their writing in different ways to help readers remember the information. One way an author might organize his or her writing is by recording the information, using a predictable pattern, such as telling what happens and then explaining why it happens. This is known as cause and effect. A cause is why something happens and an effect is what happens as a result of the cause or the outcome. You may want to provide examples to help students. For example, Mark did not study for his test and he failed. Or Megan practiced shooting baskets and, as a result, made the basketball team. Tell students that when reading a book that uses a cause-and-effect text structure, readers must pay attention to key words and phrases such as then, because, as a result, when, causes, and makes it happen. These words and phrases signal cause-and-effect relationships. To help students think about cause-andeffect text structure, model your thought process: Let s look at the contents on page 2 to see if it gives us any clues as to how the author organized the information in this book. Since this book is nonfiction, I know it won t be organized like a story, which has characters; setting; and a beginning, a middle, and an end. Instead, the author will find a way to organize the material to better help me remember the important ideas. Listen as I read aloud the section headings on the contents page. [Teacher reads aloud.] I see questions as section headings. The questions ask how and why things happen. Therefore, each section will tell about the causes of these things. That makes me think the author has organized this book by showing various cause-andeffect relationships. Knowing this will help me record and remember the information.
Introduce the reproducible on the back cover and discuss the chart. Explain to students that as they read, they will record what happens and why in each section of the text in their own words. Have students begin reading the book. Prompt them to use sticky notes to mark cause-and-effect signal words. During Reading Prompt for understanding, as appropriate. Possible prompts include the following: How do the section headings help you think about cause-and-effect relationships in the text? If gravity pulls things toward the Earth, why does a kite fly? Use the labels to help you understand the information in the photograph. How do the illustrations help you understand the causes and effects in the book? After Reading Understand Nonfiction Text Structure Have students reread the text on page 8. Point out that the first person to explain how gravity works was Sir Isaac Newton. This happened in 1687, more than 300 years ago in England. There is a legend that one day Sir Isaac was sitting under a tree drinking tea. Suddenly, an apple fell and hit him on the head. That s how he discovered gravity. People still argue about whether this really happened. Chances are, it didn t. Still, the story tells us something that is true. Isaac Newton admitted that he didn t know what gravity was. He only knew how it worked. He knew this because he could see its effects in everyday actions. Remind students that we can learn a lot about science by carefully observing things that happen around us. Then have students record some of the cause-and-effect relationships in this section of text on their reproducible. Discuss the Text Visualize Ask students to review the illustration on page 6. Discuss how it helps readers to understand why kites fly. In one sense, lift is a little bit like gravity; it can be hard to visualize. Point out to students that even large airplanes fly because of lift. Have students point to other illustrations in this section and explain how they help readers visualize the science concepts. Draw Conclusions Explain to students that friction is another example of a force that we can t see. But we can predict its effects. Ask: What would happen if a playground slide were covered with rough sandpaper? If students have trouble visualizing friction, ask them to rub their hands together until they begin to feel warm. The heat that is generated is an example of friction at work. Make Connections Ask students to explain what kinds of forces are caused by people in this section of text. What kinds come from nature? Have students create a list of games they play that require them to force a ball or another object to move in some way. Assessment Checkpoint Does the student recognize cause-and-effect relationships in the text? Is the student able to use the illustrations to describe the science concepts? Can the student relate the science concepts to everyday life? Day 2 (pp. 10 16) In This Section The discussion of simple machines and how they work continues as readers explore swings and bicycles. These machines help readers think about what happens when multiple forces are at work. Before Reading Focus Attention Have students summarize what they have learned so far about machines. Then have students read
the section headings for this portion of the text. Ask students to predict what kinds of information they will read about. Have students share what they know about bicycles and how they work. Students may be surprised to learn that the modern bicycle is only about 150 years old. Some of the earliest bicycles had no steering or brakes. The invention of rubber tires helped make bicycles practical. Vocabulary Point out that the word momentum (p. 11) means the amount of motion an object has. An object with momentum will continue moving until some force, such as friction, causes it to slow down or stop. Ask students what they do to stop a bicycle, a rolling ball, or a swing. Other Words to Know brake pads (p. 12): small blocks that rub against the wheel of a bicycle or a car to make it stop gear (p. 12): a wheel with evenly spaced teeth along the outer rim; gears are used to make machines work During Reading Prompt for understanding, as appropriate. Possible prompts include the following: How do the section headings help you think about cause-and-effect relationships in the text? How do the illustrations help you understand how swings work? Can you use the glossary to help you understand that word? After Reading Understand Nonfiction Text Structure Have students share the places in the text where they found cause-and-effect relationships. Have students explain these causes and effects, using the illustrations as prompts. Then have students complete their reproducible by recording some of these causes and effects. You may want to suggest that students use the back of the reproducible to record more cause-and effect relationships. Provide time for students to share cause-and-effect signal words that they found. Discuss the Text Make Connections Discuss with students the concept of momentum. If there are students in your class who play soccer, ask them to explain how different types of kicks affect the momentum of the ball. For example a passing kick, made with the side of the foot, makes it easier for the player to control the ball. But it also gives the ball less momentum because the ball moves sideways in relation to the player s knee joint. Some of the player s forward momentum is not transferred to the ball. Continue the discussion with other sports. Compare and Contrast Ask students to compare a runner and an ice skater. Ask: Which one uses less force to move forward ten feet? What does that tell us about the effect of ice on friction? Point out to students that running water is sometimes used to decrease friction. Perhaps some students in the class have visited a water park where there is a slide that uses running water. Ask: Does the running water make the ride down the slide faster? How did it feel to go down the slide? Make Lists Discuss with students the simple machines they have learned about in this book. Have them make a list of simple machines they use at school and at home. Ask students to share and compare their lists. Assessment Checkpoint Does the student recognize cause-and-effect relationships in the text? Can the student explain the science concepts in his or her own words? Can the student apply the concepts to daily life and provide examples of simple machines he or she uses?
Options for Further Instruction Digging Deeper Comprehension: Make Connections Tell students that in order to understand science concepts, it helps to relate the concepts to their personal lives or information they have already learned. Discuss with students how simple machines are all around us, such as the machines we use in our daily lives. Make a list of the machines students mention. In addition, point out that many simple machines have been used for centuries to create some of the most famous structures on Earth. Explain to students that for many years, people wondered how the pyramids of ancient Egypt were constructed without modern machines. Today, we know that the pyramid builders used simple machines to accomplish a lot of hard work. For example, many scientists believe workers built dirt ramps around the sides of the pyramids. They pushed blocks of stone up the ramps to the level they were working on that day. When the pyramid was finished, workers removed the ramps. Some students may wish to learn more about how the pyramids were built. They can find information about this at their local library or school library. Writing Write a Description Have students write a brief description of a person riding a bicycle. Tell them to organize their writing around the principle of cause and effect. Have them use cause-and-effect signal words to explain the process. Word Study Mini-lesson Prefixes Tell students that a prefix is a word part added to a base word that changes its meaning. For example, if you remake something you make it again. The prefix re- is added to the word make to form the word remake. The prefix re- means again. Write the word bicycle (p. 12) on the board. Explain that the word bicycle consists of the prefix bi-, meaning two, connected to the base word cycle. A bicycle has two wheels. Relate the word bicycle to the words tricycle and unicycle. Point out that the prefix tri- means three and the prefix uni- means one. Ask students what a tricycle and a unicycle are. If necessary, explain that a tricycle has three wheels and a unicycle has only one. Have partners review the following list of words: unicorn, bicentennial, uniform, triangle, unify, triceratops, and triceps. Ask students to identify the prefix and the meaning of the word. Support The technical terms in this book may pose challenges to English language learners. Take advantage of the illustrations to help students grasp the science concepts presented. Have students turn to an illustration. Use simple words and phrases to describe what is shown. Ask students to restate your description, and demonstrate what you have said. If possible, illustrate some of the concepts on a playground.
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