Grade: Grade 6 Subject: English Language Arts Created by: Rachel Daly Lesson Length: 2 hours Keywords/Tags: Reading, Writing, See Our Progress, Garden, TV reporter Lesson Description: The goal of this lesson is to inspire real-world thinking and opinions using reading and writing habits and skills to encourage deeper thinking. By reading and rereading this passage students get an idea of how News Reporters do their job and the impacts that a garden can have on a school's community. Focusing their reading through vocabulary and discussion questions, students show understanding and use inquiry skills to engage the text. Combining the questions with a writing prompt students will connect with the story on a deeper level.
Common Core Standards Covered with This Lesson
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.2: Determine a theme or central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.6.2: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.6.4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1–3 above.)
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.6.1: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.6.4a: Use context (e.g., the overall meaning of a sentence or paragraph; a word’s position or function in a sentence) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.6.6: Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases; gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.
Lesson Content: Reading
Instructions: Please read the following reading passage as many times as needed (aloud and silent) before starting to go through other lesson pages. Understanding the content of this passage is very important since the lesson activities will be all about this content. Feel free to print the passage if needed.
See Our Progress
My school appeared on the news last week because we had made an important change in our community. We had planted a large garden in what was once only a vacant lot.
This experience taught me a great deal about television news. First, our principal telephoned the TV station and informed them of what we had accomplished. She spoke with the producer—the person who assigns reporters to cover interesting stories.
The producer checked with the directors, but they claimed there were plenty of stories similar to ours. They wanted to know what was special about our particular garden.
The principal explained that, after going on the Internet to learn about the prairie, we had made a prairie garden. We had gone to a prairie and gotten seeds from the plants, and then we planted them. We did not water the garden, but we did weed it. We decided to let nature water it with rain, since that was how prairies grew in the past. We sent a picture of the garden to the news station. In the picture, the grass was so high that it stood taller than the fourth grade students.
The director thought our story was extremely interesting. It was not just a garden, but a history lesson. Actually, it was also a science lesson. As a result, they sent a reporter to our school, and that reporter also brought a cameraman.
They interviewed the principal and asked several detailed questions about the garden. After that, they interviewed us and we explained to them what we had learned through this project. They even interviewed a person on the street and asked what he thought about our garden.
They were at our school for two hours. We were really ecstatic. That night, we watched the news and there we were. The news anchor told our story. It was only two minutes long, but it was us. We were famous.
Task 1: Writing Activity
(30 points)
Instructions: You are to write and post here a 500-word essay on the impact a garden would do to our school's community, would it have a positive or negative outcome? Make sure to provide specific examples.
Standards Covered with This Lesson Activity: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.6.2, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.6.4, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.6.1,
Task 2: Vocabulary Activity
(40 points)
Instructions: Please complete the following vocabulary activity by choosing the correct meaning of each word selected from the passage and use of each word correctly in a sentence.
Vocabulary Questions
Word/Phrase: Vacant | Tier: 2 | Points: 10
Q1
The author in this story says "We had planted a large garden in what was once only a vacant lot." What does the word "vacant" mean in this sentence?
A. Alone
B. Paved
C. Empty *
D. Virtual
Which sentence below uses "vacant" correctly?
A. My mom told me to vacant the house and to play outside.
B. The vacant house across the street looks spooky, not a single movement is seen. *
C. My teacher is passing out cookies, I want my plate vacant, so I ask for more.
D. Vacant the child a dunce hat
Word/Phrase: Prairie | Tier: 3 | Points: 10
Q2
If you saw a prairie in real life, your surroundings would look like?
A. Trees all around you. Cool breeze blowing hair in your face.
B. Feet are wet, most likely standing in a small lake. Dark and warm air around you.
C. Straight horizon line, or just grass if you are short enough. *
D. Rocks everywhere of all shapes and sizes. There's an incline in front of you and a decline behind you.
Which sentence uses "prairie" correctly?
A. My dog likes the flat lands of the prairie where he can run, undisturbed. *
B. My dad likes to go swimming in the prairie , a lot of underwater places to explore.
C. The seven dwarfs of Snow White went mining in the prairie.
D. I prairie at my church every Wednesday, but my pastor told me I can prairie anywhere.
Word/Phrase: ecstatic | Tier: 2 | Points: 10
Q3
If someone was ecstatic about something they would act...?
A. Sorrowful
B. Excited *
C. Playful
D. Envious
In what situation would someone correctly act ecstatic?
A. Nahiyan was ecstatic went he could not figured out his math homework problems.
B. Evan was ecstatic when he bit a real worm instead of a gummy one.
C. Mary does not like crunchy things. I imagine she was ecstatic to find her brother put chips in her sandwich.
D. James loves roller coasters and is ecstatic to be on a field trip to the amusement park. *
Word/Phrase: Reporter | Tier: 3 | Points: 10
Q4
Our author uses "reporter" in the story, meaning...
A. a type of grass that specifically grows on prairies and you can eat.
B. Some type of pokemon, probably third evolution, maybe psychic type.
C. A journalist that collects interesting stories from reliable people to share with the general public, usually with a news source. *
D. The kid in class that tells the teacher everything that your classmates were doing on the playground, that they were not supposed to be doing.
Which sentence uses the word "reporter" correctly?
A. Bay News 9 sent a reporter to Chick-fil-a to cover a story about their new mac-n-cheese. *
B. How can Sally make a song out of reporters.
C. My teacher sent my mom my reporter in the mail, mom was not happy with my C in Science.
D. I like reporters that have chocolate filling.
Standards Covered with This Lesson Activity: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.4, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.6.4a, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.6.6,
Task 3: Discussion Activity
(30 points)
Instructions: This discussion forum will have questions for students to respond. Read the posted questions, and respond to each. Students are responsible for posting one initial and and two peer responses for each topic.
Topic Title
Replies
Our plants
The students in Our Progress planted their own locally sourced garden, what are the benefits or disadvantages of this type of gardening? What kinds of plants that are in our community could we incorporate into a garden?
Sent on: Oct 10, 2019 by: Rachel Daly
0
Main Idea
What was the main idea from the text, and how did the author organize their ideas for us to read?
Sent on: Oct 10, 2019 by: Rachel Daly
0
Principal Interview
If you were interviewing our principal, what kinds of questions would you ask them and why?
Sent on: Oct 10, 2019 by: Rachel Daly
0
Standards Covered with This Lesson Activity: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.2,
