Bulletin Board: Text Features

Text Features Bulletin Board
R and E Activity:
Pull 4-5 high kids into your R and E class. Give them magazines and/or newspapers and show them a picture of this board. Ask them to find and cut out an example of each text feature on the board (a couple of features - like the index - may need to be photocopied from a textbook). Once they are done, they can check with you to make sure that each of their examples in acceptable. Then, let them use their samples to create a bulletin board like the one in the picture. 

Lesson Plan: The Drought of 2012

Here is a lesson plan for you using information text and focusing on a current event: the drought of 2012.

Predict: Have students start out by making a web. In the center of the web is the word "drought". Around the center, they should brainstorm different kinds of people who could be hurt physically or economically in a drought (farmer, politician, etc).

Next, show the students the PBS Newshour segment entitled "The Drought of 2012". http://www.pbs.org/newshour/thenews/thevote/story.php?id=19477&package_id=634

Reevaluate and Adjust: After showing the video, have students go back to their web and make adjustments based on the new material they have learned.

Discuss and Describe: Ask the students the following discussion questions:

What is a drought?

How does the 2012 drought differ from other droughts the United States has experienced?

How have farmers/politicians/citizens responded to the drought?

Expand: Have students do a cloze read of the New York Times article "Severe Drought Seen as Driving Up Cost of Food". http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/26/business/food-prices-to-rise-in-wake-of-severe-drought.html?_r=1&hp Students should read the article through once. Then, students should read the article again and highlight the information that indicates how people are being impacted by the drought. Finally, have students discuss with a partner or small group what they have chosen to highlight and why.

Prior Knowledge/Making Connections/ Write: Show students the graphic on products containing corn. http://www.kycorn.org/documents/cornuses.pdf Have the students use what they have learned (that the drought is going to cause a hike in the price of corn) and this list of corn based products to come up with main idea statements and supporting details to explain how specific people will be hurt by the rising price of corn.

Example:

Students may be negatively affected by the drought because of higher corn prices. The drought of 2012 is causing the price of corn to go up. Older students will have to pay higher prices for paper and pens because paper and ink both use corn. Younger students will also be affected because crayons and glue also contain corn. Students will may even have to pay a higher price for those new school clothes! Yes, the fabric that makes our clothes can also contain corn.

For a list of further resources and more lesson plan ideas on the drought, see the resource http://www.pbs.org/newshour/thenews/materials/Drought2012.LALessonPlan.pdf - a lesson plan from the.news.

Lesson Plans: Frogs and Superfish

 Here are three of cross-curricular lessons!

LESSON PLAN ONE: THE THIN GREEN LINE

PBS Nature has some excellent resources that are perfect for cross-curricular activities. They aired a fascinating special on frogs entitled The Thin Green Line that is still available for streaming at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/frogs-the-thin-green-line/video-full-episode/4882/. There are some fabulous resources accompanying the video, include a great infographic. I have included a link to the infographic below. You could display the infographic using your projector. Start by going over the infographic with your students. Then, allow them to work in pairs or groups to answer the questions in the attached document (a sample question is listed below).

Frog Infographic

http://www-tc.pbs.org/wnet/nature/files/2012/08/froginfographic_fnl.png

Features:

A PBS infographic on the anatomy of a frog, comparisons to toads, and the development of the frog

Sample skill question:

According to the infographic, if a frog is 3.5 inches long, can it jump more or less than 62 inches?

Click here to view the full question sheet.

LESSON PLAN TWO: SUPERFISH

PBS Nature also aired a program on billfish that was quite interesting. The entire video is no longer available for streaming, but there are several resources still available along with some video clips. One of the resources is an article on Mercury levels in seafood. It is available here http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/superfish/a-warning-to-seafood-lovers/1008/

This would be an example of an article to use for a cloze reading. First, print the article for your students. Have the students read the article silently. Then, hand out highlighters (or allow your students to get out a pencil) and let the students read through again. During their second reading, the students should highlight information that they think is important or interesting. They can also make notes or comments. After this second reading, you can hold a class discussion on the article or allow students to discuss in groups what they felt was important about the article.

LESSON PLAN THREE: SUPERFISH PART TWO

The Superfish resources also include a great infographic! Use it as you would the frog info-graphic above. (The font seems to be more visible using Explorer rather than Firefox).

Superfish infographic:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/superfish/infographic-all-about-billfish/1005/

Features:

A PBS infographic on billfish including a comparison of various types of billfish and fishing data

Sample skill question:

Using the information on the infographic, explain why the names swordfish and spearfish are accurate for how the fish look but not what they actually do.

Click here to view the full question sheet