Subject: ELA (English Language Arts)
Lesson Length: 45 min - 1 hour
Topic: Central Ideas of Informational Text
Grade Level: 6, 7
Objective: Analysis, Explanation
Standards: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.6.2, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.7.2
Brief Description: Students will read an informational text article and determine the central ideas of the text.
Know Before You Start:
- Students should have a basic understanding of how to determine the central ideas of text prior to the lesson.
- An informational article or resource will be needed for the lesson.
- Find examples of entertaining “Tweets” from Twitter.
Hook: Show several entertaining “Tweets” to demonstrate how Twitter tweets summarize a central idea. Discuss that tweets have a limit of 280 characters.
Activity:
Have students:
- Read the information text selected
- Write three Tweets summarizing the central ideas of the article
- llustrate their summary Tweets by creating a 3-panel comic demonstrating the central ideas of the text
Closure: Students will share their comics in small groups and discuss the central ideas of the informational text.
Differentiation:
- Pre-teach necessary vocabulary pertaining to the informational text article
- Provide sentence starters
- Provide informational text articles at student reading level
- Allow students to work with a peer model.
- Allow students to read another article and complete the same task for enrichment
Resources:
- Example comic to print or display: Comic
- Example Tweet messages
- Informational Text Article
