GRADE 5, MODULE 2A: UNIT 1,
LESSON 2
SLOTH CANOPY RESEARCHER:
BRYSON VOIRIN
• 1. Opening
AGENDA
– A. Engaging the Reader: Rainforests of Panama (5
minutes)
– B. Review Learning Targets (5 minutes)
• 2. Work Time
– A. How Scientists Communicate Their Work: An
Interview (10 minutes)
– B. Guided Practice Reading for Gist: “Sloth Canopy
Researcher: Bryson
Voirin” Interview Introduction and First Question (10
minutes)
– C. Vocabulary Work: Starting a Glossary (10 minutes)
– D. Further Reading and Vocabulary Work: “Sloth
Canopy Researcher: Bryson
– Voirin” Interview Second and Third Questions (10
minutes)
• 3. Closing and Assessment
– A. Debrief: What Have We Learned about the
Rainforest? (10 minutes)
A. Engaging the Reader: Rainforests of Panama (5 minutes)
• What Hemisphere do you live in?
Where is the Western Hemisphere and how is it decided? Continue to find out.
We live in the Western Hemisphere.
The Western Hemisphere is
west of the Prime meridian.
A. Engaging the Reader: Rainforests of Panama (5 minutes)
• Do you know where Panama is?
Panama
• Although there
are rainforests
all over the
world (near the
equator), we
are going to
specifically
focus on the
rainforests of
the Western
Hemisphere.
• Today we'll be
looking at the
rainforests in
Panama.
B. Review Learning Targets (5 minutes)
Learning target:
“I can describe the features of an interview
as an informational text.”
1. What does it mean to describe?
2. What are features?
3. Finally, what is an interview?
B. Review Learning Targets (5 minutes)
Learning target:
“I can describe the features of an interview
as an informational text.”
How well do you understand?
I've got it!
I'm close.
Huh?
A. How Scientists Communicate Their Work: An Interview (10 minutes)
“Sloth Canopy Researcher:
Bryson Voirin” Interview
• As you receive your copy of the interview,
please take a moment to skim it and observe
the structure of this informational text.
What do you notice
about the structure?
(how it’s laid out, etc.)
Informational Text anchor chart
• When we made our Informational Text
anchor chart in Lesson 1, did we include
“interview”? If not, let’s add this to the chart.
Features of Informational Text
• Time to make a new anchor chart.
• Please open your journal to the next available
page to create this chart:
Features of Informational Text
Type
Elements
How Does it Help the Reader?
Features of Informational Text
Type
(What type of
Informational text
do you have today?)
Interview
Elements
(What are the
features of this?)
Questions, answers,
short paragraphs,
bold print, etc.
How Does it Help the Reader?
(How do the features help with an interview?)
The way it’s broken into parts helps me
tell where one question/answer ends
and a new one begins; shorter
paragraphs help me focus on one idea
at a time, etc.
Why scientists might choose an interview
to communicate their research?
B. Guided Practice Reading for Gist: “Sloth Canopy Researcher: Bryson Voirin” Interview Introduction and First Question (10 minutes)
Learning targets:
“I can determine the gist of an interview with scientist
Bryson Voirin,” and
“I can determine the meaning of new words
from context in an interview with scientist Bryson Voirin.”
Remember one strategy for determining the meaning of a word is to first figure out the
part of speech of a word.
What type of word is determine?
verb, a doing word
Which word is determine referring to? gist
So what do you think it means if you are reading to determine the gist?
Determine means to figure something out or decide, and gist
means to get the main, or most important, ideas. So we need to
figure out what the interview is mostly about.
What does context mean? Con means “with,” and text means “words on the page,” so
reading other words or sentences near an unfamiliar word can
help me figure out what the word means.
Close Readers Do These Things
(Make another anchor chart.)
• use context by reading sentences
and/or words directly before or after
the unfamiliar word
• think about what type of speech the word is (verb,
noun, adjective) and how it connects to or describes
other words in the sentence
• break the word into familiar parts and
determining meaning based on what part(s) can
be defined easily
• look for repeated words, which usually indicates
this is an important word
Sloth Canopy Researcher:
Bryson Voirin
• We will be reading this interview across
two lessons. For now, just focus on the
first interview question and answer. Read
it for gist, underline any words you don’t
know.
1. What do you think the gist of this first interview question is?
2. Write the gist in the margin of the interview, next to the first
question.
C. Vocabulary Work: Starting Glossaries (10 minutes)
Vocabulary
• What words did you underline?
• Could you figure out the meaning of any of
your words by using context clues?
If so, what other words and/or sentences
helped you determine what the word meant?
Vocabulary
• In this module you will be focusing on two different types of
words, scientific (words about science) and
academic (other words that help you understand concepts)
words.
• By knowing which words are which types it helps you to be
able to determine importance of vocabulary and therefore
helps you to understand texts better.
• Remember that informational text often has a glossary, a
place that lists words and definitions.
• You will be creating your own glossaries in order to keep track
of academic and scientific words that will
help you become a better reader.
Your Glossaries
• Please turn to the back of your journal
and make two charts.
• Academic Word Glossary & Scientific Word Glossary
Academic Word Glossary
word synonym definition picture
Scientific Word Glossary
word synonym definition picture
description
biologist
feature
ecology
interview
sloths
Further Reading and Vocabulary Work: “Sloth Canopy Researcher: Bryson Voirin” Interview Second and Third Questions (10 minutes)
2nd & 3rd Sloth Questions
1. Please read independently the 2nd and 3rd
questions, underlining any words you don’t
know.
2. With your neighbor next to you, try to figure out
the gist of the 2nd and 3rd questions.
3. We’ll discuss the gist together, then write the
gist in the margin.
4. Discuss with your neighbor the words you
underlined and decide if the context can help
you.
5. Add new words to your glossaries.
A. Debrief: What Have We Learned about the Rainforest? (10 minutes)
Did you get the learning targets?
• I can describe the features of an
interview as an informational text.
I've got it!
I'm close.
Huh?
A. Debrief: What Have We Learned about the Rainforest? (10 minutes)
Did you get the learning targets?
• I can determine the gist of an interview
with scientist Bryson Voirin.
I've got it!
I'm close.
Huh?
A. Debrief: What Have We Learned about the Rainforest? (10 minutes)
Did you get the learning targets?
• I can determine the meaning of new words
from context in an interview with scientist
Bryson Voirin.
I've got it!
I'm close.
Huh?
1. Write on your own.
2. Share with your neighbor.
3. Share with the class and add to the KWL chart.
4. Hand in to your teacher.
In your
Journal, write
“What did you
learn about
the rainforest
from this
interview?”
• Include one detail
from each of the first
three questions.
(Since it’s not math
class…that’s
3 details! )