GRADE 5, MODULE 2A: UNIT 1,
LESSON 8
SYNTHESIZING INFORMATION:
LIVING THINGS IN THE RAINFOREST
AGENDA
1. Opening
• A. Engaging the Reader: Maps as
Informational Text (10 minutes)
• B. Review Homework (5 minutes)
2. Work
Time
• A. Note-Taking for Research (20
minutes)
• B. Synthesizing Notes: Paragraph
about Unique Life in the
• Rainforest (15 minutes)
3. Closing
and
Assessment
• A. What Do We Know about
Rainforests from Scientists (5
minutes)
• B. Exit Ticket (5 minutes)
Learning target:
1. “I can read a map to help inform me as a
reader.”
What does inform mean?
Features of Informational Text
anchor chart
What features have you seen in an interview?
What features have you seen in an article?
What features have you seen in a documentary video?
• Please look for text features of a map that
help you with your learning.
• “What text features on the map help you
understand information about rainforests?”
Text features on a map.
•“How is a map a type of informational text?”
•“What information can we learn about
rainforests from this map?”
Please add these features to your
features of Informational Text Chart.
Please take out your
homework from last night.
5 min.
Homework
Check
Please choose a partner
that is not at your table.
1. Please share your work with your
partner.
2. Look to see if you both used “FEATURES”
of the informational next and not just
content.
3. Please remove anything that isn’t a
feature, and add information if you
don’t have enough features or if you and
your partner come up with a feature
that would be good to add.
4. Use your features of informational text
anchor chart in your journal to help you.
Some students will share with the class, then you will hand them in.
Learning target:
1. “I can take notes on key details from
multiple texts about rainforests.”
2. “I can use quotes to create a gist
statement from notes about rainforests.”
• What are key details?
• What is a quote?
• Does a quote have to be just words that
are spoken in the text?
20 min.
Note Taking for Research
You will begin to use note-taking as way to record the most
essential, or key details, of informational text in this lesson.
Remember, the purpose of reading/viewing informational texts
is to learn more about a topic, and that one of the reasons you
have been working with a variety of informational texts and
text features was to learn about unique things found in
rainforests.
You are going to take notes about those unique living things
from the texts your have read and heard.
Note-Taking Note-Catcher
Locate a quote from the article to support/give
more information about this fact.
“Live Online
Interview
with Eve
Nilson”
-
-
Frogs are an indicator
species
Frogs breath through
their skin
If no frogs, then
something is wrong
“They’re extremely sensitive to
the environment and its
changes,”
“Any rapid disappearance of
frogs is a sign there’s trouble in
the environment.”
What does this mean?
“It’s important to pay
attention to frogs in the
rainforest, so we know if
the pollution in the air
might be harmful to us.”
Q: Why did you want to study frogs?
Eve: I was offered a position studying frogs, but I also felt they were extremely
important. They are an indicator species; they're extremely sensitive to the
environment and its changes. Any rapid disappearance of frogs is a sign there's
trouble in the environment. Also because frogs breathe through their skin. You're
able to see more clearly the affects that pollution and acid have.
Can identify a unique thing found in the rainforests?
Can you identify facts about this unique thing?
Note-Taking with your Note-Catcher
Make sure that your group members have the
following texts:
1. Interview with Sloth Canopy Researcher,
Bryson Voirin
2. “Hawaii’s Endangered Happy Face Spider”
article
3. The “Great Bear Rainforest Remote Camera
Project” video transcript
Note-Taking with your Note-Catcher
Your goal: to identify key facts/details about
the unique things found in rainforests.
Use your group members, working with one text
at a time,
to complete
your notecatcher.
15 min.
Synthesizing Notes: Paragraph About
Unique Life in the Rainforest
You will now write
a paragraph to
inform others
about the unique
life that exists in
the rainforest.
Your paragraph should
include facts/key details
about unique life in the
rainforests, from each of
the informational texts;
and a quote that supports
each fact/key detail, from
each of the informational
texts.
You may use
anything from the
notes in your
three-column
note-catcher you
just created.
Your Paragraph
You will hand in your paragraph when you have completed it and read it over.
KWL Anchor Chart
• Can we cross
anything off the
W column that
we’ve learned?
• Circle what
have haven’t
yet.
• Want to add
anything new
to this column?
1.
2.
3.
4.
Write on your own.
Share with your neighbor.
Share with the class.
Hand in to your teacher.
• What questions do
you still have about
rainforests? Add any
new questions to the
W column of the
Rainforest KWL chart
in your journal.
W
K
L