Science/ELA

Grade/setting: 6th grade resource room/small group with 6 students

Length of Lesson: 60 minutes
Standard  CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.2 – Determine a central idea of a text and
(Common how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of
Core) the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments
 CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.6.9 – Draw evidence from literary or
informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research
 CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RST.6-8.9 – Compare and contrast the
information gained from experiments, simulations, video or multimedia
sources with that gained from reading a text on the same topic.
New York  4.1c – Most activities in everyday life involve one form of energy being
State transformed into another.
Science  LE.Key Idea 7 – Human decisions and activities have had a profound
Standards impact on the physical and living environment
Segment Primary learning goal: Learners will be able to support the main idea of a
Learning nonfiction article by identifying two supporting details.
Goal Secondary learning goal: Learners will focus (sit still, eyes on teacher or
partner when needed) and remain on task throughout the lesson.
Lesson Primary objective: After reading a nonfiction article about the risks and
Objective benefits of fossil fuels, learner will accurately be able to identify the main idea
and list one benefit and one risk for the use of fossil fuels (a nonrenewable
energy source).
Secondary objective: When given a task or direction, learner will begin the
task within 1 minute and require 4 or fewer prompts to refocus.
Materials Nonfiction Text Breakdown graphic organizer (to be given to focus learner the
day before the lesson)
Word sort activity pictures (one set for each pair of students)
Chocolate chip cookies (1 per student), toothpicks (1 per student), plates (1
per student), cookie mining worksheets (1 per student), copy of “Pros and
Cons of Fossil Fuels” (1 per student)
Communication and Accountable Talk rubric for focus learner
Instruction/ Teacher will introduce a preview activity which will help to activate prior
Prior knowledge about renewable and nonrenewable energy sources,
knowledge because students had a temporary break from science class for the last
5 minutes 4 weeks. “During our last science unit, we began to discuss renewable and
nonrenewable energy sources. We are going to continue discussing these
energy sources, and work on strengthening some of your reading and writing
skills while we learn.” Teacher passes out word sort activity cards and
asks each pair of students (students are already sitting with their
partner) to sort the words into 2 categories- renewable and
nonrenewable. Pictures include trees, gas, water, rocks and minerals,
coal, wind, oil, soil, sunlight.
Informal Teacher will assess student understanding through observation of students
assessment working and through a short discussion after the card sort activity. “I notice a
5 minutes lot of you remember what we all learned during our last unit. Did anyone
have any disagreements about which category to place any of the pictures?”
Teacher will have a class discussion about any disagreements and
quickly review which pictures belong in each category. Teacher will
 also review the definitions of renewable and nonrenewable energy by
asking for student input and creating a definition of each, which will be
displayed in the front of the room.
Instruction/ Teacher will introduce learning targets and lesson activity. “I have
Activity displayed our learning targets for today in the front of the room. I will read
10 minutes them out loud, and then we will all repeat them together.”
“We have just discussed different types of energy and whether they can be
described as renewable or nonrenewable. Today we are going to talk a little
bit more about why someone would use one type of resource over another.
Each resource has both positive things about it, or benefits, and negative
things as well, or risks. To help us see some of these benefits and risks more
clearly, we are going to do an activity to demonstrate some of these benefits
and risks, or pros and cons. We will talk about what you discovered after I
give you a little bit of time to explore. I am going to pass out to each of you a
worksheet to help you to organize your scientific discoveries, and 1 chocolate
chip cookie and 1 toothpick. As soon as you get your cookie, I want you to
start by making a sketch or drawing of what your cookie looks like before we
start the experiment. This should only take about 1-2 minutes for you to
draw- it doesn’t have to be perfect.” Teacher selects a student to pass out
materials, while students begin to sketch their cookie as soon as they
have their materials.
Teacher will explain the experiment that students will conduct.
“Look at your cookie. We are going to pretend that the chocolate chips are
coal, a fossil fuel, and the cookie is the environment around the coal. Today,
we are going to mine for coal. You will need to use your tools, or toothpicks,
to mine for the chocolate chips. Try to do your best to remove as many
chocolate chips as you can from the cookie using your toothpick. I will give
you 5 minutes to work on this. When 5 minutes are up, I will let you know and
I want you to make a sketch on your worksheet of what your cookie looks like
after you have mined.” Students will take 5 minutes to try and dig the
chocolate chips out of the cookie while teacher walks around the room,
stopping at the focus learner’s desk to ask questions and keep him
engaged. Students will then take 2 minutes to sketch what their plate
looks like after they have mined.
Instruction Teacher will have a discussion with the class about how this activity
10 minutes relates to mining fossil fuels (specifically coal) and students will fill out
the questions on their worksheets during the discussion.
Informal Teacher will collect worksheets from students to check for
assessment understanding of the activity and of consequences to our environment
and way of life due to coal mining.
Instruction Teacher will explain that we will now read an article about the benefits
10 minutes and risks of mining fossil fuels. “I will now pass out an article to each of
you about the benefits and risks of mining for and using fossil fuels for
energy. Remember the activity we just did while we are reading the article to
help you better understand the concepts presented in the article.” Teacher
passes out one copy of the article to each student. Teacher will also
have a copy of the article projected on the board.
“We will now begin to read the article. I am going to read the first paragraph
out loud so we can get a good idea of what the article is about. Who can tell
me what the overall idea in an article or story is called?” “That is right, the
 overall idea is also called the main idea. It tells us what the text is about, and
helps us to find out more about what we are going to read about.”
“What do you think is the main idea of the article that we are about to read?
We are able to gather a lot of information about just the first paragraph of the
article.” Teacher and students will come up with a main idea sentence
and write it on the board. “You are right, a good main idea is ‘There are
many benefits and risks to using fossil fuels.’ It looks like the article will tell us
a lot, like whether it is safe to use them.”
Teacher will discuss nonfiction text features and explain to students
that they will read the article in pairs and label each list as the pros or
the cons.
“In a minute, I want you to turn to your partner and begin reading the article.
Let’s take a minute to look at this article without reading any more. Do you
notice anything about how this article is set up?” Teacher will call on students
for responses: there are lists, headings, bold words. “Right, these are all
called text features and can usually found when we are reading nonfiction
articles. Do you remember any other text features that you have seen when
reading nonfiction articles? Remember they are parts of a nonfiction article
that can help you find information more easily about a topic. Sometimes you
don’t even need to read the article before finding these features!” “Right, look
for other text features in other articles we will read in this unit. It is a way to
find information quickly. Right now, we see a lot of headings and bold words.
This usually means that information is important. When you read with your
partner, pay special attention to these words. Do you all see how the article
is set up in a list? Do you see how there is one list of 7 items and one list of 6
items? Put your finger on the first list.”
“While you read this article with your partner, I want you to think about which
list is the pros of using fossil fuels and which list is the cons of using them.
You can think back to our cookie experiment to help you –you will remember
some of what you noticed when you were looking at your cookie when you
read this article. Take turns reading each heading to give both you and your
partner a chance to read out loud. When you have finished reading both lists,
I want you to both decide which list is the pro list and which is the con list.
Label each list on your papers.”
Instruction/ Students will read the article in partners while the teacher walks around
Activity the room asking questions about whether each item in the article seems
10 minutes like it is a benefit or a risk.
Instruction Teacher will have a brief discussion about benefits and risks of fossil
5 minutes fuels and ask questions. Class will agree on which list in the article was
the pro list and which was the con list. The main idea will be revisited-
Did the other information in the article support the main idea?
Teacher will revisit the lesson’s learning targets, which are still
displayed on the board.
Instruction/ Students will fill out exit slips with 2 questions and rate their personal
Post- understanding:
Assessment  What is the main idea of the article?
5 minutes  List two supporting details.
 (If time) Do you think we should be using fossil fuels? Why or why
not?