ELA6, CSS, Sferrazza

This lesson features text that helps us to answer: How can we care for the environment?

In this lesson, you'll be learning and applying a reading strategy to an article about an impressive young person originally from Vancouver, BC who has a strong sense of social responsibility. The title of the article is: A Voice for the Spirit Bears. Do you know what a spirit bear is? 

Active readers ask questions before, during, and after they read. Questioning leads the reader deeper into the text and encourages thinking. In this lesson, you will explore a quick strategy called Turning It Into A Question that can help you locate the main ideas from a piece of text.

You've learned to zoom in on text features so you are familiar with headings and subheadings. You've seen the headings and subheadings from A Voice for the Spirit Bear. We can use these headings to help focus our reading and to determine the main points of the article. Read on to find out how.

First, download the article. 

A Voice for the Spirit Bear

Step One: Put the title on the chart. Turn that title into a question. (See the first and second row of the chart below.) It actually seemed to need three important questions. (in red).

Step Two: Turn all the subheadings into questions. The first subheading is done for you. You will continue this step...

Title, Heading, or Subheading	Turning It Into A Question	Reading to Answer the Question
A Voice for the Spirit Bears	What are spirit bears? Why do they need a voice? Who or what is their voice?
This Story is Simon Jackson’s Story	What is Simon's Story?  Who is Simon Jackson?

 

In your Learning Guide, complete the task of turning all of the subheadings into questions.  Then, without reading the article, return to this online lesson.

Using the headings to help guide our reading is a way for us to find the important information in a text. Turning those headings into questions and answering the questions helps us focus on the important facts rather than the details. 

The next step is to read the article to try to find the answers to the questions. The questions are guides to help determine the main ideas of the article. Try to add text-based evidence to support your answers. What does this mean? Take a look and find out.

Step Three: As you read the article, try to find the answers by searching for find clues and textual evidence that support your answers to the questions. Reflection: Complete the "Reflection" in your Learning Guide.