LAFS.1112.RST.1.2Archived Standard

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text intended to support reading in the content area. The article explains what happens to certain genes after an organism has died. This lesson also introduces a related video that explains how the fields of Genetics and Biotechnology have affected the field of Forensic Science. By reading the article and viewing the video, students will learn about new discoveries in gene function after death and the impact varying fields of science have upon another. This lesson includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

This informational text resource from the National Institutes of Health is designed to support reading in the content area. The article discusses how yellow fever is becoming a health threat once again in parts of Africa and why it is necessary for a new vaccine against yellow fever to be developed. The article further discusses in detail the processes and experimental trials by which the vaccine will be tested for its effectiveness and its safety. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article from the National Science Foundation discusses research conducted in the Antarctic concerning the notothenioid fish, which contains "antifreeze" proteins. The proteins prevent the fish from freezing in the cold waters of the Southern Ocean, but it was also discovered that these same proteins prevent ice crystals from melting when temperatures warm. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson plan, students will analyze an informational text intended to support reading in the content area. The article explains how the rabies virus is likely to spread from the interior of Peru to its coast by the year 2020. It further discusses the technology used to determine that the male vampire bat is most likely the carrier of the rabies virus to different areas in Peru. The lesson plan includes a vocabulary guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

This informational text is designed to support reading in the content area. The article from the National Science Foundation discusses research conducted on the origin of tuberculosis in the Americas. Scientists discovered tuberculosis in skeletons which pre-dated the arrival of Europeans to the New World. Through the analysis of tuberculosis DNA, it was discovered that the New World tuberculosis showed a clear relationship to lineages found in seals and sea lions, suggesting they carried the disease to the Americas pre-Columbus. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will read an article from the National Science Foundation. The article discusses the rise of pandemic disease outbreaks across the globe and how these outbreaks can affect world economies. The article further describes how economic models were used to assess different strategies on their effectiveness. The strategy of identifying the underlying cause of emerging diseases was considered to be most cost-effective and beneficial long-term. This lesson is designed to support reading in the content area. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, a vocabulary handout, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text intended to support reading in the content area. The article addresses the fluctuations of the jellyfish population in the Bering Sea and describes how a new study explains the increase and decrease of jellyfish in that ecosystem. The study focuses on whether or not rising water temperature (due to climate change) is the driving factor in jellyfish population growth. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Numerous options to extend the lesson are also included.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson plan, students will analyze an intended to support reading in the content area. The article addresses the results of a new study that will help researchers identify which astronauts will develop vision problems in space. The text describes how Scott M. Smith from the Biomedical Research and Environmental Sciences Division at NASA's Johnson Space Center has found a metabolic pathway that is directly related to the vision problems some astronauts encounter. This pathway, called the one carbon metabolism pathway, moves single atoms from one organic compound to another. Astronauts who develop vision problems have been found to have a different genetic variant, which changes the way the enzymes of this pathway work. This will also affect people on Earth, as the same enzymes are also used here and are linked to other medical problems. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Numerous options to extend the lesson are also included.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an  that addresses the genetic analysis of a 4,800-year-old dog found in a tomb in Ireland and how this information gives rise to a new hypothesis that dogs may have been domesticated at least twice, once in East Asia and also in Europe. This lesson is designed to support reading in the content area. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an designed to support reading in the content area. The article addresses opposition to genetically modified foods. The text discusses the possible reasons why so many people are anti-GMO even though science finds them safe. GMOs allow for more of the world to be fed with a lower impact on the environment. The author suggests some ways that misinformation can be combated with education. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Numerous options to extend the lesson are also included.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an that addresses accidental wastewater spills in North Dakota from the use of fracking. The text describes how fracking has caused widespread water and soil contamination. Researchers have found high levels of contaminants and salt in surface waters. Soil at the spill sites contain radium, and in some places radium was found to be present even 4 years after a spill. Researchers studied almost 4,000 spill sites in North Dakota to connect the soil and water contamination directly to fracking spills. This lesson plan is designed to support reading in the content area; it includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text that addresses a new method of producing polypeptides from only amino and hydroxy acids, with no biological catalysts necessary. Researchers at Georgia Tech have been able to produce polypeptides by subjecting amino and hydroxy acids through a wet and dry cycle. This allows for prebiotic molecules to be formed on land, without large amounts of water or extreme boiling temperatures. This method also allows for the breakdown and reassembly of organic materials to form random sequences that could lead to the variation needed for life. This lesson plan is intended to support reading in the content area; it includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. 

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will read an informational text that describes how certain elements (copper and zinc are highlighted) can affect human health in both positive and negative ways. Current research on these elements and possible treatments for the negative health effects associated with them is also discussed. This lesson is designed to support reading in the content area. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text that discusses the impacts of El Niño and the need for current research on the topic. The lesson plan includes text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Ideas for extending the lesson are also included.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text on the work the USGS (United States Geological Survey) is doing to monitor the effects of the 2015-2016 winter season as it is impacted by El Niño. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Options to extend the lesson are also included.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson utilizes an informational text intended to support reading in the content area. The article describes a new nanotechnology technique that uses computers to rapidly and accurately assemble molecules that can fight cancer. The article also emphasizes how scientific research is supported monetarily through public (NSF) and private partnerships. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Numerous options to extend the lesson are also included.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an in-depth NASA article on how hurricanes form, develop, and weaken. Additionally the article informs the reader about the history of hurricanes and naming conventions throughout the world as well as the latest technology to study hurricane anatomy, development geographic distribution, and frequency. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Options to extend the lesson are also included.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text that describes the first detection of gravitational waves. The text seeks to define gravitational waves, the technology used to detect them, and the impact this discovery may have on future scientific endeavors. This informational text is designed to support reading in the content area. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, sample answers, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text that addresses innovative research to understand why the corona is hotter than the surface of the Sun. This informational text is designed to support reading in the content area. The text describes how researchers are using the Hinode satellite from Japan to analyze data being produced from a polar coronal hole in the Sun. They believe that Alfven waves are responsible for the surprising temperature of the corona, thereby unlocking a long unanswered question in solar physics. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson uses an informational text resource intended to support reading in the content area. The text informs readers about siphonophores, a relatively little-studied organism related to jellyfish and corals. It can grow as long as 160 ft. (49 m) and can move through the water column in a coordinated fashion, and knowledge of its locomotion may help humans propel themselves efficiently underwater. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Numerous options to extend the lesson are also included.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is designed to support reading in the content area. Students will read a short but complex article that describes the expansion of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument (a type of marine protected area) and the benefits of MPAs. The article identifies threats to coral reefs and how creating an MPA can help the coral reefs within this protected area and reefs in adjoining areas as well. The text provides some background information on how similar programs have helped other protected reefs near the Philippines, and both local and global threats to coral reef ecosystems are referenced. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text that addresses an innovative conservation method designed to protect jaguars in Colombia. This informational text is designed to support reading in the content area. The text describes how predation of domestic cattle by jaguars in Colombia was becoming increasingly common due in part to deforestation. A conservation program was implemented to create a corridor for jaguars to pass through, keeping the jaguars separated from the farms and livestock and allowing them a natural pathway to cross through the Andes Mountains to eastern Colombia. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Numerous options to extend the lesson are also included.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a largely self-paced unit for students to learn the basics of Momentum as well as the Law of Conservation of Momentum. Students complete two investigative exercises (one hands-on, the other virtual). They then are directed to read a website (or a textbook could be substituted) and take notes with the teacher"s support as needed. After taking their own notes, students complete a worksheet to practice calculations involving the Law of Conservation of Momentum. At the end of the unit, students take a traditional summative assessment with True/False, multiple-choice, and fill-in-the-blank questions along with a calculations section. Note that this lesson only covers the basics of linear momentum and does not include impulse or angular momentum.

Type: Lesson Plan

Ocean Camouflage Colors explores the concept of light-wave absorption by ocean water and how it alters color perception and consequently the appropriate choice for protective coloration in the ocean. After exploring the students' prior knowledge of concepts like color perception, absorption and reflection, the class watches a video clip of a diver who takes a red apple ( and some colorful plastic) diving in the Caribbean. After some further discussion and the creation of a set of notes, students are given a more formal reading activity with 5 questions to complete independently (in most cases). This reading activity can be used in class or possibly as a homework exercise if time is short. Ocean Camouflage Colors was intended as an extension activity to support the 2 mini-labs in Ocean Camouflage. The reading portion can be used alone to bring students who were absent the day of the mini-labs "up to speed" OR it can be used as a review exercise prior to a test OR a homework activity for further practice.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is an extended lesson that will take approximately two to three weeks to complete. Students begin by completing an inertial balance lab, which includes a graphing and data analysis component, in order to introduce them to Newton's First Law of Motion. Students then go on to complete a Webquest to reinforce Newton's First Law and to learn about Newton's Second Law and Free-body Diagrams. The class then participates in a demonstration to learn Newton's Third Law of Motion. Students then either complete a worksheet to practice calculations involving Newton's Second Law or an inquiry lab to understand how Newton's Laws can be used to build Balloon Rocket Cars (or both!). Finally, students complete an original project by writing a letter, recording a song, or creating a poster to demonstrate their mastery of Newton's Three Laws of Motion.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is a differentiated approach to the concept of Dark Energy and the distribution of matter in our Universe. Students begin by simulating the expansion of the Universe by creating balloon Universes which can be inflated. Students are then assigned one of four articles according to reading ability. They read their articles and then form Jigsaw groups to share the information gleaned from the articles. Students are assessed through a writing assignment.

Type: Lesson Plan

Click "View Site" to open a full-screen version.

By the end of this module, teachers should be able to:

• Name the key instructional shifts in English Language Arts and Literacy
• Label the College and Career Readiness, also known as CCR, anchor standards for Reading
• Use the language of the Reading Standards for Literacy in Science and Technical Subjects to identify what students should know and be able to do
• Arrange and sequence the Reading Standards for Literacy in Science and Technical Subjects
• Distinguish the changes in rigor as a Reading standard progresses from one grade band to the next

This is Module 1 of 4 in the series, "Literacy across the Content Areas: Reading and Writing to Build Content Knowledge."

Type: Professional Development

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The article discusses how the rabies virus is likely to spread to the coast of Peru by the year 2020. It further discusses the technology used to determine that the male vampire bat is most likely the carrier of the rabies virus to different areas in Peru.

Type: Text Resource

This text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The article describes how researchers at Georgia Tech have discovered that polypeptides, which are the main component of proteins, can be formed by mixing amino and hydroxyl acids, and then simply putting them through wet and dry cycles. This would be a more plausible way for early prebiotic molecules to form. Previously, the only way to produce polypeptides involved boiling temperatures, which are not conducive to life.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The article describes how certain elements (copper and zinc are highlighted) can affect human health in both positive and negative ways. Current research on these elements and possible treatments for the negative health effects associated with them is also discussed.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. It informs readers of how cutting edge nanotechnology is being combined with supercomputing and drug production. The new process it describes uses unique algorithms to search for DNA sequences that will self-assemble molecules tailored to locate, attach, and kill cancer cells. The passage also is a good example of how public agencies can support private-sector entities through various grants.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The article is provides background information on the different names for tropical cyclones, how hurricanes develop and weaken, and where in the world they are found. It also describes the technology used to study hurricanes and how hurricanes are categorized in terms of intensity.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The text describes how predation of domestic cattle by jaguars in Colombia was becoming increasingly common due in part to deforestation. A conservation program was implemented to create a corridor for jaguars to pass through, keeping the jaguars separated from the farms and livestock and allowing them a natural pathway to cross through the Andes Mountains to eastern Colombia.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. Through discussion of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument in the central Pacific, this text offers perspective on how political factors can greatly influence ecology. The article explains some of the benefits of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) like the Marine National Monument, which often include pristine coral reefs and exceptional biodiversity, using the example of MPAs in the Philippines. It also briefly describes global threats to MPAs.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The text describes how researchers are using the Hinode satellite from Japan to uncover new explanations for the long-puzzled-after solution behind the searing temperature of the corona of the Sun.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text is intended to support reading in the content area. This text describes the devastation that Superstorm Sandy caused and why there was so much destruction in the areas affected, especially New Jersey and New York. The author delves into areas such as floods, hurricane prediction, and methods that may prevent such destruction from happening again.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This text introduces AF-M315E, a "green" or environmentally friendly jet fuel, to potentially be used by NASA instead of hydrazine, which is known to be both toxic to humans and volatile for control of satellites and spacecraft.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article explains how HIV-infected cells go through a self-destructive response called "pyroptosis," and how a drug might be able to prevent the infected cells' death.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text is intended to support reading in the content area. The text describes a discovery scientists have made regarding a mechanism that regulates the direction in which plants grow.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text is intended to support reading in the content area. This article describes how scientists were able to reveal the spatial structure of left-handed and right-handed chiral molecules in gaseous solutions by using a combination of mass spectrometry and the Coulomb explosion.

Type: Text Resource

Click "View Site" to open a full-screen version. This tutorial is designed to help secondary science teachers learn how to integrate literacy skills within their science curriculum. The focus on literacy across content areas is designed to help students independently build knowledge in different disciplines through reading and writing. This tutorial will demonstrate a series of steps that teachers can teach students to help them determine the central ideas of a science text. This tutorial will also explain what an effective summary contains and provide steps teachers can use to help students with paraphrasing.

Type: Tutorial