Distance Education Technology Instructional Project Michael McKnight

Statement of Topic/Needs  Students will be able to analyze non-fiction text and draw inferences based on the text.  Created by cooperation with Paris Middle School’s 8 th grade Literacy, Mathematics, and Social Studies Teachers.  Preparing Students for the PARCC assessments.

Learners  “Paris Middle School has a total number of 351 students: 195 male (56%), 156 female (44%), 307 Caucasian (87.46%), 15 Asian (4%), 7 African American (1.99%), 9 Hispanic (2.56%), and 13 Multiple Race (3.7%)” (Movoto Real Estate 2014).  There is no specifics towards gender or ethnic background. The learners come from a wide variety of backgrounds, education levels and demographics.

Content  The content of this lesson is to integrate literacy into the science classroom and to have students be able to analyze non-fiction text and develop inferences based on the text.

State Standards  NS Formulate inferences based on scientific data.  NS Generate questions that can and cannot be answered by science.

Objectives  Students will be able to analyze a scientific (non-fiction) text.  Students will be able to develop inferences based on a non-fiction text.  Students will create questions that can/cannot be answered by the text.

Technology  Chromebook

Technology  Newsela  This online application allows students to review articles at their own comprehension level. Every article that is available on Newsela has five different Lexile levels that can be adjusted to meet individual students’ reading abilities.  Article: West Coast starfish are dying, but why? 

Technology  ReadWorks  ReadWorks provides research-based units, lessons, and authentic, non- fiction and literary passages directly to educators online, for free, to be shared broadly.  Article: Can the Amazon be Saved? 

Evaluation  Students will be evaluated using the following assessments:  Pre-assessment: Newsela article and assessment.  Informal assessment: Classroom discussion and question that can/cannot be answered by the article.  Post assessment: ReadWorks article and Common Core aligned questions.

Reflection  Good  Students seemed to enjoy the class discussion after reading the Newsela article. Since it can be adjusted to their Lexile level, every student had something to share.  The assessments showed growth throughout the lesson.  Bad  Some ReadWorks articles have the answers posted to the public on other sites.  This specific article had the answers posted.  Need to monitor the articles better and make sure there are no answers posted online for the students to use.

References  Gross, M. (2015). Newsela | Nonfiction Literacy and Current Events. Retrieved April 13, 2015, from  Movoto Real Estate. (2014). Paris Middle School. Retrieved April 10, 2015, from /  ReadWorks.org | The Solution to Reading Comprehension. (2015). Retrieved April 10, 2015, from  Walker, H. (2012). Educational App Evaluation Rubric. Retrieved March 6, 2015, from