1. Handout Packet 1 Reading Fluency in the Content Areas: Part II
Bellarmine University
R. Cooter

2. Let’s Make a ‘Fruit Salad’ of Great Ideas

4. River Flooding
When a fast-moving mountain stream flows onto a flat plain, the stream slows down. As the stream slows down, it deposits alluvium where the mountain meets the flat plain, forming an alluvial fan. Alluvial fans are fan-shaped deposits that form on dry land.
During periods of high rainfall or rapid snowmelt, a sudden increase in the volume of water flowing into a stream can cause the stream to overflow its banks, flooding the surrounding land. This land is called a flood plain. When a stream floods, a layer of alluvium is deposited across the flood plain. Each flood adds another layer of alluvium.
Flood plains are very rich farming areas because periodic flooding brings new soil to the land. However, flooding can cause extensive property damage. Much farming activity takes place in the Mississippi River valley, a large flood plain with very rich soil. When the Mississippi River flooded in 1993 however, farms were abandoned and whole towns had to be evacuated. The flood was so huge that it caused damage in nine Midwestern states.
Would you be surprised to know that floods can occur in an arid region such as a desert? In northern Arizona the altitude of the land gradually increases and while year-round streams and rivers are not too common, narrow canyons in the earth are. Because of the arid conditions, floods are more common in the Southwest than in areas with more rain because dry stream channels quickly fill up with rainwater from thunderstorms. The land in these areas has little soil so saturation from rainwater quickly occurs. The water from these storms fills the canyons and creates what are called flash floods. A flash flood is a sudden, violent flood that occurs within a few hours, or minutes, of a storm and they can be deadly to humans and wildlife.

5. The Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations They think I can’t do hard work, So they give it to me – a little at a time. And because I don’t ask for more, They think everything is just fine. I guess they think they are doing me a favor, By not expecting too much. But what about when I leave their classes, I wonder if I will have to catch up! Catch up with the other students, Who were given a little more. Will I be able to compete with them, Can I make a high enough score? Did you do what you hoped to do And prepare me to be the best Or did you only teach me enough, To be proficient on a test? Harper 3/12/09

6. NIM Modeling Exercise (from USA Today, 10/9/09)
The Spitzer Space Telescope has discovered
the biggest but never-before-seen ring around
the planet Saturn, NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory announced late Tuesday.
The thin array of ice and dust particles lies at
the far reaches of Saturn’s system
and its orbit is tilted 27 degrees from the
planet's main ring plane, the laboratory said.

7. Scooping Practice Passages

9. NIM is a GREAT example of Gradual Release of Responsibility