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Middle School Literacy Lessons in Science

Citing Evidence: Protecting Whales

In this science-themed literacy lesson, middle school students read an article about whales and cite evidence to support ideas and inferences. (Lexile level: 925-1050)

Central Idea: New Lightbulb Discovered

In this science-themed literacy lesson, middle school students read an article about the Nobel Prize in Physics and identify the central idea by examining key details. (Lexile level: 950-1050)

Central Idea and Summarizing: Ocean Waves

In this science-themed literacy lesson, middle school students read an article about ocean waves and identify the central idea and develop a summary of the article. (Lexile level: 925-1050)

Vocabulary Analysis: Unwrapping Mummies

In this science-themed literacy lesson, middle school students read an article about mummies and learn strategies to determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific vocabulary. (Lexile level: 925-1050)

teenager looking at notebooks and tablet device

Text Structure Analysis: Tsunamis

In this science-themed literacy lesson, middle school students read an article about tsunamis and determine the author's purpose and analyze the effectiveness of the text structure. (Lexile level: 925-1050)

Text Structure Analysis: What Causes Popcorn to Pop?

In this science-themed literacy lesson, middle school students determine the author's purpose and analyze text structure for an article about what makes popcorn pop. (Lexile level: 925-1050)

Author's Purpose: Mass Extinction

In this science-themed literacy lesson, middle school students analyze the author's purpose by evaluating text structure, word choice and the relationship between ideas in an article about dinosaurs. (Lexile level: 925-1050)

Qualitative & Quantitative Information: Tree-Destroying Bugs

In this science-themed literacy lesson, middle school students read about an exotic bug and integrate qualitative and quantitative information through close reading and viewing of diagrams. (Lexile level: 925-1050)

Evaluating Claims: Mass Extinctions

In this science-themed literacy lesson, middle school students learn how to distinguish between facts, reasoned judgment and speculation as they read an article about mass extinctions. (Lexile level: 925-1050)

Using Multiple Sources: Sea Turtles Make a Comeback

In this science-themed literacy lesson, middle school students read an article, watch a video and examine date about sea turtles, and compare how the information is the same and different in the sources. (Lexile level: 925-1050)

Writing Explanation I: Claims, Evidence, Reasoning

In this science-themed literacy lesson, middle school students read an article about California's water problem and explore how claims, evidence and reasoning are used to write an effective explanation. (Lexile level: 925-1050)

Writing Explanation II: Crafting a Well-Written Explanation

In this science-themed literacy lesson, middle school students write an explanation about California's water problems. (Lexile level: 925-1050)

Qualitative & Quantitative Information: Plate Boundaries

In this science-themed literacy lesson, middle school students read an article about plate boundaries and integrate qualitative and quantitative information with visual information. (Lexile level: 1050-1185)

Facts and Reasoning: Earthquakes

In this science-themed literacy lesson, middle school students differentiate between facts, reasoned judgments and speculation in a scientific article about seismic research. (Lexile level: 1100)

Multiple Sources: Dwarf Planet

In this science-themed literacy lesson, middle school students read an article and view a NASA video about the dwarf planet Ceres, and then they compare and contrast the information in the sources. (Lexile level: 1050-1185)

Crafting a Well-Written Explanation: Apollo Mission

In this science-themed literacy lesson, middle school students read an article about the Apollo mission and explore how claims, evidence and reasoning are used to write and effective explanation. (Lexile level: 1050-1125)

Central Idea and Evidence: Sea Turtle Nesting

In this science-themed literacy lesson, students learn how to determine the central idea of a science text by examining and synthesizing evidence presented by the author. (Lexile level: 1050-1185)

Saving Smith Island

Students use interactive media, data and online research to write an argument explaining the science behind one of the factors that weighs heavily on the future of Maryland's Smith Island.