Reading Nonfiction Text Sets: Plants and Their Adaptations
UNIT 2
This unit is dedicated to Traci Griffith, Kris Griffor, Donna Watson, Phyllis Harrington, and all the dedicated leaders who cham- pion their students every day. Your unwavering commitment to children and to the educators who serve them inspires all we do. The Reading & Writing Project at Mossflower • P.O. Box 26561 • Prescott Valley, AZ 86312 • www.mossflower.com © 2025 by RWPN, LLC. No part of this resource may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of RWPN, LLC, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law, with the exception of reproducible pages, which are identified that they can be photocopied for class- room use only.
The Units of Study in Reading are grounded in decades of academic and classroom-based research. These materials are in draft form and are being shared as part of a pilot to support feedback and refinement. We are grateful to educators and stu- dents who are helping shape this work through their participation. - THE READING & WRITING PROJECT AT MOSSFLOWER
Next Generation Science Standards ® (NGSS ® ) is a registered trademark of Achieve, Inc. DIBELS ® (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills) is a registered trademark of University of Oregon / Amplify Education Acadience ® is a registered trademark ofAcadience Learning Inc. MAP ® (Measures of Academic Progress) is a registered trademark of NWEA Responsive Classroom ® is a registered trademark of Center for Responsive Schools Qualitative Reading Inventory™ (QRI™) is a trademark of Pearson Education Units of Study™ is a trademark of Heinemann, a division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt MagicSchool™ AI is a trademark of MagicSchool AI, Inc. The author and publisher wish to thank those who have generously given permission to reprint borrowed material: Excerpts from The Forest Keeper: The True Story of Jadav Payeng written by Rina Singh and illustrated by Ishita Jain. Copyright © 2023 by NorthSouth Books. Reprinted with the permission of NorthSouth Books. Excerpts from Plants in Different Habitats by Bobbie Kalman and Rebecca Sjonger. Copyright © 2006 by Crabtree Publishing Company. Reprinted with the permission of Crabtree Publishing Company. Excerpts from Pretty Tricky: The Sneaky Way Plants Survive written by Etta Kaner and illustrated by Ashley Baron. Copyright © 2020 by Owlkids Books. Reprinted with the permission of Owlkids Books. Excerpts from “The Methuselah Tree: Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest” from National Geographic Book of Nature Poetry: More Than 200 Poems with Photographs That Float, Zoom, and Bloom! written by Joan Bransfield Graham. Copyright © 2015 by National Geographic. Reprinted with the permission of National Geographic. Excerpts from Redwoods by Jason Chin. Copyright © 2015 by Square Fish. Reprinted with the permission of Jason Chin.
CONTENTS
Welcome to the Unit • iv
Bend I
Strengthen Nonfiction Research Skills: Researching Plants
1. Access Prior Knowledge About Your Topic Before Reading • 4 2. Preview the Text to Determine What it Will Teach and How • 10 3. Use Teaching, Acting and Gestures to Solidify Learning • 16 4. Use Sketching and Writing to Take Notes • 22 5. Learn From the Text and the Text Features • 28 6. Word Consciousness: Develop a Content Word Collection • 34 7. Elaborate on Learning to Help Knowledge Stick • 42 Progression of Small Groups to Support Orienting to Texts • 48
Bend II Research a New Topic, with Attention to Main Ideas 1. Launch a New Research Project, and Find Pop-Out Sentences that Convey the Main Idea • 56
2. Determine Main Ideas, Using Relevant Headings • 62 3. Generate Main Ideas from Supportive Details • 68 4. Identify Supportive Details to Fit with Main Ideas, and Jot Notes • 74 5. Transfer Word Study Learning to Connected Texts • 80 6. Craft Oral and Written Summaries of Texts • 86 7. Prepare to Teach Others as a Way to Solidify Learning • 92 Progression of Small Groups to Support Main Idea • 98
Bend III
Research Self-Selected Nonfiction Topics with a Focus on Vocabulary and Fluency
1. Explore the Whole Wide World of Nonfiction Texts and Topics • 108 2. Draw on Prior Learning to Start a New Research Project • 114 3. Determine Word Meaning Using Definitional Knowledge and Context • 120 4. Determine Word Meaning Using Morphology • 126 5. Read with Fluency, with Attention to Phrasing • 134 6. Use Textual Clues to Read Fluently • 140 7. Celebration—Read Aloud Fluently to Teach Others • 146 Progression of Small Groups to Support Reading with Fluency: Phrasing • 150 Quick Reference Guide • 156
Reading Nonfiction Text Sets: Plants and Their Adaptations Essential Questions:
z How do plants’ adaptations help them to survive and thrive in their habitats? z How can we build knowledge by reading across nonfiction texts in a text set?
This unit has three major goals. The first goal is to support students in deepening their nonfiction research skills, equipping them with the skills they need to research any nonfiction topic well. A second goal is for students to learn a tremendous amount about plants and plant adaptations, as well as different plant subtopics. And a third goal is for students to strengthen their foundational reading skills, particularly around vocabulary and reading with fluency. Let’s turn to the topic of deepening nonfiction research skills first. Across students’ lives, they’ll regularly be asked to research new topics. Across this unit, you’ll teach them how to do this research well, arming them with a set of skills they can draw on whenever they want to learn about a new topic. You’ll especially emphasize two transferable skills: orienting to texts in order to anticipate both the content and the structure of the text; and determining main ideas and key details the author teaches. As you do this work, you’ll spotlight research-based comprehension strategies. You’ll emphasize the importance of activating prior knowledge before reading, monitoring for comprehension, asking and answering questions, attending to main ideas, and summarizing the text. As students research, you’ll teach them about text sets, including the importance of starting their research by reading texts that overview the big ideas and important vocabulary of a topic. They’ll also learn to synthesize information from across several texts on a topic and to learn from multimodal texts. All this research centers the topic of plants and plant adaptations, which is part of the Next Generation Science Standards ® (NGSS ® ) for Grade 3. Across the unit, and the related read-aloud and vocabulary extensions, you’ll support students in building a deep knowledge base about this topic. You’ll teach them how to activate their knowledge about a topic, how to integrate their new learning into their existing knowledge base, and how to revise their knowledge base when necessary. Through this whole-class shared study of plants and plant adaptations, students will learn about and experience nonfiction reading strategies that can be useful in any inquiry. They will transfer those strategies to the work they do in small research groups, which again will be exploring topics related to plants. In the online resources, we’ve provided suggested topics and text sets for each group. Students will study these focal topics for one bend and then swap to another topic. Whenever possible, we advise that students move from one topic to another topic that has some relationship with the first, so that they can apply concepts and re-use new vocabulary. For instance, stu- dents who research how plants grow in Bend I might then research farming and gardening in Bend II. Students who research rainforest plants in Bend I might next study ocean and wetland plants. Since all of these topics are related to the whole-class study, students will all be able to draw on the knowledge and vocabulary they are learning from the whole-class work. Finally, through this work, you’ll spotlight a few foundational reading skills. You’ll support work with vocabulary, helping students to strengthen their word consciousness, as well as teaching them how to use context clues and their knowledge of morphol- ogy to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words. You’ll also spotlight fluency, teaching students to read with attention to phrasing and punctuation. Students will draw on this work as part of the end-of-unit celebration, as they choose an important text excerpt they’ve studied and prepare an engaging, fluent read-aloud of that excerpt for their peers. Each bend of each unit describes the particular research foundation which is most relevant to the upcoming instruction, and additional research citations are woven across the unit. A more complete research basis is provided in The Guide to the Reading Workshop .
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Unit 2 • Reading Nonfiction Text Sets: Plants and Their Adaptations
Bend I: Strengthen Nonfiction Research Skills While Researching Plants In Bend I, you and your students will embark on a whole-class study of plants. Across minilessons, read-aloud and vocabulary, you and your students will collaboratively study plants and their adaptations, building knowledge about this important topic. Students will work in research groups of four students to study various topics related to plants, including how plants change across the seasons, plants in extreme environments, how plants communicate, and plants and pollinators. Research groups will be equipped with text sets, allowing students to build vocabulary as they read across books, articles and videos on their topic. Your whole-class teaching will focus on helping students build a bank of nonfiction research skills they can draw on whenever they want to research a new topic. Students will learn to begin their research by activating their prior knowledge, and then to read start-here texts that overview their topic. You’ll emphasize the importance of previewing texts before reading to get a sense of the content of the text, as well as its structure. You’ll teach students how to keep a bank of new vocabulary words, as well as how to ask and answer questions about the text that drive their reading. Bend I: Overview Session 1 Session 2 Session 3 Session 4 45 min.
Access Prior Knowledge About Your Topic Before Starting to Read Students will create concept maps that access and organize their prior knowledge about plants, and then begin to research using start-here texts that overview their topic.
Preview the Text to Deter- mine What it Will Teach and How Students will learn to preview a text prior to reading it so as to deter- mine the text’s content and structure. Then, they will continue to research their topic.
Use Teaching, Acting, and Gestures to Solidify Learning Students will learn to teach important or tricky content they’ve learned about, as a way to solidify their own learning. Then, they will continue to research their topic.
Use Sketching and Writing to Take Notes Students will learn another way to hold onto important information they are learn- ing—writing about their reading in their reader’s notebook. They’ll review notetaking strategies from second grade and work to apply these to their new research.
Session 5
Session 6
Session 7
45 min.
Learn From the Text and the Text Features Students will study text features closely in order to better comprehend the text and to synthesize between the paragraphs and the text features. They’ll draw on this and other skills as they research their topic.
Word Consciousness: Develop a Content Word Collection Students will collect and define important topic words, and they’ll discuss how these words relate to one another. As they research their topic, they’ll also continue to use text features to guide their learning.
Elaborate on Learning to Help Knowledge Stick Students will learn that one way to build knowledge about a topic, and to better comprehend texts, is to ask and answer questions. The session will end with students sharing important information they’ve learned about their topics.
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WELCOME TO THE UNIT
Bend II: Research a New Topic, with Attention to Main Ideas In Bend II, research groups will swap topics with another group, and they’ll research a new plant topic. We’ve provided suggested swap groups on the online resources that will allow students to transfer the knowledge and vocabulary they’ve acquired on their first topic over to their new topic. For instance, the group studying rainforest plants could swap with the group studying ocean and wetland plants. As a class, you will continue to research plants and their adaptations during your minilessons, read-aloud and vocabulary extensions. Your teaching across this bend will focus on helping students determine the main idea and summarize. You’ll teach students strategies that will help them to determine main ideas that the author is teaching, identify relevant supportive details that fit with those main ideas, and jot notes to capture the main ideas they are learning. You’ll also teach students how to summarize texts, both orally and in writing, so that they can hold onto the big things that they are learning and teach those points to others. Bend II: Overview Session 1 Session 2 Session 3 Session 4 45 min.
Launch a New Research Project, and Find Pop-Out Sentences that Convey the Main Idea Students will transfer their Bend I research skills as they begin to research a new plant topic in groups. As they read start-here texts, students will deter- mine main ideas, using topic sentences where present.
Determine Main Ideas, Using Relevant Headings Students will continue to determine main ideas, adding a new strategy to their repertoire: using headings to determine what a section is mostly about. They’ll draw on all their main idea strategies as they research.
Generate Main Ideas from Supportive Details Students will continue to determine main ideas, adding a new strategy to their repertoire: noticing supportive details and determining how they fit together. They’ll draw on this and other main idea strategies as they research.
Identify Supportive Details to Fit with Main Ideas, and Jot Notes Students will learn to use a boxes-and-bullets structure to take notes, where they jot the main idea a section teaches and the supportive details. This work will be especially supportive of state standardized tests.
Session 5
Session 6
Session 7
45 min.
Transfer Word Study Learn- ing to Connected Texts Students will transfer their word study learning about syllable types to reading workshop, which will help students to read complex connected texts. Students will work in supportive part- nerships to word solve.
Craft Oral and Written Summaries of Texts
Prepare to Teach Others as a Way to Solidify Learning Students will summarize their learning as a way to teach others. They will celebrate by presenting their learning orally to their classmates.
Students will learn to sum- marize a text orally and in writing by stating the main ideas and key supportive details. At the end of the session, students will jot a written summary that you can assess.
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Unit 2 • Reading Nonfiction Text Sets: Plants and Their Adaptations
Bend III: Research Self-Selected Nonfiction Topics with a Focus on Vocabulary and Fluency As Bend III launches, you’ll invite students to research high-interest topics that you help them select. You’ll draw on your class- room library, and perhaps other texts, to form lots of possible text sets, and then you’ll help two or four students to choose a text set (and a topic) that works for them. Your class will practice and apply all they’ve learned about research and knowledge building, and they will draw on two foun- dational reading skills: vocabulary and fluency. You’ll devote several lessons to helping students build a robust vocabulary. In addition to the teaching into individual words that you’ll provide during read-aloud and your vocabulary extensions, you’ll also teach students how to use context clues and their knowledge of morphology to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words. You’ll also help students learn to read informational texts with increasing fluency. You’ll teach students about the importance of phrasing, helping them to scoop up more words as they read and to do so with attention to meaning. You’ll also teach stu- dents to use textual clues, including punctuation and font size and shape, to read with prosody. Students will celebrate their learning across the bend and the unit by preparing a brief, fluent read-aloud of a key passage to share with their classmates. Bend III: Overview Session 1 Session 2 Session 3 Session 4 45 min.
Explore the Whole Wide World of Nonfiction Texts and Topics This session kicks off a new round of research. Students will study the available books and text sets in your nonfiction library and select research topics for Bend III. They will assemble text sets to help them research these topics, including easier, start-here texts.
Draw on Prior Learning to Start a New Research Project Students will recall their prior learning about how to research a nonfiction topic, and they will use that knowledge to help them begin to research their new self-selected topic. Part- nerships will take control of their own learning, using familiar anchor charts to plan their research.
Determine Word Meaning Using Definitional Knowl- edge and Context Students will learn that when they identify a new topic word, it’s critical to figure out the word’s meaning, using definitions or context clues. They will continue to research their topics, using the research plans they previously created.
Determine Word Meaning Using Morphology Students will learn a new strategy to determine the meaning of topic words: using knowledge of familiar morphemes. Students will draw on this and other vocabulary strategies as they encounter unfamiliar words.
Session 5
Session 6
Session 7
45 min.
Read with Fluency, with Attention to Phrasing Students will learn to attend to phrasing while reading silently and orally and will develop their fluency through repeated oral readings. While research- ing, they will identify one passage that they want to share with their partner and will work to read that passage with fluency.
Use Textual Clues to Read Fluently Students will build their toolkit of fluency strate- gies as they learn to use textual clues to read with fluency, especially punctu- ation to support prosodic reading. They will continue to research their topics, drawing on a range of research strategies.
Celebration: Read Aloud Fluently to Teach Others To celebrate their learning across the bend and unit, students will select a key passage to read aloud, rehearse that passage through repeated oral read- ings, and then read it aloud fluently to classmates. This celebration will be joyful and meaningful, and it will set kids up for future inde- pendent research projects.
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WELCOME TO THE UNIT
Knowledge-Building Goals While working in this unit, your youngsters will build their knowledge about plants, learning especially the different ways plants adapt to survive and the ways they reproduce and thrive in different habitats. This work is called for in the Next Generation Science Standards ® (NGSS ® ) for Grade 3. In particular, students will learn: z Plants have special adaptations that help them to survive in their unique habitats or environments. z There are many different plant habitats around the world, including boreal and broadleaf forests, tropical rainforests, deserts, and wetlands, among others. Each habitat presents unique challenges and opportunities for the plants that live there. z All plants require nutrients in order to survive. Plants get their nutrients through different methods, although the primary method is photosynthesis. z When an environment changes, organisms are affected. Some plants are able to survive and continue to reproduce, adapt- ing to their new environment. Other plants may die off. z Plants with seeds require their seeds to be dispersed. Different plants have different adaptations that make this dispersal possible. z Habitats tend to be most successful when they are filled with plant and animal biodiversity. z Some plants are native to a habitat, and others may be introduced. Introduced plants (or invasive plants) can take over a habitat quickly. z Coast redwoods are the tallest trees in the world, and they have many unique adaptations that ensure they are well-suited to their habitat. In addition, students will build knowledge about specific plant-related subtopics. We’ve provided suggested text sets and start-here texts on these topics: how plants grow; how plants change across the seasons; farming and gardening; plants and pollinators; plants in extreme environments; how plants communicate; rainforest plants; and ocean and wetland plants. As always, we invite you to substitute other topics that best match your students and your research focuses. In Bend III, students will work in partnerships to study a self-selected topic. As they read multiple texts on a topic, they’ll gain knowledge and vocabulary related to that topic. Students are encouraged to select a topic that fascinates them or, if they wish, select a plant-related topic that they want to explore further.
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Unit 2 • Reading Nonfiction Text Sets: Plants and Their Adaptations
Assessment Because reading occurs in the black box of the brain, any assessment of reading will be incomplete. The best approach, therefore, is to use a collection of assessments, each designed to illuminate different aspects of a reader’s progress. We urge districts to take ownership of this process to ensure that your locally specific assessments, and those recommended in this program, complement rather than duplicate one another. With that in mind, we recommend the following assessments: A High-Stakes, Once-a-Year Reading Test In analyzing these data, note especially your indications of growth. If, for example, a class of kids has 27% of students “in the red” in third grade, does that number go up or down in 4th grade? If a district has 28% of kids exceeding standards in third grade does that percentage hold into middle school? Be certain also to pay attention to subgroups within your data. If 68% of students are reading at grade level, does that same percentage hold true for students who are multilingual learners or students with disabilities? An Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) Assessment Oral Reading Fluency scores can be obtained from screeners—such as Acadience ® , DIBELS ® , MAP ® , and others. If you do not already use a screener, you can create this assessment by calculating Words Correct Per Minute (WCPM) using graded passages, such as those from the Qualitative Reading Inventory™ (QRI™). If you are using a published tool, like one of the common screeners, it will probably include a scale for translating the WCPM into a percentile score that indicates a reader’s general well-being relative to the time of year. If, however, you develop your own tool or use a screener that does not provide such a scale, you could refer to the Hasbrouck-Tindal scale for the appropriate time of year. Using a scale like this will give you a percentile score that is research-based, valid and reliable as an indicator of that reader’s general well-being. Although this assessment is named the “Oral Reading Fluency assessment,” Hasbrouck emphasizes that the name is actually incorrect, because the assessment reveals automaticity, not fluency. If a student is reading at a level that is below bench- mark, instead of assuming that student needs more support with fluency, it is important for you to conduct further diagnostic assessments. You may discover that, rather than help with fluency, the student may need additional support with phonics, with English vocabulary or with comprehension. If needed, teachers can use graded passages from earlier years to determine the grade level at which the student’s WCPM is at least at the 50%. We recommend tracking this indicator at least three times a year, especially for students below grade level. Listening Comprehension/Constructed Response The previous assessment will reveal a student’s abilities to quickly decode words. You will, however, also need to understand ways in which students can do the higher-level comprehension work that is expected of them. Each unit therefore comes with a pre- and post-assessment of skills that are especially important for this purpose. You may read the passages aloud, or ask students who can do so to read the passages themselves and only read the passages aloud to students who otherwise could not access them. (That can be a district decision.) Either way, you’ll want to score student work using the graded progression of exemplars and to think about what the next steps are for any given student. If a third grader’s response is at the first grade level, for instance, your goal should be to help that student do second grade level work immediately, and only then to progress up the ladder towards grade level work. The post-assessment can help you, as the teacher, see if your teaching has had a lasting effect. If not, consider this assess- ment as feedback on not only your students’ growth, but also on your teaching. What other ways might you decide to reach this youngster and make a lasting difference?
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WELCOME TO THE UNIT
Ongoing Assessments In addition, the unit includes several formative assessments. These are designed to be entirely optional opportunities that you can use to check in around the work students are doing, and they include suggested next steps that can inform future teaching and learning. Reading Workshop: In Bend I, we’ve suggested a time where you can collect students’ concept maps and study them to deter- mine students’ current understandings and misunderstandings about plants. In Bend II, you’ll channel students to create a written summary of a text. You can collect these summaries and use them to plan responsive small group instruction. In Bend III, your students will read aloud, and we’ve provided support for assessing their fluency and using this to determine next steps for instruction as you move into Unit 3. Read-Aloud: In Bend I, you’ll share a short-response question based on a read-aloud text and invite students to answer the question and to provide specific details from the text to support their answers. You’ll collect students’ responses, and you can choose to assess these. You will also study students’ additions to the class concept map, using their suggestions to identify and address any misunderstandings. In Bend II, you’ll invite students to compare and contrast two texts you’ve read aloud: a poem and an informational article, crafting a response about how the content of the two texts is similar and different. You might choose to extend the session and ask students to respond to the prompt in writing, so you can more easily determine next steps. Consider the demands of your state standardized test as you make this decision. Bend III ends with a culminating activity in which students are invited to invent a new plant species that’s specially adapted to a local habitat, drawing on all they have learned about plant adaptations. An included rubric allows you to assess students’ knowledge of the topic and use of topic vocabulary, as well as students’ ability to plan a speech with a claim and reasons and to confidently deliver that speech. Vocabulary Extensions: Bends I and II of the vocabulary extensions end with a brief formative assessment, which will help you to determine students’ mastery over new words. In Bend I, students use new words with partnerships across a variety of contexts. In Bend II, students self-assess their vocabulary learning and set goals for words they want to learn more deeply. Bend III ends with a summative assessment. You’ll share a Vocabulary Recognition Task, channeling students to identify and sort words that relate to the class research topic: plant adaptations. You and your colleagues can decide to add additional formative assessments, as needed. For instance, if a question you pose orally during read-aloud resembles the questions students will encounter on your state standardized test, you might occasion- ally ask students to respond to those questions in writing, collecting their responses and studying them to determine next steps.
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Unit 2 • Reading Nonfiction Text Sets: Plants and Their Adaptations
Materials to Prepare in Advance of the Unit See the chart below for details about the teaching resources and materials we recommend you prepare before you begin the unit.
Materials
Instructions to Prepare
Assign students into research groups
Students will work in research groups, studying text sets related to plants. You’ll need to group students into research groups with other students who are reading at roughly the same level. Ideally, groups will include four students, with two partnerships. On the online resources, we’ve provided suggested text sets on a host of topics, including: plants and how they grow; how plants change across the seasons; farming and gardening; plants and pollinators; plants in extreme environments; plants and how they communicate; rainforest plants; ocean and wetland plants. You’ll also find start-here texts that you can print and copy for each group. If students have access to devices, you’ll find links to articles and videos that can supplement their text sets. In Bend II, students will swap bins with another partnership, so no new materials will be needed. Students will work in research partnerships or groups to study self-selected topics. On the online resources, we’ve provided suggested text sets for topics that are sure to interest your students, including: robots, insects, space exploration, the human body, cars, and cool jobs. We encourage you to develop any text sets you think will interest your students, based on the texts you have available in your class- room. See Bend III Session 1 for more information about how to help students develop their own text sets, including start-here texts. Starting in Bend I, each student will need a reader’s notebook. They will use this notebook each day as they jot notes about their topics and track key vocabulary they are learning. Preview the main texts you’ll read aloud to students across the unit. See Let’s Gather for the title list and rec- ommendations for how to prepare for teaching these texts Clear a space in your room to build a Vocabulary Word Wall. You’ll add to this wall across read-aloud and close reading time, your reading minilessons, and your vocabulary extensions. From the online resources, print a set of the vocabulary cards that you’ll use across the unit, and cut them apart, so they are ready to add to your Vocabulary Word Wall as you teach. Print the anchor charts you’ll need to display across Bends I, II, and III. It is very important that you do a slow reveal of the bullets on an anchor chart so the chart is built across the bend rather than revealed up front. z Bend I: Nonfiction Readers Research New Topics z Bend II: Strategies for Determining the Main Idea of a Text z Bend III: Nonfiction Readers Learn Topic Words
Prepare student text sets for Bend I and II
Prepare student text sets for Bend III
Prepare reader’s notebooks Preview read-aloud texts Set up a Vocabulary Word Wall
Prepare the follow- ing charts
If you have limited time and resources, and want advice about how to make adjustments to the curriculum that we especially recommend, please visit Mossflower.com for detailed recommendations.
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WELCOME TO THE UNIT
Vocabulary You’ll support vocabulary building in several ways across Unit 2.
z Explicit instruction into individual words: Across Let’s Gather and the related vocabulary extensions, you’ll provide daily teaching into individual words that relate to the bigger topic of plants and plant adaptations, and you’ll also provide oppor- tunities for students to use these words across multiple contexts to solidify their understanding of each term. See the chart below for when specific words are introduced. z Teach into morphemes: Across Let’s Gather and Word Study , you’ll teach into a handful of high-leverage morphemes that will help kids to decode and comprehend words. You’ll show students how these morphemes impact the meaning of multiple words. See the chart below for when specific morphemes are introduced. z Foster word consciousness: Across the unit, you’ll foster word consciousness as you model your own curiosity about words for students. You’ll keep a word collection related to the topic, and you’ll channel students to do the same, adding new words they encounter to their own collections so they can create networks of related words. z Teach strategies to support independent vocabulary learning: Across the unit itself and Let’s Gather , you’ll explicitly teach a handful of strategies to support students in independently learning new vocabulary words. You’ll teach students that after nonfiction readers notice a topic word, they can use different strategies to determine the word’s meaning. Some- times, you’ll find a definition before or after the word. Other times, you’ll need to use context clues to figure out the word’s meaning. You’ll also emphasize that readers can use the morphemes they know to determine the meaning of a new word. You’ll invite students to add these words to their own word collections in their reader’s notebooks, jotting new words, as well as some definitional support. z Support wide reading: Across the unit, you’ll support students with wide reading, as students read across texts on plants, as well as texts on a self-selected topic. This work supports incidental vocabulary learning, ensuring kids are exposed to thousands of words, including words that repeat across different texts. Instruction into Individual Words and Morphemes Component Bend I Bend II Bend III Units of Study botanists life cycle carnivorous plants photosynthesis chlorophyll* sedge* pollinate burls* sprouted* tannin unprotected replacing heat resistant Let’s Gather habitat* vegetation* recede renew tribal elders abandoned re- species* adaptation* photosynthesis* nutrients* camouflage* introduced plant* rely defense* self-defense* pollination* reproduce* fertilizer* ancient Methuselah* Bristlecone Pine* century survive* environment* drought* ancestors ancient sapling* ingenious crown* canopy*
Vocabulary Extensions
vegetation* seedling* species* roots*
tend* soil* disperse* scatter*
adaptation* nutrient* disguise* compete*
defense*
thrive* rely* suit*
Word Study
-s/es
pre- re-
un- non-
* = a word you will add to your vocabulary wall
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Unit 2 • Reading Nonfiction Text Sets: Plants and Their Adaptations
Writing about Reading In Bend I, you’ll launch reader’s notebooks. You’ll distribute notebooks to your students and channel them to use their notebooks to collect all their learning about their new topics. Across the bend, your students learn how to do three kinds of writing about reading. In Session 1, students learn how to make and add to concept maps that integrate prior knowledge on the topic of plants and plant adaptations, with the new information that they are learning as they read texts about that topic. Their writing mostly consists of phrases jotted on sticky notes and organized into subtopic clusters. In Session 4, students learn about the importance of note-taking in order to hold onto the important information they are learning. Students revisit two note-taking strategies that they learned in second grade during Growing Knowledge Together : making a big sketch with lots of details and labels, and making a series of smaller sketches, with arrows and labels to show how they connect. These strategies especially support students in notetaking about sequential or chronological information or about cause-and-effect relationships. It’s important to note that students should not be reading with pen in hand, pausing after reading a sentence, or even a para- graph, to jot notes. When students read in this way, writing about reading dominates reading time, and students are often so focused on the details that they are unable to wrap their arms around the bigger ideas addressed in text. Instead, we channel students to read a big chunk of text—a few sections or a chapter—and only then to pause and think, “What’s the most important information I just read?” Then, students can take notes on that information. Bend I Session 6 focuses on topic word collections, which you’ve been modeling in read-aloud since Unit 1. You channel stu- dents to attend to new content words and to jot those words—and their definitions—in a special spot in their reader’s notebooks. The vocabulary extensions will also support this work, providing students with regular opportunities to add to their collections. In Bend II, you’ll emphasize determining the main idea, and you’ll teach students a handful of strategies to help them write about main ideas they encounter. Starting in Session 1, as students read start-here texts, they learn to use a highlighter to take notes about main ideas and supportive details. Students highlight main ideas that they locate in topic sentences, and they add dots to note key details that support those main ideas. In Session 2, students learn that they can add main idea sentences to the sketch notes they learned about in Bend I. In Session 4, you introduce students to a boxes-and-bullets structure for notetaking, and students learn to record a main idea in a box and then key details underneath as bullets. This structure is used repeatedly across the Units of Study in Reading and Units of Study in Writing in Grades 3, 4, and 5, so you’ll want to model this structure regularly as you take notes across the curriculum. Then, in Session 6, students will learn how to use their boxes-and-bullets notes to craft brief summaries, where they write the main idea of a short text (or a section of a longer text), and explain how that text is supported by key details. You’ll lean on a structure detailed by Hochman and Wexler (in their 2024 book, The Writing Revolution 2.0: A Guide to Advancing Thinking Through Writing in All Subjects and Grades ) to support students who need additional support crafting summaries.
In Bend III, you’ll support transference, reminding students early on of the strategies they have learned for writing about reading, and encouraging them to draw on those strategies as needed to capture their new learning. Since Bend III emphasizes vocabulary, you’ll espe- cially want to see students adding new words and their definitions to their topic word collections. The Let’s Gather read-aloud and close reading plans for this unit provide students with additional support for writing about reading that resembles what they’ll be asked to do on many state standard- ized tests.
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WELCOME TO THE UNIT
Strengthen Nonfiction Research Skills: Researching Plants
BEND I
Introduction Across Bend I, you and your students will launch into a research study, researching plants and their adaptations, as well as other specific topics related to plants. As students read multiple texts about a plant topic, they’ll learn academic, social, and emotional skills and strategies that will help them research any topic well. They’ll also gain extensive knowledge and vocab- ulary around their topic. Student research topics : Across the bend, students will work in research groups, reading from a nonfiction text set on their roughly-right levels. We suggest you organize those text sets into topic bins. For some topics, you may offer a lower and higher level bin, which could be merged if you prefer more heterogeneous groups. In both Bends I and II, each group will study a topic related to plants. In the online resources, we’ve provided suggestions for possible topics, as well as recommended titles you can use to curate text sets. For each text set, we have also provided start-here texts you can print and duplicate. These texts orient students to the big ideas and key vocabulary for a topic. Teacher research topic : You will study plants and their adaptations. Your primary source will be Plants in Different Habitats by Bobbie Kalman, which is an accessible, well-organized text. Across the unit, you’ll also read other related books on plants. Bend I: Strengthen Nonfiction Research Skills: Researching Plants Minutes Session 1 Session 2 Session 3 Session 4 Reading Workshop 45 min. Access Prior Knowledge About Your Topic Before Starting to Read Preview the Text to Determine What It Will Teach and How Use Teaching, Acting, and Gestures to Solidify Learning Use Sketching and Writing to Take Notes
Read-Aloud and Close Reading 15–20 min. Word Study 15 min.
Introduce the Topic of Plant Adaptations, and Begin to Read The Forest Keeper , pages 1–22 Introduce R-Controlled Syllables and Read Words in Isolation
Finish The Forest Keeper , Including the Back Matter, and Determine Main Ideas
Preview Plants in Different Habitats , and Begin to Read It
Read Plants in Different Habitats with a Focus on Different Kinds of Habitats
Read a Decodable Text with a Focus on R-Controlled Syllables Practice Using New Words: “Which One?” and “Idea Completion”
Spell Words with R-Controlled Syllables
Introduce Consonant -le Syllables and Read Words in Isolation Use New Words to Play “When Would…?” and “Which One?”
Vocabulary 5 min.
Start a Collection of Content Words about Plants
Add New Words to a Content Word Collection
Session 5
Session 6
Session 7
Reading Workshop 45 min. Read-Aloud and Close Reading 15–20 min. Word Study 15 min. Vocabulary 5 minutes
Learn from the Text and the Text Features
Word Consciousness: Develop a Content Word Collection Close Reading Using a Complex Passage from Plants in Different Habitats Spell Words with Conso- nant -le Add New Words to a Content Word Collection
Elaborate on Learning to Help Knowledge Stick
Compare and Contrast Key Excerpts from Plants in Different Habitats , in Partnerships Read a Decodable Text with Consonant -le Sort Content Words Into Categories, and Generate Related Vocabulary
Add to and Revise Your Plant Adaptations Concept Map
Learn High-Frequency Words: Yourself, Everything Assess Readers’ Control of New Words
Across this bend, you’ll teach students how to build knowledge through research . You’ll also support students as they orient to texts .
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Bend I • Strengthen Nonfiction Research Skills: Researching Plants
Build Knowledge Through Research Reading comprehension is strongly determined by the knowledge and vocabulary we already have (Bransford et al., 2000; Cervetti & Wright, 2020; Oakhill et al., 2015). Consider two books written at the same Lexile level–one about teaching and the other about quantum physics. Which would you comprehend better? Most likely the book on teaching. It’s because you bring far more background knowledge to the text and are more confident in your abilities to understand it. We don’t need to know everything an author assumes, but if we’re missing too much, our comprehension plummets (O’Reilly et al., 2019). Knowledge is critical. Knowledge helps us make necessary inferences (Oakhill et al., 2015; Willingham, 2006). It helps us men- tally organize content so we can more clearly grasp the central ideas (Willingham, 2017; Cervetti & Hiebert, 2018). Knowledge also helps us to read more quickly, accelerating the rate at which we can learn new content, and it leads to less rereading (Willingham, 2006). However, the new science of learning research shows that not all knowledge is usable. Knowledge sticks best when it is organized around important concepts and is connected to something we already know (Bransford et al., 2000; Willingham, 2006). The more we know about a topic, the more readily we can learn new things related to it–that’s because when we have substantial prior knowledge, there are more places for new knowledge to “stick” (Brod et al., 2016). This creates a kind of “snowball effect,” where the students who learn the most about a given topic are the ones who already know the most about it (Beier & Ackerman, 2005; Willingham, 2006). In other words, to boost student knowledge most effectively, we must connect to their prior knowledge, and we must stick with topics for enough time that every student can get the “snowball effect” rolling. Topical text sets are especially important for helping students to build knowledge, since “reading in [them] increases the likeli- hood that students will encounter the same words and concepts, facilitating their ease of reading and building their knowledge” (Cervetti and Hiebert, 2014). One way to approach this is by using a quad text framework, creating text sets that include a mul- timodal text to help students build knowledge visually, an easier informational text, a hook text that helps to build interest and activate motivation, and a challenging target text that will allow students to apply their growing content knowledge (Lupo et al., 2017). While students’ text sets need not be limited to four texts, applying this framework can be helpful, allowing kids to read increasingly complex texts while building knowledge and simultaneously encouraging a sense of purpose and self-efficacy. Orient to Texts Your students enter this unit with extensive experience orienting themselves to texts. Across second grade, and across Unit 1 of third grade, students learned to take a sneak peek of their books, studying the title, the back blurb, the title of contents, and sifting through the pictures, thinking, “What will this book teach?” As students orient themselves to a text even before they start reading it, they begin the all-important work of self monitoring. In a meta-analysis of 19 studies, researchers found that thinking about thinking and actively adjusting one’s goals and thoughts has a positive effect on reading (Guzman et al., 2018). In order for students to efficiently add the new information they are learning to their existing mental files and develop self-ef- ficacy and a sense of purpose, it’s helpful if they are able to anticipate what the text will teach. Students learn to ask not just, “What is this text about?” but also “What do I already know about that topic?” This process of activating prior knowledge while orienting to the text serves to deepen students’ reading comprehension (Pressley & Allington, 2014; Hattan & Alexander, 2020; Kostons & van der Werf, 2015), and it is one of the strategic six reading comprehension strategies recommended by Cunninghman, Burkins, and Yates (2024). It also encourages self-awareness of a student’s personal, cultural, and linguistic assets and interests while allowing students to experience self-efficacy (CASEL, 2025). A new part of this work you’ll introduce to your third graders is that after readers ask, “What will this book teach?” they’ll also ask, “How will this book likely go?” This is important, because informational readers benefit from paying attention to structures present in texts. Noting signals for those structures can boost comprehension (Pyle et al., 2017; Boon et al., 2015; Burns et al., 2011). You’ll model this regularly during read-aloud and your minilessons. In addition, we’ve provided a series of small groups around orienting to texts.
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Start with Assessment This unit comes with a pre- and post-assessment of comprehension skills that are especially important in the unit. You’ll find more details about these assessments, including printable resources for students and related scoring rubrics in the online resources. These resources will evolve in response to data, and we expect this to be a growing repository of tools and insights around assessment. At the school or district level, there are some decisions to be made pertaining to this assessment. It is designed to assess higher-level reading comprehension skills—skills such as determining the main idea in nonfiction and inferring character traits in fiction. Readers cannot demonstrate those skills if the passage is one they cannot read with enough automaticity for them to access the passage. Therefore, if you have students who are reading below benchmark, it will be essential for you to read the pre- and post-assessment passages aloud to them. Many schools decide to make this a listening assessment, with teachers reading these passages aloud to all students, while also giving all students access to printed copies for reference. The advantage of that decision is that it provides all students with equivalent experiences. Other schools, on the other hand, decide to read the passage aloud only to students who are reading below benchmark levels and to channel students reading at or above benchmark levels to read the passage independently. The advantage of that is the assessment more closely mirrors constructed responses on high stakes exams. These pre- and post-assessments are just one part of a portfolio of assessments. You will also want to use an Oral Reading Fluency assessment, such as those in Acadience ® , DIBELS ® , MAP ® , and other screeners to determine words-correct-per-minute, and then to use the Hasbrouck-Tindal scale to determine the individual’s overall proficiency score. Those scores have proven to be efficient and valid indicators of overall reading well-being. For students scoring below benchmark for the time of the year, additional diagnostics will be important. Throughout any unit, there are many other ways to collect and study evidence of your students’ progress. Always, the purpose of assessment is to inform instruction. Rubrics and exemplars can help guide your interpretations of data. It is especially important to look at growth over time, so be sure to gather cumulative data that reveals progress across years. Prior to giving any assessment, you’ll always want to review your students’ IEPs and 504 plans for testing accommodations. It’s important to establish testing routines with students at the start of the year to help them learn how to use their accommo- dations well, prior to standardized assessments.
See the Welcome to the Unit for more information related to assessments.
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Bend I • Strengthen Nonfiction Research Skills: Researching Plants
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