The first line of my matrix represents the actual reading of the informational text that starts off the entire lesson. While they are reading they are to annotate, such as highlighting, underlining, or taking notes in the margins. For this task, I included the use of Google Spreadsheets giving students the opportunity at the end of their reading to collect all of the notes and highlights that they made in their text into one streamlined, easy to read format. In doing so, the students should also be able to use columns next to their reading notes to jot down inferences they were able to draw from their reading such as connections they may have noticed between characters and other characters or to the larger event, or any other influence they may have concluded on that impacted the event.
The second line of the matrix provides further background information on informational texts. Using a Prezi presentation, I would provide my students with a brief lecture on what distinguishes opinion from facts and how to determine the author's position in relation to the purpose of the text and how it impacts the text overall. I would conclude with an exit card, 3-2-1 activity where I would have students write on a small card 3 instances from their reading where they saw the author provide his point of view, 2 inferences they drew from the reading, and 1 question they still have. This form of assessment would allow me to determine if my students are understanding how to determine when an author is providing their opinion or offering a fact, and telling me how critically they are thinking about the text they read based on the inferences they've made. The question at the end also gives me an opportunity to receive feedback from the students and see if there is any further information that they need to be provided to further understand what they are reading, so in this way this assessment is for me as the teacher too!
The last line of the matrix is the follow up activity. Students will demonstrate here that they understand the events that occur and the characters they are introduced to in their reading by applying it to a completely new medium. In small groups, the students will discuss and create a comic strip using Bitstrips, a website that allows you to create and customize your own comic strips. In this comic strip they will need to identify the characters and events from their readings and portray them in a manner that displays an understanding of how the characters interact with one another and influence the event(s) that take place. In addition, they will create a Word Press blog, as the more formal assessment, to narrate the comic strip and provide background information as to why they chose to portray characters in the manner they did, why the events are depicted in the way they are, and what inferences they made from their reading that have impacted the way that they chose to display any characters or aspects of the event.
| Increasing student understanding of informational texts | ||
| Standards | Strategies | Technology |
| CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.7.1 Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text | Annotated Reading (S) | Google Spreadsheet |
| ISTE-S Research and information fluency | ||
| CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.7.6 Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how the author distinguishes his or her position from that of others. | Lecture (T) | Prezi |
| ISTE-S Critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making | 3-2-1 (S - A) | |
| CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.7.3 Analyze the interactions between individuals, events, and ideas in a text (e.g., how ideas influence individuals or events, or how individuals influence ideas or events). | Group Discussion (S) | Bitstrips (https://www.bitstrips.com/create/comic/) |
| ISTE-S Communication and collaboration | Sticky Note Graph (T/S - A) | Word Press Blog |
