Unit Title: Historical Figures and Reading Comprehension Strategies (for informational

texts)
Grade level: 9-12
ESL (Level 2 or 3) Reading, 50 minute class periods
Length of unit: 2 weeks
Stage 1 Desired Results
Meaning
Enduring Understandings/Generalizations:

Essential Questions:

Successful readers use strategies to understand

the meaning of a text.

What makes readers successful?

What strategies do successful readers use?

How can I become a better reader?

Knowledge & Skills Acquisition

Learning Goals: (e.g., Iowa/Common Core standards.)
RI.9-10.IA.1
Employ the full range of research-based comprehension strategies, including making connections, determining
importance, questioning, making inferences, summarizing, and monitoring for comprehension
RI.9-10.IA.2
Read on level text, both silently and orally, at an appropriate rate with accuracy and fluency to support
comprehension
RI.9-10.1
Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as
inferences drawn from the text
RI.9-10.2
Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including how it
emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.

Students will know

Tools within the text: title, headings, bold and

italicized print, bullet points, captions, graphs,
maps, pictures, etc.
Predictions
Summarizing, main ideas, supporting details
Self-monitoring
Context clues/details
Inferring/drawing conclusions
Background knowledge

Students will be able to

Identify tools within a text an use them to build

meaning
Identify main ideas, important facts/supporting
details within a text
Evaluate whether a part of an informational text
is fact or opinion
Use context clues to hypothesize about the
meaning of unknown vocabulary
Apply background knowledge of a subject when
reading an informational text
Use reading comprehension skills to infer
meaning when it is not explicitly stated in the
text.
Examine their own understanding of a text and
use of reading strategies and revise or adjust
when necessary to ensure comprehension

Resources/Materials:
Practice Reading Passages and comprehension questions (mrnussbaum.com)
Low-level/High-interest short texts (1 copy per student + 1 for the teacher)
Dictionaries
Highlighters, pens, pencils, markers
Teacher laptop/computer & internet access (for image searches/visual support)
Pre-prepared graphic organizers

Stage 2 Evidence (Assessment)

Pre-assessment:
A sample reading passage (at an appropriate reading level) and subsequent comprehension questions on a
selected-response quiz (from http://mrnussbaum.com/reading_comprehension_printable/)

What will you do if a student(s) has demonstrated mastery of the knowledge or skills you plan to teach?

Reading comprehension and vocabulary acquisition are on-going for ELLs and differentiation is the default in
ESL classrooms, so if a student could already demonstrate mastery of the reading comprehension skills I was
aiming to teach I could up the level of the reading, focus more on growing their academic vocabulary, focus
more on growing their test taking strategies, and/or focus on more advanced reading strategies depending on
the needs of the individual.
Formative Assessment:

How will you assess student learning along the way?

Throughout our work with these strategies I will have students doing practice readings (sometimes selfselected, or on topics of their choice) and I will periodically check for understanding and growth along the way
in a manner appropriate to the skill being targeted:
For example: students may be required during practice to
Point to or use pens, pencils, markers, and/or highlighters to physically identify targeted features (like
main ideas, bold print, headings, graphs, etc.),
Summarize sentences, paragraphs, or whole passages in writing
Verbalize what strategies they are using/questions they are asking themselves
Select answers on selected-response questions designed to gage comprehension of a text

Fill out a graphic organizer about or summarize their thinking process or reflect about their reading
comprehension in writing

How will you use your formative assessments to help scaffold student learning of key concepts and skills?

Formative assessments will help me gage where students are at individually or with my class as a whole. These
formative assessments will help me decide who needs more help, more practice, or more scaffolding to be
successful and whether or not the class is ready to move on to another strategy or if they need another day of
practice or even re-teaching of a certain strategy or concept.
Summative Assessment:
End of unit test similar to the pre-test. It will consist of an informational text (at an appropriate reading level or
stretching just above the reading level of the students) followed by a series of comprehension questions about
that text.
The assessment targets students overall ability to comprehend an informational text, in other words their
ability to use any and all of the strategies they have learned in an authentic way. That is, students will use
multiple reading strategies in conjunction to find/build meaning in a given text.