Comets, Asteroids, and Meteors: A Reading for Meaning Lesson

Two days before spring break, and the next lesson style in my solar system unit was a reading for meaning lesson on comets, asteroids, and meteors. If you are not familiar with the the reading for meaning strategy, students are given an organizer with statements on it. Students decide whether they agree or or disagree with the statement. (This part is sort of like an anticipation guide.) Then, students read a passage or two and look for information that supports and/or refutes the statement. Finally, they make a conclusion about the statement.

The first day of this lesson, we worked through determining if we agreed or disagreed with each statement. Students then read two short articles about comets, asteroids, and meteors in order to collect information. We then held a class discussion, and finally made our conclusions about the information.

The second day (the day before spring break – can you imagine how excited the students must have been?), we completed our synthesis activity. The synthesis activity I designed for this lesson was making a video about comets, asteroids, and meteors. I gave the students some basic specifications about what needed to be included in their videos, but I let them choose the format of their videos. I did assign students to groups of three or four students.

This was such a fantastic project for the day before spring break. Every student was engaged. No one had to sit in a seat for 55 minutes and try to sit still, and the videos I have are fantastic. I am hoping to get parental approval to post the videos to the web. Once I do, I’ll share them. They are cute, amusing, and oh so much fun! (Oh – I forgot to mention, the students know all about comets, asteroids, and meteors, too!)

By Janelle

Space geek, science nerd extraordinaire. That's me! Want to know more, visit the About page.

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