Informational reading skills are essential for long term student success, but teachers often lack the resources and curriculum materials to effectively teach these skills. In this free webinar Match Fishtank English Language Arts Curriculum Director, Anne Lyneis will explain how you can use Match Fishtank’s free resources--including engaging elementary science and social studies units--to build your students' informational reading ability.

1. Building
INFORMATIONAL READING SKILLS
in Elementary Grades
Webinar - August 31, 2017

2. ABOUT US
● Curriculum Director for Literature and
Social Studies and Science, K-5
● Taught for 8 years (K, 2nd, 3rd and 4th
grades)
● Instructional coach for new ELA teachers
● Masters in Educational Leadership
● Online platform where you can
view, share, and download the
curriculum we use every day at
Match Charter Public School
● K-12 courses in Math, ELA, and
Science and Social Studies

3. AGENDA
• The Importance of Background Knowledge
• Key Features of our Approach
• How to Use our Curriculum

4. FOR COMPREHENSION,
KNOWLEDGE MATTERS
● Too often we focus on reading skills at the expense of building content
knowledge
● Match advocates teaching reading skills through sustained immersion in
high-quality science and social studies reading units
● Students tested with text
about baseball
● “Weak” junior high readers
who knew a lot about baseball
outperformed “strong”
readers who knew little
● Knowledge about the
subject made the weak
readers strong readers
From Knowledge Matters

5. LARGE BASE OF SUPPORT FOR
TEACHING KNOWLEDGE
“An optimal early reading program will exploit this characteristic of
word learning by ensuring that the topics of class read-alouds,
independent reading, and discussion are consistent over
several class periods, so that the topic will become familiar to
the students and thus accelerate word learning.”
“Knowledge of content and of the vocabulary acquired through
learning about content are fundamental to successful reading
comprehension; without broad knowledge, children's reading
comprehension will not improve and their scores on reading
comprehension tests will not budge upwards either.”
E. D. Hirsch, Jr. “Building Knowledge: The Case for Bringing Content into the Language
Arts Block and for a Knowledge-Rich Curriculum Core for all Children”

6. HOW WE ACQUIRE VOCABULARY
• Context, Context, Context…
oThe basis for learning new words
• We learn new words 4 x faster in a familiar context than
in an unfamiliar context*
• Familiarity is built through topic emersion: consistent
instruction over time
oNot through exposure to a series of random different topics
● E. D. Hirsch, Jr. “Building Knowledge”

7. WHY MATCH FOCUSES ON
INFORMATIONAL READING & BUILDING
CONTENT KNOWLEDGE
• Background knowledge is essential to reading
comprehension
• Not just teaching students to read – teaching students how
to read to learn
• Sustained learning about important topics in science,
history and the arts is deeply engaging

8. PROJECT-BASED
LEARNING
INFORMATIONAL
TEXTS
CONTENT
KNOWLEDGE
DISCUSSION
WORD
KNOWLEDGE
KEY FEATURES OF OUR APPROACH

9. Kindergarten 1st Grade 2nd Grade
3rd Grade
4th Grade 5th Grade
• Continents
• Animals
• Biographies
• Ancient Egypt
• Fighting for Justice
• Light and Sound
• Habitats
• Insects
• Immigration
• Famous Leaders
• Ancient Greece
• Properties of Matter
MATCH STUDENTS DIVE INTO 6-7
TOPICS PER YEAR
• Seasons
• Dinosaurs
• MLK Jr. and Rosa Parks
• History of the Earth
• Life Cycles
• Native Americans
• Pilgrims and Colonial
America
• Animal Adaptations
• Ancient Rome
• Forces and Motion
• World Religions
• Machines
• Earth’s Changes
• American Revolution
• Government and Famous
Leaders
• Energy
• African American History
• Plant and Animal Structures
• Ecosystems
• Cesar Chavez and
Delores Huerta
• Civil Rights
• Inventions

10. You can view, download and share all of these units on
our free site: www.matchfishtank.org
LET’S TAKE A LOOK
Reminder: Match Fishtank is entirely free!

11. PREPARING TO TEACH A UNIT
• We believe teachers
need to dive deeply
into the content and
learning goals of the
unit before teaching
• Fishtank is set up to
facilitate this
preparation
• Demo:
www.matchfishtank.org

12. STEPS INVOLVED IN UNIT PREP
Review Unit Prep Sections
• Intellectual Prep - Suggestions for how to build your own background
knowledge on the topic and your understanding of priority standards and
texts
• Essential Questions - Central thematic questions of the unit
• Content Knowledge and Connections
• Vocabulary
• Writing Focus Areas
Take Unit Assessment and Annotate for Key Standards

13. LESSON PLANNING - STEP 1
Look at Objective, Target Task and Linked Standards

14. LESSON PLANNING - STEP 2
Read the text with objective, target task and linked
standards in mind.
Lesson 15 – Target Task
How did Marion show courage
and overcome prejudice? Why
do you think she never gave up
on her dream?

15. LESSON PLANNING - STEP 3
Write an exemplar response to the target task.
Marion was very courageous! She showed courage when
she was not allowed to apply to music school because she
was black, which hurt her very much and showed her
again how unfair segregation was. But she didn’t give up!
She also showed courage when she was an adult, and sang
in many places that were affected by segregation. Everyone
loved her singing, and she didn’t let segregation stand in
her way. Etc.

16. LESSON PLANNING - STEP 4
Pick focus for the lesson
1. What strategies should be
reinforced?
1. What content needs to be
mastered?
● “Good readers think about
cause and effect to understand
how events are connected.”

17. LESSON PLANNING - STEP 5
Before Reading
What needs to be included
in the book preview?
Decide on class structures
● Vocabulary
● Tricky content previewing
● Set the focus for the lesson
● Connect to previous lessons
and unit essential questions

18. LESSON PLANNING - STEP 5 (cont…)
During Reading
1. How will the text be consumed?
1. How will key strategies be
introduced and or reinforced?
1. Which key questions support the
lesson focus?
Decide on class structures
● Interactive Read-Aloud
● Partner reading
● Small group instruction
● Independent reading
● Think aloud
● Mini-lesson
● Close-read
● Turn and talk
● Stop and jot
● Annotation

19. LESSON PLANNING - STEP 5 (cont..)
After Reading
1.How will information be
synthesized?
1.How will you close the
lesson?
Decide on class structures
● Class discussion
● Extended Writing
● Quick Write
● Debate
● How does today’s lesson
connect to larger themes
of the unit?
● How does today’s lesson
prepare scholars for
tomorrow’s lesson?

20. KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Teaching background knowledge through cohesive
content-focused units supports students’
understanding of informational texts.
• Teacher preparation and understanding of the content
is important for facilitating student learning.
• Units found on www.matchfishtank.org make it easier to
teach informational reading strategies in a cohesive way.