School: Middle School

Subject: English Language Arts

Grade Level: 6-8
Duration: 40 minutes

Objectives:
1. Students will be able determine two or more central ideas of a news article and
provide an objective summary of the article to an audience. (CCSS.ELA-
LITERACY.RI.7.2)

2. Students will be able to determine an author's point of view or purpose in a news

article. (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.7.6)

Activities:
1. Sustained Silent Reading (SSR)
Today will be SSR Day, in which students spend a majority of the allotted class time
reading silently by themselves.
Students will each get a Chromebook and log on to Newsela.com. Each student will
choose two news articles that interest them- at least one of them must be read at the
highest (grade 12) reading level; the other may be read at whichever level they choose.
After they finish reading each article, they must complete the online quiz that
corresponds to each. This will allow me to assess each students individual reading levels
and understand who needs more help reading at grade-level than others. (35 MIN)

2. Exit Ticket
Discuss with students their experiences reading silently and what kind of articles they
found most interesting. Hand out and explain the homework/ presentation assignment and
ask if students have any questions or concerns about that as well.

Homework:
Each student must prepare a PowerPoint presentation about one of the articles they read
in class. The presentation must include:
1. The main argument of the article
2. Evidence used to support that argument
3. Why the student chose this article
4. The students reaction to the article
a. What is their solution to the problem the article
addresses?
Students are encouraged to do outside research to support the 4th requirement. Research
can include other articles, books, interviews, videos, etc.
Technology:
1. Chromebooks for research
2. Google Classroom for homework assignment submission
3. Online sources for research

Differentiated Instruction:
1. Newsela is a great tool because of the sites features that could benefit any learner
who is not yet a confident or an independent reader.One of these features is the language
translator which is an essential tool for any English Language Learner who may need to
flip back and forth between reading the article in English and another language in order
to comprehend. Newsela also allows users to adjust the reading level of each article to
fit the students needs and abilities.This could benefit a student with a learning disability
or an ELL student because it is not one size fits all; instead, students have the ability to
get the same information as other students who may be on different reading levels as
them.