Build Background Knowledge (5 minutes)
Ask students how they keep their hands clean. What products do they use? How often do they use these products? Discuss why they clean their hands. Then ask, “Do you think people in the past washed up the same way you do? If not, what do you think might have been different?”
Preview Text Features (15 minutes)
Guide students to locate the articles. Then preview the text features by asking the following questions:
- According to the subtitle, how was being dirty seen differently than it is today? It wasn’t a bad thing, according to the subtitle. Today, having filthy hands and smelly armpits would be considered gross.
- Read the second article’s title and subtitle. What does “lending a hand” mean? Why does the author use this phrase in the title? Lending a hand means offering help. Based on the images and the subtitle, this article will be about someone who helped others by giving out hand sanitizer, so it’s clever to say “lending a clean hand.”
Preview Vocabulary (10 minutes)
- Point out the vocabulary box. Read the terms (accounts, ambassador, Indigenous peoples, cleansers, vaccine) aloud and discuss their definitions.
- Play the Vocabulary Slideshow.
Make a Plan for Reading
Before students start to read, walk them through a reading plan:
- Set a purpose for reading by telling students that the articles provide information about how soap came to be used widely and how hand sanitizers helped us fight germs during a pandemic.
- Tell students that after they read, they’ll complete a synthesizing activity by combining information from the texts.