Essential Questions
- How does the culture we live in affect our personal habits?
- How does science contribute to our well-being?
Literature Connection
- Novel: Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson
- Nonfiction: The Germ Lab by Richard Platt
Standards Correlations
R.1, R.3, R.4, R.6, R.7, R.9, W.2, W.3, SL.1, L.4, L.6
Learning Objective
Students will synthesize information from two texts about personal hygiene.
Key Skills
synthesizing, text features, vocabulary, author’s craft, cause and effect, problem and solution, compare and contrast, making connections, informational writing
Complexity Factors
Purpose: The first text describes the evolution of soap; the second tells how hand sanitizer became popular.
Structure: The first text jumps around in time. Both texts contain cause-effect and problem-solution structures.
Language: The language is mainly clear and direct.
Knowledge Demands: The texts refer to ancient Greeks, Romans, and Covid-19.
Levels
Lexile: 600L-700L
Guided Reading Level: S
DRA Level: 40
Lesson Plan: The Dirty History of Soap/Lending a Clean Hand
Essential Questions
Literature Connection
1. Preparing to Read
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:
Preview Vocabulary (10 minutes)
Make a Plan for Reading
Before students start to read, walk them through a reading plan:
2. Reading and Unpacking the Text
Guide students to read the articles. Once they understand them well, discuss the following close-reading and critical-thinking questions.
Close-Reading Questions (20 minutes)
Critical-Thinking Questions (10 minutes)
3. Skill Building and Writing
Learn Anywhere Activity
An enrichment activity to extend the learning journey at home or in the classroom
Soap vs. Sanitizer
Dive deeper into the differences between soap and hand sanitizer by watching this video from TED- Ed. How does each one work? Why does one work better than the other for fighting coronaviruses? In this activity, you’ll share your findings with a family member by explaining to them what you learn.
ELL Springboard
Have students write summary questions for self-assessment.
Before reading, point out that unlike some of the other articles in Action, the Paired Texts don’t have accompanying Pause-and-Think questions, or questions that can be answered by reading the texts. Let students know that they’re going to come up with these questions after reading. Encourage them to try to think of suitable questions as they read.
After reading, divide students into pairs. Have one student in each pair write a question about the section “Itchy Goop” and a question about the section “Invisible Enemies” (from “The Dirty History of Soap”). Have the other student write a question about the intro (the first four paragraphs) and one about the section “How It Works” (from “Lending a Clean Hand”). Then have the students in each pair try to answer each other’s questions.
Possible questions:
Looking for more ELL support? Download our full lesson plan and scroll to p. 5 to find questions that will help your ELLs respond to the text at the level that’s right for them.