Close Reading- "Lizzie's Morning"

For the first part of this week, we have been working on a close reading of a story originally published in National Geographic entitled, "Lizzie's Morning." This story helps students understand the importance of cultural diffusion and helps them appreciate the fact that so many cultures impact their every day activities without them even knowing it. Our procedure for performing the close reading was as follows: 1.) Students read the selection twice SILENTLY 2.) Students complete a graphic organizer including "Words I do not know," "Words I cannot pronounce," "Phrases I do not understand," and "Questions I have." 3.) Students will list one AMAZING fact over the story. 4.) Students will follow along as the teacher reads the story out loud. As I read the story, I interject probing questions to stimulate thinking. After performing these four steps, students will be asked to respond to four in-depth discussion questions over the reading. We also are adding two supplemental activities to this story including a comic strip illustrating Lizzie's morning. The comic strip will be grading on the following rubric: 1-3 points for content, 1-3 points for creativity, and 1-3 points for neatness. The second supplemental activity will be a friendly letter to Lizzie. The letter should use SPECIFIC EVIDENCE from her story. The purpose of the letter should be to EDUCATE Lizzie about how so many different cultures have affected her every day life and CONVINCE her to understand the importance of learning about different cultures. A copy of the story and the original assignment are attached below. Lizzie's Morning Activity
Close Read Activity