"The Biggest Game in all of Time" (p. 73).
"The Tyrant Lizard" (p. 73)
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"His Royal Majesty" (p. 76)
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"The Most Incredible Monster in History" (p. 73)
By merging the featured dinosaur in Ray Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder" with your knowledge of food chain trophic levels from science class, this lesson explored whether the ferocious reputation of the T-rex - as captured through Eckels's vision of the creature - is actually grounded in the leading research on where T-rex fell into his prehistoric food chain. Due to expert debates about whether the dinosaur was a scavenger or a predator, the T-rex's "incredible monster" classification by Eckels may either be an overestimation or a spot-on label. We read through a 2013 LA Times nonfiction article to determine if Eckels will be coming face-to-face with the "Royal Majesty" he expects based on if the T-rex actually ruled at the top of the food chain. To navigate the article effectively, we practiced a new reading strategy, called CHoMP, that will help you understand this and the future popular science articles throughout this interdisciplinary unit and in your final research project for science class.
Nonfiction Twin Text: Homework Prep
Is the T-rex really "the most incredible monster in history"? With whom do the Time Safaris really bring hunters face-to-face? In tonight's homework reading, Eckels - and you, as the reader - will be introduced to the "most incredible monster in history" (p. 73). ...Or will you? Based on the structure and anatomy of the T-rex, many researchers have claimed that it is impossible that the Tyrant Lizard was a massive predator. The bone structure, instead, points to a scavenger, which means that the T-rex merely fed on the dead leftovers of other predators. That's almost a full 180 degree spin from an apex predator! Using CHoMP, a during-reading research article reading strategy for note-taking and paraphrasing (as described below), we read the following LA Times article to find out what the most current research has to say about this short story's featured dinosaur! The article investigates the reputation of the T-rex through science, specifically its place in the food chain! Therefore, be sure to apply your knowledge of food chains - especially in terms of the characteristics of scavengers and apex predators - that you learned in your science class as you read. |
Food Chain: A series of predator-prey relationships in which organisms transfer energy by eating and being eaten. Scavenger: an animal or organism that feeds on the dead leftovers of other predators.
Apex Predator: a predator with few or no predators of their own, so they lie at the top of their food chain. They occupy the highest tropic level, which is usually greater than the fourth.
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Reading Strategy Mini-Lesson: Paraphrasing CHoMP Research Over the course of this interdisciplinary unit, we will be reading many popular science articles in both your English and science class to gain a better understanding of the current science that's applicable to the short stories in English class and the ecosystems that you are learning about in science. By taking notes and paraphrasing the material in these articles, you will be able to break them down into more comprehensible chunks and determine the most important information. Navigating the information effectively will better enable you to apply the knowledge to the short stories and to your knowledge of ecosystems, food chains, and biodiversity. Because it scaffolds you to paraphrasing, the strategy will also better enable you to integrate the information into your own writing. Starting with this LA Times article, you will be practicing the during-reading strategy, CHoMP (cross, out, highlight, make notes, put into own words). After practicing the strategy several more times between your English and science classes, you will be expected to use the strategy independently on all of the online research articles you use for your final research project in science. The process involves four steps, as outlined in the anchor chart to the right. Since this is your first experience with the strategy, we approached today's reading through an "I do, We do, You do" lesson format. |
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CHoMP Teacher Model on First Two Paragraphs:
Supplement for Step "M": Explicit Instruction Abbreviations When we arrived to the third step in the teacher modeling - "M: Make notes based on the highlighted information by abbreviating, truncating, using symbols, and drawing instead of writing complete sentences" - we paused for explicit instruction on abbreviations, listing commonly used phrases and their shorthand. The teacher projected different words/phrases on the Smartboard, and we guessed its common abbreviation based on our prior knowledge of "text talk" and our computer keyboard awareness. There are many benefits to knowing and using abbreviations in notes:
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