The Frog Beyond the Fairy Tale Character: Searching Informational Texts

This unit is written in three 30-minute lessons.Students will examine their prior knowledge about frogs, make predictions, and verify their predictions through research on the Internet. Students initially record their predictions about frogs on a worksheet with true and false columns. They then use the website The Somewhat Amusing World of Frogs to learn more about frogs and check their predictions. To verify their predictions, students click on the internal page links to reach a subheading. The subheading signals to the reader that this section of informational text contains evidence to support or contradict the statement. It would be pertinent to add an oral report to the end of the unit to address what students learned about research and how to accomplish it using the world around them. Students use the topic of frogs to identify how to address research on a designated topic.  The lessons are designed to help students make a prediction about what they know about frogs, then use text to locate facts that support their understanding.  They are learning to prove or disprove their own understanding of frogs.  These lessons are easily modified to fit other familiar topics to students.  It would also benefit students to include an oral report about the information they thought they knew to the facts that they uncover about frogs, or any other topic chosen.  It offers students practice completing research on topics they already know something about, and deepen their understanding of the importance of research to clarify misconceptions through questioning and source selection.

Standards & Objectives

Learning objectives: 

Student Objectives:

Students will:

  • Predict the veracity of a statement based on prior knowledge of scientific facts
  • Establish a purpose for reading electronic informational texts to verify predictions and connect new information with prior knowledge
  • Use a keyword strategy adapted for hypertext conventions to locate information in electronic texts
  • Use the conventions of electronic text and acknowledge its unique text-structure clues

NCTE/IRA National Standards For The English Language Arts:

  • Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
  • Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound–letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
  • Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.

Lesson Variations

Blooms taxonomy level: 
Applying
Extension suggestions: 

Extensions:

Interested in more frog fun?

  • Students develop additional statements for the worksheet, giving the Web clue as well as the correct response.
  • Students select one of the eight statements to further research using print and other resources. They can be instructed to write a paragraph that expands upon the statement provided on the worksheet.
  • Students color an illustration from the Color Me Frog! website. You may also ask them to write a brief report on that frog.

Helpful Hints

Preparation:

  • Determine student accessibility to workstations with Internet connections or secure the use of a presentation system connected to a computer that accesses the Internet. 
  • Bookmark the website and preview the site using the What Do You Know About Frogs? worksheet. 
  • Duplicate the worksheet for each student.

Materials and Technology:

  • One computer with Internet access and projection capability (for instructor)
  • Computers with Internet access (for students)
  • Large paper or poster to record student responses
  • Markers

References

Contributors: