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1. The Sun is a giant star in Space that the Earth and its Moon revolve around.
2. The Sun causes rays that reflect on the Moon to create new shapes.
3. The Stars that appear in the sky are vast amounts of gas that cause a glow.

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Informational Book #1: Sun, Moon, and Stars

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Informational Book #1: Sun, Moon, and Stars

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By: Hannah Wilson

With this being an informational book, we can see by the title that this is all about the Sun, Moon, and the Stars. This book gives the necessary information that students will need about what exactly a Star is, or what the Moon does, and the mission of the Sun in our universe. While this book is written like a textbook, its sentence structure is very simplistic and formatted to be easily shared with students, as it does not include a lot of information on each page.

If you could not tell by the image that I have included, this book is a Level 2 read, which is the stage where students could begin to read this book alone. I like the concept of that, but I do think we could do a lot of group activities with it and could even use this book to get a good basis of where my students would be at in terms of their literacy development.

Vocabulary:
-Galaxy: A large group of many Stars, Planets, and Moons. (p. 24, 25)
-Gas: An element of the air that we cannot see (p. 8, 25
-Plain: A large, flat area of space (p. 20)
-Reflection: To hit and bounce back off of something (p. 18, 19)
-Space: The area of sky that goes past the Earth (p. 8, 16, 19, 28, 29)

While I am trying to promote the use of Tiers 2 and 3 for vocabulary, I see these words being all Tier 2 because I see these being cross-curricular words, and Tier 3 is content specific. However, my other informational text is very focused on Tier 3 words for the content understanding.

What I Would Do for a Lesson:
I think that once I have read this book aloud to the students, asked them questions such as:
1. What do you think the Moon does for us?
2. Why does the Moon change shapes every night?
3. How hot do you think the Sun is?
4. How far away do you think the Stars are from here?

I would assign the students into groups where they will be assigned with one of the aspects of the galaxy, such as the Moon, or Sun, or Stars, and talk about some of the facts they have found my doing research from a copy of the book or from a website.
This is a fundamental for a lot of tasks students will need to learn once they move on to different grades, and by including a fun activity with all of the students to work together, they will be gaining valuable interactions for learning.
To end, they may share some of their findings with the class with a mini-presentation.

How I Would Help the Students:
-I would help my students by providing them with multiple websites that I would believe to help their development and understanding of the topic
-I would direct students before this assignment about how to login a computer and compute website addresses if they do not know already
-I would come around the room to check the progress of the students, give them feedback on what I believe would be helpful to their project, and answer any questions they may have
-I would assign the students with groups of students that would be productive to the task, would aide in the teamwork for the project, and would communicate the mission of the task with the students

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Narrative Storybook: The Sun and the Moon

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Narrative Storybook: The Sun and the Moon

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By: Carolyn Cinami DeCristofano

With this Narrative Storybook, I found an interesting dynamic between two children, where the narrator helps them discover the science behind the Sun and the Moon. The narrator takes these two children around their neighborhood, up into space, and even in a rocketship. The narrator answers questions that these children have along the way, and explains scientific discoveries that are important to how we live today.
This story is a Level One read, which I could see students coming back to in order to independently read for their own enjoyment and understanding.

Vocabulary:
-Crater: A hole made when a rock crashes into the moon (p. 19, 21)
-Energy: What it takes for activities and skills to begin (p. 11)
-Lunar: Describing the Moon (p. 32)
-Solar: Describing the Sun (p. 33)
-Sphere: Another name for a circle, to describe the shape of many planets and items in space (p. 16, 28)

I would consider all these words as being as Tier 2 words. I especially think this because of the idea that the word Sphere can go across boundaries as this could also be a common mathematics term. I'm sure students at this age are not calculating the area of a sphere or anything too higher order, but identifying shapes is a category that I could see this word being utilized and is probable in a classroom.

I would read this book second out of the text set, because it introduces more knowledge about the standard that we must be involving within the lessons. It brings together all the main aspects-the Sun, Moon, and even some information on the Stars. What this book will introduce the students to is that the Sun is actually a Star, and I think the students would be so fascinated by that information! This book will take the students on a journey, if read in an exciting way, which I would intend to do so, and bring about discussion questions along the way.

What I Would Do for a Lesson:
I think that for literacy development, it would be a nice practice to engage the students in another creative exercise where the students can create a Venn Diagram, where the students will be writing and comparing the Sun and the Moon, and what they may have in common based on the reading. I could read the book to the students first, then we could read the book all together and write down the important facts and information that we may want to remember later, and then hang those notes in the classroom to have the students use for the assignment.

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By: Laura Purdie Salas

This particular text focuses mainly on the moon, but talks about many essential elements that would be background knowledge for the Sun, Moon, and Stars standard. This book focuses on what the observations of the moon would be, which I think is a key feature for grasping the message of the science standard.

Let's Talk About the Vocabulary:
-Axis: an imaginary straight line through the center of the moon
-Gravity: the force that draws one object to another that keep us and other objects from floating away
-Meteorite: rock or metal that falls from an object in space
-Orbit: to travel around something else in a path
-Phase: the shape of the moon that we can see from Earth at different times
-Tide: upward and downward movement of the ocean

I chose these words due to the fact that I see them as higher order, and will definitely be useful in the understanding of the science standard. I see these as both Tier 2 and Tier 3 words.

Like all the other selections that I made for this particular text set, there is a purpose behind why I chose this text for a lesson format. A predictable book according to Neuman and Wright (2013), this particular genre incorporates a pattern that our students can catch on to once they move from page-to-page (p.70). The specific pattern that I realized after reading the author's note was that this is actually a lyrical-style of a picture book, and is meant to be read like a song to a class. I thought that was very interesting, because while I thought a Dr. Seuss book about space would have a great rhyming pattern for students, I think incorporating something unconventional like the use of song would be very interesting and an exciting activity for us to complete within a classroom!

What I Would Do for a Lesson:
I think preparing these lessons into sections would be most useful-by having this book being all about the Moon, with elements of the Sun, that this book could be utilized as the background information for future lessons. This book also includes a ton of vocabulary, which I believe I would write up on a board as I read through the book with the students, and we can discuss if they have heard of the words before and if they know what they mean. Students will have the chance to communicate their own understanding of the subject, and we will be improving the language understanding for other students by running through the vocabulary. For the material of the lesson, I would help by making a handout of the lyrics from the picture book to pass out to the students for them to use to sing the song together, for the students to follow along. Then, at the end, give the students a chance to work with partners to make their own song about the Moon. This will be a great strategy to get students discussing and communicating with one another, and by learning from others, their own development of understanding can increase.

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Reference: Neuman and Wright, 2013, All about words: Increasing vocabulary in the common core classroom, PreK-2. New York: Teachers College Press.

Text Sets. P. 69-74

Let's talk about the textbook reading. Neuman and Wright  bring to life the connections that we can bring to students to add meaning to their literacy development. One of the ways we as teachers can do this, is through the strategy of text sets. The basics of using this strategy is including a Predictable Book, a Narrative Storybook, and two Informational texts. Combining genres in text sets gives children a rich opportunity to engage learning in different contexts (Neuman & Wright, 2013, p. 74). I have selected texts that will give further insight on the science standard related to the Sun, Moon, and Stars, to which I included above in my description. What brings together all the components of the lesson is the Big Idea for the text set. The Big Idea is the concept of what you want the student to know from the lesson that conveys what the objective of the text set is (Neuman & Wright, 2013, p.123). I have developed my own ideas in hopes that these book choices and mini-lesson plans will bring attention to what is necessary to know from the Next Generation Science Standard. This text set not only helps the students understanding related to literacy, but my own understanding of literacy and how different techniques can help promote the education within the classroom.

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What Are the Objectives of the Text Set Related to Our Standard?

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What Are the Objectives of the Text Set Related to Our Standard?

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1. Students will explain the locations of the Earth, the Moon, and the Sun.

2. Students will create and study the phases of the Moon and its correlation to the Sun.

3. Students will develop understanding of the relationship between the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars through the use of modeling.

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-Cole, Michael D. (2001). The Sun: The Center of the Solar System. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow.
-DeChristofano, C. C., & Morley, T. (2016). The Sun and the Moon. New York: HarperCollins.
-Neuman, S. B., & Wright, T. S. (2013). All About Words: Increasing vocabulary in the common core classroom, prek-2. New York: Teachers College Press.
-Salas, Laura P. (2017). If You Were the Moon. Minneapolis, MN: Millbrook Press.
-Wilson, Hannah. (2014). Sun, Moon, and Stars. New York: Macmillan.

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Informational Book #2: The Sun-The Center of the Solar System

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Informational Book #2: The Sun-The Center of the Solar System

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By: Michael D. Cole

This book is one of the longer ones from what I have chose as a part of my text set. This book contains five chapters, and focuses on how the Sun affects a lot of what happens in space. This book talks about the Sun, being a star, and even goes into detail about the orbit of the Moon and Earth.

I will say this again, this is one of the more complex pieces of literature within the text set. The vocabulary, as noted below, is much more complex and has all Tier 3 words. This book I believe would require a more lengthy amount of time to read aloud, maybe over the course of a few days, and to me I would potentially save this book for last. Within the first grade, I would say these terms while important to know, are not a requirement of the standard. I would pair these words with a picture or a diagram while reviewing them to the class, because I believe a visual representation would go a long way for the students, and will retain the information with the aid.

Vocabulary:
-Chromosphere: A layer of the sun that's very thick and contains lots of gases (p. 22)
-Electromagnetic Spectrum: Energy that comes from the Sun in waves of electricity and magnetism (p. 18)
-Fusion: The process from the Sun that gives energy to the Stars (p. 16, 17)
-Orbital Plane: The area in space that was created for all the planets to travel around the Sun (p. 10, 11)
-Solar Eclipse: When the Moon moves between the Sun and the Earth, blocking the Sun's light and casting a shadow on the Earth. (p. 22, 28, 29, 30)
-Spectrum: A group of waves

What I Would Do for a Lesson:
-After reading the book aloud to students, I would ask the students to make their own model of the Sun in our Solar System
-I would copy the image from the text The Sun: The Center of the Solar System (Cole, 2001, p. 18) and put it in the center of the classroom for the students to use as a reference when making their own model
-The model's guidelines will be that every model must have the Sun included, as it is the center of our topic, and one other element that we have learned about-whether that is the Moon, Stars, Spectrums, or more.
-I would aide the students by giving examples if the students could not think of any ideas on where to begin their project, remind students of the definitions of our vocabulary words would be, and I would scaffold for each of the students depending on their skill-set