For one of my classes I had to develop a lesson plan which focused on comprehension. I came across this really good book called, "The New Way Things Work" by David Macaulay. It is a really neat book! It gives the readers a ton of information on how things work and the necessary background information they need to understand certain machines. It talks about different technologies, planes, boats, hot air balloons,gas engine, furnaces, and so on. Macaulay presents this material in a fun and interesting way. He has sections on each page to break up the text so the students are not overwhelmed and can comprehend what they just read better. I also love how he has pictures of the object he is talking about and labels all of the parts with explanations of what they exactly are. I feel this book would be interesting for both males and females, which is hard to come by at a 5th grade reading level. It is also an informational book, but one that students would want to read and not dread to read. I think this is a wonderful book an will be a very useful book in my classroom! Check the book out and let me know what you think!
This is a cool book. How are you going to assess comprehension? It sounds like there are a lot of possibilities and if you had the right materials you could even have them build the specific model! That would REALLY test comprehension. I think it'll be difficult as teachers to keep thinking of different yet legitimate ways of assessing different constructs. Finding neat books like this is important! For kids who are really interested in machines and technology this would be a great way to get them engaged and motivated.
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