Length
1.5 - 2 hours
Curriculum Standards
Explain the relationships or interactions between two or more individuals, events, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text based on specific information in the text.
Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 5 topic or subject area.
Materials
- Copies of the Informational Texts: Indexes and Tables of Contents text lesson, one for each student
- Copies of the lesson quiz, one for each student
- Worksheets comprised of the list of terms and the books they are in prepared by you before class (It is also a good idea to create the key for this activity while you create the list), one for each small group
Instruction
- Start by asking your students if they know how to find where a term is in a book.
- As you pass out copies of the Informational Texts: Indexes and Tables of Contents text lesson, tell the students that today they are going to learn how to find terms in an informational book such as a textbook.
- Read the lesson together as a class by having different students read each paragraph in the lesson and stopping after each section to discuss the following:
- After the 'Indexes & Tables of Content' section, ask and discuss the following:
- What is an informational text?
- What is an index?
- Where is an index found?
- What is a table of contents?
- How does a table of contents compare to an index?
- Now read the 'Using the Index' section. Ask and discuss:
- What are index entries usually listed under?
- Which part of a person's name should you look for to find them in the index?
- Why might it be necessary to look up more than one entry to find what you are looking for?
- Continue by reading the 'Using the Table of Contents' section. Ask and discuss:
- Where in the book is the table of contents?
- What information can you get from the table of contents?
- Read the Lesson Summary to your students and answer any questions they have.
Group Game
- Divide your students into groups of 3 - 4 and tell them they are going to play an index game.
- Give your students the prepared list of terms worksheet.
- Explain to your students that they have to find each term in the index of the associated text and do the following for each term:
- Write the page number where the term appears in the index
- Write the page number that the index indicates the term first appears in the book
- Write the sentence the term is used in where it first appears in the book
- Tell the students that the winner will be based upon not only the order in which the worksheet was turned in, but also the correctness of the answers. The first group to find all of the above correctly and submit it to you wins. You can give out 1st, 2nd and 3rd place prizes, if you wish.
- Then, go over how each term was found together as a class to be sure all students know how to use an index
Assessment
- Give your students the lesson quiz to take by themselves
- Go over the answers together as a class
