Unit 6 — Animals
Description
Students read informational texts about animals, learning to use text and graphic features to locate and understand information. The unit develops skills in retelling and summarizing texts, identifying the author's purpose and craft, and asking and answering questions. Students determine central ideas and recognize the difference between fact and opinion. They understand that informational texts give factual information about real animals and events, often including text features like headings and captions. Students conduct short research projects about animals, gather information from print and digital sources, and create presentations or projects showcasing their learning. The writing focus is informational, with students writing about animal life cycles or behaviors.
Essential Questions
- What are the different types of text structures?
- What is the difference between a fact and an opinion?
Learning Objectives
- Distinguish fiction from nonfiction
- Understand that informational text gives factual information
- Recognize that informational text tells about real people, places, and events
- Identify text features such as headings and captions
- Use text features to find and understand information
- Distinguish fact from opinion
- Recognize different text structures
- Retell and summarize informational texts
Suggested Texts
- Frozen Alive — nonfiction
- This is Your Life Cycle — nonfiction
- The Nose Awards — nonfiction
- Octopus Escapes Again — nonfiction
- T. J. The Siberian Tiger Cub — nonfiction
- National Geographic — nonfiction
Supplemental Resources
- Printed photographs of animals for analysis and discussion
- Graphic organizer for animal research with sections for facts and sources
- Chart paper for displaying research findings
- Word lists with domain-specific animal vocabulary
Language
Reading: Informational Text
Speaking and Listening
Writing
Students explore animal life cycles, behaviors, and habitats through informational texts and research projects. Students examine plants and agriculture systems in connection with food production and environmental sustainability.
Formative Assessments
- Text feature identification scavenger hunts
- Fact vs. opinion sorting activities
- Graphic text features labeling activities
- Question and answer checks from reading
- Comic strip sequencing of animal life cycles
Summative Assessment
Animal Research Project
Benchmark Assessment
— not configured —
Alternative Assessment
Students may demonstrate understanding through oral responses to teacher questions about animal facts and text features, or by sorting fact and opinion statements with visual supports such as picture cards or labeled bins. Students may also complete a simplified graphic organizer with adult support to identify key information from an animal text.
IEP (Individualized Education Program)
During reading of informational animal texts, provide audio support or paired reading so students can access content without being limited by decoding demands. Graphic organizers with visual prompts can help students organize facts about animals and distinguish key details from supporting information when retelling or summarizing. For the research project and writing tasks, allow students to demonstrate understanding through dictation, oral explanation, or illustrated written responses rather than requiring extended independent writing. Highlighting key text features such as headings and captions in advance can reduce cognitive load and help students locate information more efficiently.
Section 504
Provide extended time for reading tasks and the animal research project to ensure students can process informational text at a pace that supports comprehension. Preferential seating and a low-distraction environment are especially important during independent reading and fact-vs.-opinion tasks that require sustained focus. Printed copies of any on-screen or board-displayed text features should be available so students can reference and annotate materials directly.
ELL / MLL
Introduce key animal-related vocabulary and content-area terms such as 'life cycle,' 'habitat,' 'fact,' and 'opinion' before students encounter them in text, using pictures, labeled diagrams, and real-world images to build meaning. Simplified directions for tasks like identifying text features or distinguishing fact from opinion should be paired with visual examples so students understand what is expected before working independently. Where possible, allow students to connect animal topics to species or environments familiar from their home cultures, and permit home language use during research gathering and planning stages.
At Risk (RTI)
Begin with shorter, highly visual informational texts about familiar animals so students can build confidence with nonfiction features and fact-finding before moving to more complex sources. Pre-teaching the purpose of text features like headings and captions gives students a concrete entry point into reading for information. Breaking the research project into small, clearly sequenced steps with frequent check-ins helps students experience early success and stay on track without feeling overwhelmed by the full scope of the task.
Gifted & Talented
Encourage students to explore informational texts on animals at a greater level of complexity, including texts that present competing scientific perspectives or conservation debates, so they can practice evaluating sources and distinguishing nuanced fact from opinion. Students may extend their research project by examining how different text structures—such as cause and effect or compare and contrast—shape the way authors present animal information, and then apply that awareness deliberately in their own writing. Inviting students to consider an author's craft and purpose at a deeper level, such as analyzing how a writer builds an argument about an endangered species, pushes thinking beyond summary toward critical analysis.