Objective:

Students will use flowcharts to map the structure of informational texts, focusing on how events, ideas, or information are organized. By using flowcharting techniques, students will practice computational thinking, such as decomposition and pattern recognition, to break down and analyze different text structures.

Materials Needed:

• Text excerpts featuring different structures (e.g., cause/effect, problem/solution, comparison)

• Flowchart templates and chart paper

• Markers

Steps:

• Introduction:

  • Discuss how authors organize information in texts using structures like cause/effect, problem/solution, and comparison. 

  • Explain that just as computer programmers map out steps in an algorithm, readers can map out the structure of a text to better understand how information is organized.

• Group Activity:

  • Divide students into small groups and assign each group a text that follows a specific structure (e.g., comparison). 

  • Using a flowchart, students will map the sequence of events or ideas in the text. 

  • For example, if analyzing a cause/effect text, the students will create a flowchart showing the cause and the resulting effect.

• Computational Thinking Integration:

  • As students work, encourage them to use decomposition, breaking the text into smaller parts and placing each part in a separate flowchart box. 

  • This helps students understand the overall organization of the text, just as coders break down a problem into smaller tasks. 

  • Additionally, students will look for patterns in the text that can help them predict or explain the sequence of events, akin to the pattern recognition used in coding.

• Testing and Refining:

  • After creating their flowcharts, students will review them to ensure they accurately represent the text’s structure. 

  • They can refine their charts by adding missing steps or clarifying connections between ideas. 

  • This mirrors the debugging process in computer science, where students test and refine their work.

• Presentation and Discussion:

  • Each group will present their flowchart to the class, explaining how the text’s structure was represented and how creating the flowchart helped them better understand the text. 

  • Lead a discussion on how breaking down the text into smaller parts mirrors the computational thinking process in programming.

Equity and Access:

Provide scaffolded flowchart templates for students who may need additional guidance. Assign groups strategically to ensure all students have opportunities to participate.

Real-World Application:

Connect the lesson to real-world scenarios, such as how flowcharts are used in business, engineering, and technology to organize processes, showing that the ability to map out sequences is valuable across many fields.

CS Practice(s):

• Developing and Using Abstractions: Students create flowcharts that abstract key elements of a text’s structure.

• Recognizing and Defining Computational Problems: Students break down the organization of a text, identifying patterns and solving how to represent the structure visually.

Standard(s):

• CA CCSS ELA-Literacy.RI4.5

• CA CS K-2.AP.13

Objective:

Students will use Scratch or another coding platform to create interactive animations that model the structure of informational texts, focusing on different text structures such as cause/effect, problem/solution, and comparison. Through coding, they will demonstrate their understanding of how these structures organize ideas and events.

Materials Needed:

• Tablets or computers 

• Text excerpts that use different structures (e.g., comparison, cause/effect, problem/solution)

• Templates for students to animate the structures

Steps:

• Introduction:

  • Begin by discussing various ways texts can be structured to convey information, such as cause/effect or problem/solution. 

  • Ask students, "How does understanding the structure of a text help you understand the information?" 

  • Introduce a coding platform as a tool to visually represent how these structures work by coding a sequence of events.

• Group Activity:

  • In pairs, students will select a text excerpt and identify its structure (e.g., cause/effect). 

  • Using a favorite coding platform, they will create an animation that represents how the information is organized.

  • For example, for a cause/effect text, students may animate a tree that loses its leaves (effect) because of cold weather (cause). 

  • Each student pair will build an animation to reflect the flow of ideas in their text, similar to how coders represent logical sequences in a program.

• Creating and Coding:

  • Encourage students to break the text into smaller parts (decomposition) and program those parts into animations. 

  • For problem/solution texts, students will illustrate the problem, followed by an animation of the solution, reinforcing the logical progression of ideas. 

  • This parallels how programmers build sequences to solve specific problems.

• Testing and Refining:

  • After creating their animations, students will test their sequences to ensure they accurately represent the structure of the text. 

  • Allow time for revisions if the animations do not follow the correct sequence, similar to how coders debug and refine their programs.

• Presentation and Discussion:

  • Each pair will present their animation to another pair of students, explaining the text structure and how they used coding to model the flow of information. 

  • Discuss how understanding these structures helps in both reading comprehension and in organizing ideas in coding.

Equity and Access:

Provide pre-made templates for students who need extra guidance, and ensure pairs consist of students with varying coding experience to promote collaboration.

Real-World Application:

Link the concept of text structures to the organization of information in websites, apps, and other digital content, showing how understanding the flow of information is key in both reading and coding.

CS Practice(s):

• Creating Computational Artifacts: Students create an animation that models the structure of an informational text.

• Recognizing and Defining Computational Problems: Students break down the organization of a text, identifying patterns and solving how to represent the structure visually.

Standard(s):

• CA CCSS ELA-Literacy.RI4.5

• CA CS K-2.AP.12

• CA CS K-2.AP.13