Module 2
Biodiversity in the Rainforest

In this module, students read to build knowledge about the rainforest and analyze the author's craft in narrative writing to build proficiency in writing first person narratives about the rainforest. In Unit 1, they build background knowledge on biodiversity in the rainforest and rainforest deforestation to understand why scientists, like Meg Lowman, study the rainforest. Students closely read excerpts of The Most Beautiful Roof in the World by Kathryn Lasky and other texts to identify text structure and practice summarizing the text. Having read texts about deforestation, students research using several print and digital sources to identify ways they can help the rainforest and the challenges associated with being an ethical consumer. They then participate in a collaborative discussion at the end of the unit.

In Unit 2, students explore how authors of narrative texts about the rainforest help the reader to understand what it is like in the rainforest by analyzing author's use of figurative, concrete, and sensory language. With a deeper understanding of author's craft, in Unit 3 students write first person narratives, building out a scenario from The Most Beautiful Roof in the World using concrete and sensory language to describe the rainforest as though they were actually there. For their performance task, students work in pairs to create an ebook containing a front cover, contents page, introduction, and narratives, with pictures selected or created to contribute to the narratives.