The Secret Seed Vault

Learning intention

I am learning to analyse my personal preferences for subject matter so that I can better understand my preferences for literature.

Success criteria

• I can use criteria to rate articles on how engaging they are.
• I can identify which texts I am interested in reading.
• I can reflect on my own personal preferences for literature.

 

Read The Secret Seed Vault or listen to the audio file.

Discuss the main idea of the article. Note: Remind students that the main idea means what the text is mostly about. (Protecting the supply of food by preserving seeds.)

Display the following questions and discuss:

• How interesting do you find the article? Rate your answer from 0 to 10, with 1 being not interesting at all to 10 being very interesting.
• How many people does this topic impact, a few, most of Australia or most of the world? Use a scale from 0 to 10, with 0 being the topic impacts no one to 10 being the topic impacts most of the world. (Students most likely will rate the impact a 9 or 10)
• How critical is the subject to the survival of humans? Use a scale from 0 to 10, with 0 being not critical at all to 10 being really critical. (Students will most likely rate the topic a 9 or 10 for being critical for human survival)
• How engaging did you find the article? Use the scale from 0 to 10, with 0 being not engaging at all and 10 being very engaging, for students to rate their response. (Students’ responses may vary, depending on their personal preferences)

Sketch a number line on the board and label it from one to ten. Select some examples of responses to the discussion questions, for example a rating of eight for how interesting students found the article and a number nine for how many people the topic impacts. On the number line, label the corresponding number for the score it was allocated, for example writing above number nine, ‘impact’, writing above number ten, ‘critical to human survival’.

Instruct students to complete their own number lines in their workbooks, visually representing their responses to the discussion questions.

Refer students to Captain Ahab’s Weird Wide World: How Many Birthday Candles? found on page 18 of this issue of Countdown. At this point, tell students not to read the article, just skim the heading, the subheadings and the accompanying photo.

Instruct students to jot a second number line in their workbooks and score their responses to the following questions on the number line. Remind students not to read the article for now.

• How interested are you to read this article? Rate your response from 0 for not very interested to 10 for very interested. Use the label ‘how interested to read’ when noting your response on the number line.

Allow time for students to record their response.

Read Captain Ahab’s Weird Wide World: How Many Birthday Candles? or listen to the audio file. Discuss the main idea of the article. (The life-span of tortoises and the reasons they live so long.)

Display the same questions as before and instruct students to record their responses on their second number lines. These are:

• How many people does this topic impact, a few, most of Australia or most of the world? Use a scale from 0 to 10, with 0 being the topic impacts no one to 10 being the topic impacts most of the world. (Students most likely will rate the impact a 1 or 2)
• How critical is the subject to the survival of humans? Use a scale from 0 to 10, with 0 being not critical at all to 10 being really critical. (Students will most likely rate the topic a 0 or 1 for how critical it is for human survival although some may identify the potential impact on the food chain of any animal becoming extinct)
• How engaging did you find the article? Use the scale from 0 to 10, with 0 being not engaging at all and 10 being very engaging, for students to rate their response. (Students’ responses may vary, depending on their personal preferences)

Discuss the two topics, emphasising that the subject matter of The Secret Seed Vault has a far wider impact on the world whereas the subject matter of Captain Ahab’s Weird Wide World: How Many Birthday Candles? is more of a special interest topic.

Discuss which article students prefer and use the rating to guide responses. For example,

I awarded The Secret Seed Vault an 8 out of 10 and I found this the most interesting article. I only awarded Captain Ahab’s Weird Wide World: How Many Birthday Candles a 2 for how critical the topic is for human survival, and I didn’t find the article very interesting.

Or, I awarded Captain Ahab’s Weird Wide World: How Many Birthday Candles a 2 for how critical the topic is for human survival, but I personally found the topic very interesting, and I gave it a 10 for being highly engaging.

Extension:

Place students in pairs. Provide them with previous copies of Countdown. Tell students to skim the articles, focusing on the heading, the subheadings, the captions and any illustrations on photos. Inform students that they do not need to read the articles thoroughly. The goal here is for them to identify the types of articles they might be interested in reading. Instruct students to discuss with their partners which of the articles they’d most like to read. Tell them to use the same criteria as earlier to rate the articles for each of the elements and to record their responses on a new number line.

As a class, discuss which of the articles students are most interested in reading.

Assessment for/as learning:

Instruct students to complete an exit ticket, responding to the following question:

Which type of articles are you most interested in reading?

Provide the following sentence stems for them to organise their thoughts and instruct them to note their responses in their workbooks:

I prefer____ (name of article) because I like articles on topics that (have a huge impact on the world/are of special interest).

Effective Feedback has more information on the types of feedback.