TEXT	Text Citation or Link	Rationale for Choosing	Text Frame(s)	Strategies Used and Resource
Biodiversity	Studying how climate affects biodiversity	The article emphasizes the affects that climate and human changes have on biodiversity. The article explains how advanced mathematical calculations provided an understanding of an investigation that could not be measured before.	Cause/effect Compare/contrast Problem/solution	Quick-Writes (Buehl book)

Bacteria	How a bacterial cell recognizes its own DNA	This article describes the process of DNA replication and repair by using bacteria versus viruses as an example. It provides important information to understand how the CRISPR system has an impact on our lives now and will continue into the future. Students will be able to apply the information to current and future real world situations.	Cause/Effect Goal/Action/Outcome	Hands-On Reading (Buehl book)
Atoms	How many gold atoms make gold metal?	Explains how the development of technology encourages new information that can be applied in real-world situations. This article examines changes in the electronic properties of nanometer-sized pieces of gold, which can be used in short-term storage of energy or even electric charge so this information is being used to develop bioimaging and sensing. This article discusses how technology proposes a new	Synthesizing Compare/contrast	Discussion Web (McLaughlin & Buehl)

The three text words that the three articles cover are the following: biodiversity, bacteria, and atoms. Graphic organizers can be used to help with the understanding of these texts individually or even cohesively as a reading strategy. Graphic organizers help students classify ideas and develop their communication skills to become more effective. It also helps with structuring their writing and to encourage problem solving, decision-making, studying, brainstorming and planning research.

For the first text of biodiversity, it was used in an article known as “Studying how climate affects biodiversity” by using the quick-writes strategy. Quick-Writes is a very useful strategy allows students to have a certain amount of time to quickly gather their thoughts together regarding some aspect of a course study. This is a great strategy when dealing with text content such as biodiversity. Quick-Writes is a strategy that follows some ground rules, which are the following: students are informed about time parameters, students are expected to begin writing immediately and use the time period that is given, students quickly capture thoughts as they respond to the writing prompts, students should not be concerned about their writing form, and students may be asked to share their Quick-Writes with a peer. In order to perform Quick-Writes the teacher must form a purpose. The next step is to consider using a stimulus in order to introduce the Quick-Writes, which helps encourage students’ thinking regarding an important aspect in a unit of study and to provide some focus. After this step, teachers should be aware that Quick-Writes could be open ended to allow students to write down their thoughts as they respond to the stimulus.

Example of Quick-Writes:

            Using the hands-on reading as a graphic organizer can help better understand the second concept of bacteria. Hands-On Reading helps build Quick-Writes and focus on their reading skills versus the writing skills that Quick-Writes expands on. To perform Hands-On Reading the teacher must first introduce technical nonfiction. The reader will then adopt reading strategies that are tailored towards comprehension of technical material by brainstorming with student’s problems. he next step is to outline the Hands-On Reading. It is really important to emphasize the following students for Hands-On Reading to students: size up the task (survey the text to understand a goal and objective), clarify vocabulary (key terms in the text and which ones are important to the student’s learning), scan the visuals (view the visual information to help understand the information), look out for cautions (if steps are ignored this could lead to error), read and apply (read, clarify the message, and apply information), and collaborate (interact with fellow leaners). Finally students will work with partners in order to read and apply information through collaboration to help with their understanding of the complex text.

Example of Hands-On Reading:

            For the final concept of atoms, discussion web would be the most appropriate graphic organizer to use. This allows an evaluation between teacher and peers to see how well the students understand the text information and concepts. It also allows them to build off of the information that is shared. Discussions have the opportunity to reflect two sides to every question provided. Students will decode the main ideas of the article by examining interrelationships of the details or ideas. The teacher can assign the students to work in partners in order to develop different views towards the question(s). The teacher can encourage the students to work together to develop a consensus towards the question(s). The teacher can allow a person from each group to justify their conclusion. Each student can be encouraged to write his or her own personal view statements by reflecting on the discussion web. A discussion web is an opportunity where students learn to collaborate with peers and teachers in order to answer questions and statements to facilitate a debate. Teachers can evaluate the effectiveness of the information and student performance.

Example of discussion web:

            When evaluating all three graphic organizers, I found the most useful one to be Quick-Writes in regards to texts. It allows an opportunity to make changes to how it can be used. It helps all students of different needs to write down their thoughts within a given time for the teacher to evaluate their understanding. This helps the teacher understand where he or she needs to begin and develop what strategy will be used to get there. Students can help differentiate different ideas by outlining certain text, writing in different colors, and developing many ideas by incorporating information from other peers. I like the idea that Quick-Writes provides an opportunity for students to place their initial thought down to argue the questions and information provided by the teacher. This allows students to express their personal ideas and discussion. It allows students to be independent thinkers. It also allows students to go back to their initial Quick-Writes after they have further into the lesson and see how they have expanded their understanding. What I love about Quick-Writes is that it gives the teacher feedback and an understanding of the level of understanding the student has.

Work Cited

Buehl, D., (2014) Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning, 4^th ed. International Reading Association.

Weizmann Institute of Science. (2015, April 13). How a bacterial cell recognizes its own DNA. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 18, 2015 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150413130825.htm

Uppsala Universitet. (2015, April 16). Studying how climate affects biodiversity. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 20, 2015 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150416132038.htm

McLaughlin, M. (2015). Comprehending Content Area Text. In Content area reading: Teaching and learning for college and career readiness (2nd ed., pp. 57-62). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

Suomen Akatemia (Academy of Finland). (2015, April 10). How many gold atoms make gold metal?. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 11, 2015 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150410083516.htm