Escape 6-pack Author: Various ISBN: 9780176357931 Lesson Plan Grade Level: 6 Theme/Topic: History, Science and Technology Classification: Fiction, Nonfiction

Key Reading Strategy: Monitoring for Meaning

The lesson plans in this issue of High Wire Magazine highlight the reading strategy of Monitoring for Meaning.  The students can practice using this strategy at places in the magazine marked with the symbol.  For more information on this strategy, see page 9.  Assessment Master 6 in the Program and Assessment Guide can be used for this strategy.

Curriculum Links: social studies, technology

Introducing the Magazine

Setting the Scene

Tell the students that, by the time they have finished reading this issue of High Wire Magazine, they will be experts in the art of escape.  To help set the scene for the magazine’s theme, ask questions such as the following:

• When you hear the word “escape,” what is the first thing that comes into your mind?
• What are some situations from which you might need (or want) to escape?

You could record the students’ ideas on a chart or have them record the ideas themselves.

Making Connections

Explain to the students that the magazine looks at different types of escape. Ask:

• What great feats of escape do you know about?

Ask the students to make a list of historical escapes as well as escapes that have taken place in the past five years.  Record the two lists.  Tell the students that the stories in the magazine have been presented in a number of ways, as both fiction and nonfiction. Ask them to suggest various forms of writing they are familiar with, and record these on the board.  Ask them to choose one of the text types and write a composition called “The Great Escape.”

Have students hand in their completed papers.  Keep them until they have finished reading the magazine.  At the end of their study on escape,
hand their papers back and ask the students to consider whether their ideas of “escape” have changed.

For more information please see our Lesson Plan