Whole Class Connected Resource – Rising Seas Year 5

Description

How do scientists know the sea is rising? This ready-to-teach unit gets Year 5 and 6 students asking that question and finding the answer in the evidence. It’s built around “Rising Seas” by Kate Potter (Connected, Level 3, 2014).

The article opens on a wrecked roller coaster in the Atlantic after Hurricane Sandy, then heads to Ngawi, where a house sits on a cliff that’s wearing away. Along the way, students read about storm surges, Pacific island wells that turn salty, tide gauges, and a sea-level graph from the Port of Auckland. Then comes the twist. In 2010 and 2011 the sea dropped, and it took satellite data to show that Australia’s floods had soaked up the water. It’s a good way to show students how science works.

The lessons use Science of Reading and Structured Literacy principles. They connect to Science (Earth’s water, using data and evidence) and Social Sciences (how people and their environment affect each other).

Inside the pack:

• 84-slide PowerPoint for whole-class teaching. Open it in Presenter View and click through each session.
• Three reading sessions covering pages 2–3, 4–5 and 6–7. Every session has vocabulary, comprehension questions and literacy skills.
• Six vocabulary words: vast, evidence, erosion, trend, unusual and adapting. Each has a definition, synonyms, antonyms and a line from the article.
• Days 4 and 5: a GIST summary, a cause and effect organiser, discussion questions and a follow-up activity sheet.

Literacy skills taught:

Contractions and possession, the silent ‘e’ rule, the -er suffix, the prefix un-, -ion/-tion/-sion, independent and dependent clauses, combining sentences with because and although, plus personification, metaphor and simile. These match the Year 5 and 6 English curriculum.

Running it in class:

Project the article on the screen and give each pair a copy. Read it across three days, then spend days 4 and 5 on the summary and discussion tasks.