Who and What?

Overview

In this second lesson of Investigating Text Through Evidence, students closely read the first section of an informational text to identify important people, ideas, events, and actions. Building on prior work with evidence, they annotate details, clarify unfamiliar vocabulary, and answer “who” and “what” questions using accurate quotations or paraphrased evidence.

Learning intentions

Students will be able to:

• Identify important people, ideas, events, actions, and key facts in a text.
• Annotate relevant details while reading closely.
• Determine or clarify the meaning of unfamiliar academic or topic-specific words.
• Answer “who” and “what” questions using evidence from the text.

Success criteria

• I can annotate at least three relevant details.
• I can define or clarify two unfamiliar words.
• I can answer who/what questions using evidence from the text.
• I can explain which detail is most important and why.

Curriculum links

• Reading informational text: quoting accurately to explain explicit information and support inferences.
• Reading informational text: determining the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words.
• Reading informational text: noticing how information is organized within a text.
• Reading informational text: explaining how reasons and evidence support an author’s points.

Lesson structure (30 minutes)

1. 0–3 min · Reconnect and hook. Teacher displays the opening question in the hook and learning goals: “How can a reader investigate what really matters in a text?” and briefly reviews that evidence means information from the source. Students predict what kinds of details might help answer who and what questions.

2. 3–8 min · Model close reading. Teacher projects the first few sentences of the class’s informational text using the modeled annotation example and thinks aloud: circle a person or group, underline an action or key fact, and place a question mark beside an unfamiliar word. Teacher models quoting a short phrase as evidence. Students identify the annotation choices and explain what each mark shows.

3. 8–17 min · Guided reading and annotation. Teacher reads the first section aloud while students follow, then rereads it in short chunks; provide the Who and What evidence worksheet for recording details. Students annotate their own readable text or the worksheet, marking at least three relevant details: who is involved, what happened or is explained, and one important fact or action. Pause for students to share evidence and revise annotations.

4. 17–22 min · Vocabulary investigation. Teacher selects two useful unfamiliar words from the section and uses the vocabulary investigation prompts to demonstrate using context clues, nearby explanations, word parts, or a glossary. Students record each word, a possible meaning, and the text clue that helped them. Invite students to compare answers and clarify meanings together.

5. 22–27 min · Evidence talk and response. Teacher asks the who/what questions shown in the evidence discussion prompts. Students answer orally first, then complete two short responses on the worksheet using a sentence starter such as, “The text explains that ___ because it says, ‘___’.” Each student shares one answer; peers identify whether the evidence directly supports it.

6. 27–30 min · Exit check and preview. Teacher displays the final prompt in the reflection and exit prompt and checks each student’s annotations. Students complete the worksheet exit response: “Who or what is most important in this section? Use one detail from the text to explain why.” Collect responses and preview that the next lesson will examine how the text is organized.

Resources

• Teacher-provided informational text, first section
• close-reading slide deck
• Who and What evidence worksheet
• Readable print copies with generous spacing and clear sans-serif font
• Line guides or reading trackers
• Audio recording or text-to-speech version of the text
• Pencils, highlighters, and sticky notes
• Vocabulary cards or a classroom dictionary

Assessment

• During modeling and guided reading, check whether students can distinguish a relevant detail from an interesting but unsupported response.
• Review annotations for at least three relevant details and listen for accurate use of quoted or paraphrased evidence.
• Use the final response to assess whether each student can answer a who/what question and support it with source evidence.

Differentiation

• Support readers with a partially annotated model, color-coded annotation directions, vocabulary cards, partner reading, and sentence starters. Read the section aloud before independent annotation.
• Offer text-to-speech or an audio recording, a readable print copy, line guide, reduced text density, and extra processing time for students with dyslexia or other reading needs.
• Allow students to give oral answers, point to evidence, or draw a labeled response before dictating or writing. Meet individually with each student during guided reading.
• Challenge advanced learners to identify the most important detail, explain why it matters, and compare it with another detail using evidence.

Extension

• Students write a brief “investigator’s note” explaining which detail is most important and why, quoting or paraphrasing the text.
• Students create one additional who/what question that a classmate can answer from the first section.