There are grade-appropriate readings and assessments connected with each of our units. The readings are used by students to help them make sense of the phenomenon that is the anchor for the entire unit.

For reading complexity, all OpenSciEd readings are lexiled to the middle school grade span. The reading level is not above 8th grade. In some instances, there are units that have jigsawed readings that give teachers options with multiple levels of text complexity that can be assigned to students accordingly. Within the Google Suite, there are also a variety of opportunities for text to speech plugins. Since everything is provided in the Google Suite, you are free to make adjustments to readings as you see fit (reading levels, chunking the texts, etc.).

The units are intentional in their placement and purpose of text. Text is placed within the unit at key junctures where students need to gather information to motivate the storyline, better understand a concept, or work through an investigation. Generally, students experience a concept in some way prior to reading about it, allowing them to make a connection between their experience of a concept and scientific information in the text.

The OpenSciEd units include several strategies for text analysis. One strategy, a close reading strategy, is used throughout the units as a common approach for students to engage with text. The steps in the strategy can be seen in the student facing slide below: