Reading Comprehension passages - The Vikings - Non-fiction text and myth

Are you looking for a text set that teaches students about important history content, vocabulary and comprehension? This text set will do the trick!

Meet your content and literacy standards at the same time!

This unit contains five original passages (four non-fiction and one fiction) that teach core history content about Vikings. Students love this content, and it’s a great way to begin or extend a unit on explorers. The first article confronts the common misperception that Vikings were only fierce warriors, and the second article builds students' knowledge about Viking culture and the Viking Age. The third lesson provides two biographies, one about Leif Erikson and one about King Cnut the Great. Students learn about these two famous Vikings. The final passage is a fiction passage that retells a myth about the Goddess Idun and the God Loki.

All vocabulary is introduced in the context of an authentic passage, giving students the opportunity to build deep, nuanced understanding of the word meaning. Lesson plans for teaching the academic vocabulary and concepts are included, including a lesson on using context clues to build meaning of words and a lesson on the Greek root terr. Other lesson plans give students an opportunity to discuss important aspects of Viking culture, and to practice the target vocabulary (conquer, territory, support, throughout, eventually, region, fierce, culture, raid, settlement and intrepid). These are the routines that I have used successfully in my classroom to help students own the words and transfer them to their writing and speaking.

Wide reading of non-fiction texts is an essential shift in the Common Core, and this text set will help you and your students achieve that goal. The passages are intentionally short, and the vocabulary and concepts spiral across four days, giving students multiple encounters with the same ideas and words. These passages are at a Lexile between 900 - 1100, making them most appropriate for fourth and fifth grade students. In about 15 minutes a day, you will increase your students' knowledge about key content and their academic vocabulary!

These passages are short enough to use in a variety of ways - close reading, supplements to your social studies curriculum, center activities, bell ringers, jig-saw..... The opportunities are as endless as the needs of your students!

You get:

-Five grade level passages (Do you Know the Vikings?, Leif the Lucky, King Cnut the Great, Idun and her Magic Apples, and Raiders and Traders)

-Four days of lesson plans to teach the vocabulary and concepts

-Independent practice pages

-Materials for Interactive practice

-Assessments (with rubrics and answer keys!)

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Happy teaching!