Sketch to Stretch

	Text Link	Rationale For Choosing	Text Frame(s)	Strategy Used and Resource
Extended Thinking	Why Metals Have a Blast in Water	This article was chosen because it involves explosion and that always gets a student’s attention. It explains the chemistry behind metal reactions.	Problem/Solution Proposition/Support	Sketch to Stretch (McLaughlin)

The article is about the reaction that occurs when alkali metals come into contact with water. Chemists were able to record the reaction and play it back in slow motion to see the metal form spikes before it explodes in the water. This reaction demonstrates how electrons are released when the metal and water connect. Spikes upon spikes form until there enough heat to cause the explosion. This technology allows for further understanding of the reaction.

Sketch to Stretch for “Why Metals Have a Blast in Water”

This strategy involves reading a narrative or informative text and then having the students make a sketch of their representation of the text. Once they are completed they can share with the other students and explain their interpretations. Looking forward, students can be asked how sketching helped them to further understand the text.

Here’s my sketch for the text:

Clearly I am not an artist!  Hopefully you can see that I am demonstrating metal droplets coming into contact with a beaker of water. The spikes form on top of each other and then the explosion or “boom” occurs. This strategy is helpful in that every student is going to have a different sketch and/or interpretation. I think the most valuable part of this strategy is the discussion the students have together afterwards about their drawings. They get to see different points of views and learn from each other to help tie the lesson together. 

References:

McLaughlin, M. (2015). Using Comprehension Strategies to Extend Thinking. In Content Area Reading: Teaching and Learning for College and Career Readiness (2nd ed., pp. 93-94). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.