Will School Close?
The night before a storm: the district's newsletter explains the closing rules, and the forecast page holds the numbers — but neither document answers the only question that matters. Built for RI.6.7's exact skill: integrating words, charts, and tables into one coherent understanding, because the answer only exists where the formats meet.
Common Core standards covered
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Teacher-facing overview
Big idea: Integrate information presented in different media and formats — words, charts, tables, maps — to develop a coherent understanding of a topic or issue.
Student target: “I can extract information from different formats — prose rules, an hourly chart, a table, a map with captions — and integrate them into one coherent answer, catching the traps that single-format reading falls into.”
Success criteria: I can extract the rules with their exact numbers and times. · I can pull data from each panel accurately — including the small print. · I can run each rule against the right data and show the join. · I can make the call, defend it, and prove no single source could.
Essential question
The newsletter has the rules but no numbers. The data page has the numbers but no rules. The only question anyone cares about — will school close? — lives in neither document. Where does an answer live when no single source contains it?
Learning target: I can extract information from different formats — prose rules, an hourly chart, a table, a map with captions — and integrate them into one coherent answer, catching the traps that single-format reading falls into.
Success criteria
- I can extract the rules with their exact numbers and times.
- I can pull data from each panel accurately — including the small print.
- I can run each rule against the right data and show the join.
- I can make the call, defend it, and prove no single source could.
Why this matters
RI.6.7 asks students to integrate information across media and formats 'to develop a coherent understanding' — and the standard is usually taught with a text plus a decorative chart that repeats it. This pair is built the honest way: the formats hold DIFFERENT pieces (rules in prose, quantities in panels), the question is real (every sixth grader has refreshed a closures page at 6 a.m.), and the answer — open on time, release early — exists only at the joins: rule one against the pre-6 sum, rule two against the feels-like column, the exception against the peak markers. The map trap teaches the sharpest sub-skill: graphics have captions, and totals have time windows. Integration isn't reading two things; it's making them answer each other.
Students should already be able to
- Reading a simple bar chart and table.
- IF/THEN condition thinking, informally.
- Citing across documents.
Where this shows up outside the classroom
Assessment plan
Formative — for feedback during the lesson
- Warm-up — the neither-source-answers insight.
- Extraction check — conditions and numbers before joins.
- Join circulation — rule-to-panel matches, trap handling.
Summative — the graded evidence: Exit ticket (call + trap + why-integrate) plus the completed grid; the inverse storm and third document rank as extension evidence.
The passage: “The Newsletter — how the call gets made”
An original document pair written for this lesson. The two documents are designed to answer the question only TOGETHER.
¶1 HOW THE CALL GETS MADE — from the district's family newsletter, the night before the storm. By 5:00 tomorrow morning, Superintendent Vasquez will make the call every kid in this district is waiting for. She wants families to know it isn't a coin flip. 'People think we look out the window,' she says. 'We look at numbers — the same ones you can look at tonight.'
¶2 The district's rules are written down, and they are strict. Rule one: if four or more inches of snow are expected on the ground by 6:00 a.m., buses cannot run their hill routes, and school closes. Rule two: regardless of snow totals, if the temperature with wind chill is below minus ten degrees at 6:00 a.m., school closes — children cannot wait at bus stops in that cold. Rule three: if neither line is crossed, school opens, 'no matter how gray the sky looks,' the superintendent adds, 'and no matter how hard anyone wishes.'
🔒 The full text — 3 numbered paragraphs, plus the photocopy-ready handout — ships in the kit. See plans →
The passage: “The Data Page — three panels, described”
The forecast graphics, described panel by panel for the exercise.
🔒 This companion text — 3 numbered paragraphs — ships in the kit. See plans →
The task students work on
The class extracts the three rules and the exception as IF/THEN conditions, pulls each panel's numbers (with the pre-6-a.m. addition done carefully), then integrates: each rule run against its data, the map trap caught and resolved by its caption, and the call made — open on time, early release — defended the way the superintendent would. The one-source test closes it: prove neither document could answer alone.
The integration grid — every rule meets its data. Cite both documents.
| The rule (NL ¶) | The data it needs (DP panel) | The join: does it fire? | What it contributes to the call |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rule 1: 4+ inches by 6 a.m. → close | |||
| Rule 2: feels-like below −10 at 6 a.m. → close | |||
| Rule 3: otherwise → open | |||
| The exception: storm after buses → open, release early |
Anticipated student strategies
Extraction first because joins need clean parts. The map trap sprung mid-lesson where it teaches hardest. The one-source test last — it names what the whole hour was.
- Extract-then-join. The student pulls rules and data separately, precisely, then runs the joins.
The intended discipline — integration fails at the extraction step more than the joining step. Exact numbers, exact times, first.
🔒 2 more anticipated strategies with select-and-sequence guidance are in the full lesson. See plans →
Lesson script
Work the trap: the email has the rule but no facts; the app has facts but no rule — and neither says whether two inches FLOODS that field. The answer needs both sources PLUS a join (does two inches flood it?). Name the lesson: tonight's documents are exactly this shape, and the question — will school close? — lives only where they meet.
Listen for: The join — a fact ABOUT the rule's threshold. Integration sometimes needs a bridge question; spotting it is the skill.
Both documents are in the workbook and the handout. Board the extractions: three rules plus the exception as conditions; then the panels — the hourly bars (do the pre-6 addition TOGETHER: ≈1.5 inches, against nearly nine by noon), the feels-like column, and the map with its caption and clock icon noted but not yet interpreted. Precision is the whole game here: 'by 6 a.m.' is not 'total,' and that distinction is about to matter enormously.
- Rules as IF/THEN with exact numbers.
- Panels as numbers — captions included, judgment postponed.
Listen for: Conditions are joinable — data can be tested against a threshold; prose has to be converted first. Extraction is translation into a joinable form.
🔒 The remaining 4 steps — fully scripted with teacher-says lines, discourse questions, look-fors, and interventions — are in the full lesson. See plans →
Misconceptions and how to respond
- “The map is the most scientific panel, so trust it most.” The map is accurate AND the wrong tool for a 6 a.m. decision — it answers the whole-day question. Formats aren't ranked by seriousness; they're matched to questions. The humble caption outranked the dramatic shading today.
- “Nine inches of snow means school obviously closes.” — the teacher response is in the full lesson.
- “Integrating just means reading both documents.” — the teacher response is in the full lesson.
- “Charts and tables are math class, not reading.” — the teacher response is in the full lesson.
🔒 Every misconception ships with a tested classroom response. See plans →
Scaffolded practice
The workbook follows gradual release rather than a page of blank prompts: 2 fully worked, 2 partially completed, then 4 independent.
- I doLiteral first — the extractions. Write the three rules and the exception as IF/THEN conditions, and list each panel's key numbers.
🔒 7 more prompts across all three release tiers are in the full lesson. See plans →
Worked solutions and scaffolds for every prompt are in the downloadable kit, included with membership. See plans and pricing.
Exit ticket
- The call — with two cited joins.
🔒 2 more exit-ticket questions are in the full lesson. See plans →
Worked answers, the completed answer tables, and the scoring rubric are in the downloadable kit, included with membership. See plans and pricing.
Printable handouts in the kit
All handouts are in Printable_Handouts.pdf inside the kit download.
Materials and classroom resources
Student experience
Students enter through a low-floor prompt, build or sketch a model, test a strategy, revise their thinking, collaborate, and present a final solution. The task remains accessible while allowing for sophisticated reasoning.
Detailed facilitation notes
- Step 1: Read the article: extract the three rules and the exception. Ask: “What do you notice?”, “What could you try next?”, and “How can you prove that?”
- Step 2: Read the data page: pull each panel's numbers. Ask: “What do you notice?”, “What could you try next?”, and “How can you prove that?”
- Step 3: Integrate: run each rule against the data — and catch the trap in the map. Ask: “What do you notice?”, “What could you try next?”, and “How can you prove that?”
- Step 4: Make the call — and defend it the way the superintendent would. Ask: “What do you notice?”, “What could you try next?”, and “How can you prove that?”
Differentiation and inclusion
Support: The rules-vs-data grid structures the integration; extend with the map-trap analysis and the write-the-announcement task.
Language support: “I started by…”, “My model shows…”, and “I know my answer is reasonable because…”.
Extension: Require a second solution, alter a condition, or have students write a challenge for another group.
Accessibility: Manipulatives, enlarged visuals, oral response choices, partner reading, and reduced-copy student pages.
Assessment plan
Formative checks: Strategy choice, accuracy, representation, collaboration, and explanation.
End evidence: The verdict (open, close, or early release) defended with at least one rule integrated with at least two data panels — including the map-caption trap resolved.
Mastery: The student completes the task accurately and explains the strategy with limited prompting.