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    • Asking Questions
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    • Inferring
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    • Finding the Main Idea
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  • 6Cs Articles
    • 1. Axe Body Spray (Critical Thinking)
    • 2. Utility Bills (Citizenship)
    • 3. Pork Roast (Creativity)
    • 4. Airplane Wheel (Character)
    • 5. Rosa Parks (Communication)
    • 6. Building Bridges (Citizenship)
    • 7. California Surfer (Character)
    • 8. Green Leader (Collaboration)
    • 9. Service Dog (Critical Thinking)
    • 10. Devious Sips (Citizenship)
    • 11. Online Shopping / Fraud (Critical Thinking)
  • SEL Stories
    • 1. US fighter pilot terrified of flying
    • 2. Change The Game – Earn Your Leisure
    • 3. This App Can Close The Gap
    • 4. Ballet, Beauty, and Being Girly
    • 5. Born Here. Failed Six Years!
    • 6. Dwayne Johnson – Hardest Worker
    • 7. What if I took it off for you?
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Pork roast cooked in a car during a record-breaking heat wave in Australia

High-interest reading article about CREATIVITY.

This article is about creativity and innovation. During a heatwave in Australia, a man cooks a pork roast in his car as an “experiment for fun.”

The creativity mini-lesson and discussion questions focus on trying something new and then observing what happens.

This article goes well with the ASKING QUESTIONS reading strategy.

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Stu Pengelly lives in Perth, Australia. It was extremely hot, so Stu decided to do an “experiment for fun.” He wanted to see if he could cook a pork roast in his car. 

It took around 10 hours to cook the piece of meat in his old Datsun car. Temperatures inside the car reached 81°C (177° Fahrenheit). Stu put a thermometer in the car so he could see how hot it was.

Stu wrote about his fun experiment on Facebook. He shared photos of the roast and thermometer.

“Those of you who missed my experiment for fun yesterday, I cooked 1,5 kg pork roast inside an old Datsun Sunny for 10 hrs on a 39 degree day. It worked a treat!”

Reuters news saw what Stu did. They asked him about the experiment. Stu told them that next time, he wants to try cooking roast beef in his car.

“A quiche would cook in 2 hours, I reckon.”

It was very hot in Western Perth that year. So hot that the temperature in December 2019 was breaking some records. Andrew Friedman is an editor at The Washington Post. He writes about extreme weather, climate change, science and the environment. Andrew wrote about how Australia was suffering from effects tied to climate change:

“Perth, located in Western Australia, has broken its all-time December record for the number of consecutive days (three) reaching or exceeding 104 degrees (40 Celsius)… According to [Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology], extreme heat is Australia’s top weather-related killer.”

A few different news outlets wrote about Stu’s story. Natacha Larnaud writes for CBS News. She wrote about how Stu ended his Facebook post with a warning about the dangers of extreme heat.

“Do not leave anyone or anything precious to you in a hot car, not for a minute… And if you do see kids or dogs in a hot car, do not hesitate to smash the window to get them out as soon as possible.”

Creativity / Innovation Mini-Lesson

Creativity and innovation are learnable skills.

This means that if we are able to put ourselves into a growth mindset, we can recognize that if we do certain strategies, we can become more creative.

Every day, we get stuck into patterns. We hang out with the same people. We eat the same foods. We do the same exercise routine (or not exercise at all.)

These patterns and habits make us who we are. One strategy to help us become more creative and innovative is to do something new or different, and then observe what happens when you break a pattern or change or habits.

Do something different. Try something new. When you do something different, it’s important that you pay attention to what happens. Start to wonder why things happen that way.

  • Observe what happens when you break a pattern and do something new.
  • Observe how you feel.
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Filed Under: Reading Comprehension 6Cs Article Tagged With: article-003

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Different Reading Strategies List (PDF)

Evaluating Reading Strategy: Lesson, video, handouts (that work with any text)

Evaluating Reading Strategy Lesson Plan

How to Infer – 4 PRO TIPS: 1. Figure out what the text is really saying even though it doesn’t say it like this. (Evidence from the text + your thinking = an inference) 2. Your inference cannot be directly in the text. It has to be something new that you figured out based on the text. 3. Use Somebody Wanted But So to think about the text and make inferences. 4. Use It says, I say, And so to explain your inference.

Inferring Reading Strategy Lesson Plan (Inferencing)

How to Make (Deeper) Connections - 4 PRO TIPS: 1. Connect with things you’ve read (text to text), things you’ve experienced (text to self), or things people know (text to world) 2. Avoid simple connections. Find things that are same-same but different. 3. Use one of these thought patterns: "This is like that, but… so…" or "A is like B, and B is _ so A is probably _" 4. Stop after every heading or paragraph and make a connection

Making Connections Reading Strategy Lesson Plan: How to make deeper Text-to-Self, Text-to-Text, and Text-to-World connections

4 PRO TIPS to the Repairing Comprehension Reading Strategy 1. Read a paragraph and SAY SOMETHING: Ask a question, Make a connection, Make an inference, Form an opinion 2. Does your SAY SOMETHING make sense with stuff you know about the world? If not, re-read the paragraph. Use PEEP to clarify your thinking. 3. Does your SAY SOMETHING make sense with stuff you already read in this text? If not, re-read the paragraph. Re-read the other stuff you already read.Use PEEP to figure out why it doesn’t make sense. 4. PEEP: Point, Evidence, Explanation, Point

Repairing Comprehension Reading Strategy Lesson Plan

Asking Questions Reading Comprehension Strategy - 4 PRO TIPS 1. Don't ask a question you already know the answer to. 2. Try to answer your own question. Use evidence from the text. 3. Ask lots of questions. Include higher-order thinking questions (why or how / would or might) 4. Stop after every heading or paragraph and ask a question.

Asking Questions Reading Strategy

FIND THE MAIN IDEA 4 PRO TIPS: 1. Focus on the BIG PICTURE (the entire article). Summarize the entire article in a word or phrase. What general point is the author trying to make? 2. Look for clues in key spots. (How is the text organized?) 3. Think about each paragraph. What is this paragraph about? (Where is the main idea in the paragraph? Beginning? Middle? End?) What role does this paragraph play?  4. Find the “best” main idea. The main idea is NOT always directly stated. The best idea has strong support from the beginning, middle, and end of the entire article.

Finding the Main Idea – Reading Comprehension Strategy Lesson Plan

Active Reading Strategies Lesson and Handouts: Works with any text!

Active Reading Strategies Lesson – Power Up Tool Kit

6Cs Reading Comprehension Articles

  • Axe Body Spray stops a Florida school bus due to a “hazardous materials incident”
  • Small business owner pays it forward by paying overdue utility bills for 36 families over the holidays
  • Pork roast cooked in a car during a record-breaking heat wave in Australia
  • Airplane wheel falls off during takeoff in Canada
  • Rosa Parks: Quiet Courage in Communication
  • Building Bridges between Police and Youth
  • California Surfer Breaks Stereotypes – Character Education
  • Green Leader Says It Shouldn’t Have Taken This Long – Collaboration
  • Service Dog – Is this Discrimination? (Critical Thinking)
  • Devious Sips, TikTok trends, and Active Citizenship
  • Online Shopping and Fraud – Critical Thinking – Article 011

SEL Reading Comprehension Articles

  • This US fighter pilot is terrified of flying…
  • Change The Game And Earn Your Leisure
  • This App Can Help Close The Gap
  • Ballet, Beauty, and Being Girly
  • Born Here. Failed Six Years!
  • Dwayne Johnson The Rock
  • What if I took it off for you? Reading Response Passage

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