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DURING READING
GUIDED PRACTICE Have students discuss how they would use the strategy to answer the following question.
What materials should you use to make the bedding?
INDEPENDENT PRACTICE After students answer the following test question, discuss the process they used to find information.
What is the fifth step in making a
worm bin?
Use the Strategy
  1. Read the test question and locate a key word or phrase.
  2. Scan the selection for the key word or phrase.
  3. Check to see if the photographs or illustrations support the step you are being asked information about. Write one sentence that tells what is happening in the photograph or illustration.
  4. If the question is multiple choice, see if what you have written matches one of the answer choices given. If so, choose that answer. If the question is short answer, use what you have written to help you write a short response.
USE PHOTOGRAPHS Explain that students may be asked to read how-to articles and answer questions about them on tests. Often there are photographs or illustrations that go along with the text. Tell students that they can use the photographs and illustrations to help them better understand steps that may be confusing. Provide the following strategy.
TEST PRACTICE
Strategies
for Nonfiction
Text Structure
Possible response: These steps are easy to follow because they are clearly identified.
CONNECT TEXT TO TEXT
Reading Across Texts
Discuss the importance of worms for gardeners. Help students list effects worms have on a garden.
Writing Across Texts Encourage students to use bulleted or numbered lists to complete the activity.
1
Making Your Worm Bin
Poke small holes through the bottom of
the container.
Prepare the container.
2
1
Maintaining Your Worm Bin
Pay attention to how much the worms
are eating. If they are not eating all the
scraps, feed them less.
Feed the worms.
Make sure the bedding does not dry out.
Keep the bedding moist.
2
Add about a handful of soil. You can put
in some dead leaves, too, if you like.
Fill the container about threequarters
full with small pieces of torn
newspaper. (Do not use any colored or
shiny newspaper.)
Prepare the bedding.
4
3
Compost helps plants grow better. Add it
to potted houseplants or to your outdoor
flower or vegetable garden.
Use the compost!
Worms eat their bedding as well as their
food. When the bedding is mostly gone,
push what’s left to one side and add fresh,
damp bedding to the other side. Bury the food
scraps in the new bedding. The worms will
move to the food so you can harvest the
compost without taking all the worms with it.
Harvest the compost.
3
Make sure all the bedding is damp,
but not soaking wet.
Pour water on the
bedding.
4
Gently move the worms into their
new home.
Add the worms.
6
5
Make sure air can still move in and
around the bin.
Cover the bin.
Bury the food scraps in the bedding.
Feed the worms.
Writing Across Texts Make a list
of helpful things that worms do for us.
You have read The Gardener and “Worms
at Work.” What do both selections tell
about taking care of a garden?
Reading Across Texts
Text Structure
Are these steps easy to follow? Why?
 
   
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ELL
Test Practice Write the Guided Practice question on the board. Discuss with students what the key words in the question are and underline them. If students are having difficulty answering the question, direct their attention to the first illustration. Discuss with students what the illustration is telling them to do and have them write a brief answer to the question.