Nonfiction Earthworm Articles Differentiated with Common Core Assessment

In second grade we focus so much of our time on the life cycle of different animals. In my class we use a unit that includes this fundamental science concept with an everyday creature. The superheroes of soil, earthworms! This unit can completely stand alone and needs no other connection. However, if you liked the style and approach of the Komodo dragon unit, this is more of the same. :)

The main article is written in 2 differentiated forms. One article measures at a Lexile of 600 and the other is measured at 430. The content is exactly the same, no matter which article you read. In fact the activities are identical too! This really helps out in differentiation.

Each article uses “active reading strategies”, within the text to keep readers involved. For one paragraph the students will fill in a Venn-Diagram comparing earthworms to humans. In another they will work on word analysis through prefixes used in context with common roots. Other activities within the text include cause and effect, position of objects in relation to each other and size, making use of captions and other text features, and outlining. Important vocabulary is emboldened to attract their attention.

Each paragraph has a strong central topic in order to help students pull out main idea. The five paragraphs are written with strong Step Up to Writing elements, which allow you to break it down easily for color coding.

The writing activity uses the Details icon (Sandra Kaplan’s Depth and Complexity Icons) to focus on the details for certain themes found in each paragraph.
The Earthworm Life Cycle Sequence activity can be used in multiple ways.
All the assessment questions are written using questions stems from the CA STAR test for second and third grade. The key is included. There are two “Standards for Assessment” documents to organize the data you have gathered. One is for the Common Core Standards, and the other is for the CA State Standards. Each question is linked to one or more standards. This will give you a strong perspective on where each student’s challenges and strengths lie.


Enjoy!!! :)
This unit of study includes:
• 2 differentiated versions of the exact same article
• Graphic organizers to go with each paragraph
• A sequencing activity
• 1 multiple choice assessment
• 2 documents to help track standards data (one for CA state, and another for Common Core)
***Newly updated to include a few poetry activities- 4 different Earthworm focused poems! Use them to identify strong and interesting language, rhythm and rhyme patterns and more!
Copyright © 2012 Mandy Nygren
All rights reserved by author.
Permission to copy for single classroom use only.
Electronic distribution limited to single classroom use only.
Not for public display.


Nonfiction Earthworm Articles Differentiated with Common Core Assessment by Mandy Nygren is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.