English Language Arts
Read Aloud
Title: Always Looking Up: Nancy Grace Roman, Astronomer
View the read aloud
here
Opening Move / Book Introduction:
This is a biography about Nancy Grace Roman, an astronomer. NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) was created in 1958, and Nancy joined them as the Chief Astronomer in 1959. That was a really big accomplishment as she was one of few women in this line of work.
As I read, note the structure of the book. Remember the Non-fiction text structures are: Sequence, Cause & Effect, Description, Categorical, Compare and Contrast, and Problem Solution.
Stopping Point #1: Read from the beginning of the book to the bottom of the page with the illustration of her college class.
How do you think Nancy must have felt being the only woman in her classes? What makes you say that?
Stopping Point #2: Continue reading to the bottom of the page with an illustration of the Hubble Space Telescope.
Do you think Nancy’s development of the Hubble Telescope lead to new discoveries and deeper understandings of the universe? Use text evidence to support your answer.
Stopping Point #3: Read until the end of the book.
What text structure did the author use to write Nancy’s story? How do you know?
Writing about Reading related to the read aloud text:
Use your Writers Notebook to complete the prompt below. Add the book title as your header and the date. If your teacher uses Google Classroom, you may begin typing your responses in a new document.
Visit Britannica Kids Nancy Grace Roman - Kids to read more about Nancy.
Compare and contrast Always Looking Up with Nancy Grace Roman. What information do you notice was included in the biography? What information from the Britannica article is new to you? Math & Science (Social Studies too)
Tasks: Look at page 4 in Always Looking Up. Use a device to look up the distances between the capital cities of Tennessee, Texas, Oklahoma, New Jersey, and Michigan. Use decimal addition and subtraction to answer these questions, then come up with one or two of your own!
What is the total number of Miles Nancy Grace moved for her father’s job?
Which distance is greater? Tennessee to Texas or Oklahoma to New Jersey?
Come up with a question of your own!
Solve these word problems:
Joan bought 2 pounds of grapes for $1.99 per pound and 3 pounds of apples priced at $1.50 per pound. She paid with a $20 bill. How much change did she receive? Write and solve an equation to show the problem.
Kay had twice as many pairs of shoes as Cheryl. Cheryl had 5 pairs of shoes. Kay just bought 4 more pairs of shoes. How many pairs of shoes does Kay have? Write an equation and solve the problem.