Reading

Lesson 18: Hidden Figures, Chapter 21 and “John Glenn Orbits the Earth”

50 min

California CCSS: Focus Standards

California CCSS: Supporting Standards

ELD Standards

Student Lesson

Lesson 18: Hidden Figures, Chapter 21 and “John Glenn Orbits the Earth”

Student Learning Objectives

Content

Students will compare two authors’ presentations of John Glenn’s mission and evaluate which text best supports the idea that the mission was dangerous and risky.

Language

Students will use compare/contrast transitions, and technical vocabulary to explain how the two texts present risk, reliability, and collaboration.

Foundations

Students will analyze technical explanations and use modal verbs to discuss mission risks with precision.

Essential Question

How do curiosity, evidence, and collaboration lead to discovery?

Connections to

Knowledge-Building:

Students continue Investigation 1 by studying how John Glenn’s mission depended on technical systems, human judgment, and coordinated teamwork.

Enduring Understanding:

Scientific discovery grows through questions, evidence, and collaboration, especially when people must trust both tools and one another.

Future Lessons:

Students will carry this cross-source comparison work into later reading and then into research, where they will need to synthesize evidence from multiple sources about hidden innovators.

Unit Performance Task:

Students practice synthesizing information from multiple sources and judging which evidence is most convincing, a key skill for researching and explaining an innovator’s contribution and significance.

Lesson Pacing

Lesson Flow	Purpose of Learning Experience
Launch5 Minutes	Activate prior learning from Chapter 20 and frame today’s comparison of how two texts present the danger and significance of John Glenn’s mission.
Literacy Lab10 Minutes	Explicitly teach technical vocabulary and language choices that help students interpret mission risk and reliability.
Learning in Action30 Minutes	Part A: Compare How the Mission Is Told (RI.6.9)Stude nts will compare Chapter 21 and the article using a Venn diagram to identify similarities and differences in how each text presents danger, evidence, and collaboration. Learning in Action B: Decide Which Text Makes the Stronger Case (RI.6.8) Students will evaluate which text more strongly supports the claim that Glenn’s mission was dangerous and explain why using evidence from both sources.