Reading

Lesson 14: Hidden Figures, Chapter 16 and Sputnik

50 min

California CCSS: Focus Standards

California CCSS: Supporting Standards

ELD Standards

Student Lesson

Lesson 14: Hidden Figures, Chapter 16 and Sputnik

Student Learning Objectives

Content

Students will integrate information presented in Chapter 16, the Sputnik text, and historical visuals to explain Langley’s reaction to Sputnik.

Language

Students will synthesize information using comparison frames, and precise scientific vocabulary in a short evidence-based explanation.

Foundations

Students respond orally and in writing to information presented in a variety of formats.

Essential Question

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

Connections to

Knowledge-Building:

Students build on earlier lessons about technological change, adaptation, and teamwork at Langley by examining how Sputnik created a new scientific challenge.

Enduring Understanding:

Scientific discovery grows through questions, evidence, and collaboration, especially when people respond to urgent new problems.

Future Lessons:

Students will carry today’s source-integration work into reading Chapter 17 and later research lessons where they will synthesize across multiple sources.

Unit Performance Task:

Students practice combining information from different sources to explain key ideas, a skill they will need in their Hidden Innovators research article.

Lesson Pacing

Lesson Flow	Purpose of Learning Experience
Launch5 Minutes	Build interest in the text Sputnik by having students discuss their first impressions of the images and the term “Space Race.”
Literacy Lab10 Minutes	Build precise scientific domain-specific vocabulary that students can draw on as they explain Sputnik and Langley’s entry into the Space Race.
Learning in Action30 Minutes	Part A: Analyzing Sources (RI.6.7, SL.6.2) Students will analyze information from Chapter 16, the Sputnik text, and a historical image to identify what each source contributes. Part B: Synthesizing Sources (RI.6.7) Students will synthesize across sources in a short written explanation of Langley’s urgent response to Sputnik.