Integrate a printed notice, a web page and a data table on one issue, and determine domain-specific word meanings

Learning goal: This lesson teaches Ohio's 2026 standards RI.6.7 and RI.6.4, first implemented in 2027-28. You will integrate information presented in multiple print or digital sources to develop a coherent understanding of a topic or issue, and you will determine the meaning of domain-specific words and phrases as they are used in an informational text, including figurative, connotative and technical meanings.

What "integrate" means. To integrate sources is to combine what each one contributes into one understanding that is more complete than any single source. It is not the same as summarizing each source in turn. A reader who writes "Source 1 says this, Source 2 says that, Source 3 says something else" has listed the sources. A reader who writes "The notice proposes trees, the web page explains why shade cools pavement, and the measurements show how large the difference is on this playground" has integrated them: each fact now does a job in one explanation. A coherent understanding is one whose parts fit together, and it includes the places where the sources leave a gap or seem to disagree.

Print and digital sources contribute differently. A printed notice is usually short and written to get action: a date, a request, a reason. A web page from an agency can explain background and link to more information. A data table gives numbers without explaining them. Ask three questions of every source: What does this source add that the others do not? What does it leave out? Does it agree with the others? Record the answers before you write.

Domain-specific words. A domain is a field of knowledge, such as science, sports or city planning. Domain-specific words and phrases have a particular meaning in that field. Canopy in everyday speech might mean a cover over a bed; in city planning it means the layer of leaves and branches that trees spread over the ground. Words in informational texts can carry three kinds of meaning:

- A technical meaning is the exact meaning a field gives a term. Surface temperature means how hot the top of a material is, measured on the material itself, not the air temperature above it.
- A figurative meaning uses a comparison to explain. Heat island does not describe an island; it describes an area that stays hotter than the land around it, the way an island stands apart from the water around it.
- A connotative meaning is the feeling or attitude a word carries beyond its definition. Calling a playground a "blacktop desert" and calling it an "open play area" can name the same place, but desert suggests harsh, empty and unwelcoming, while open suggests space and freedom.

To determine the meaning, read the whole sentence and the sentences around it, check whether the author defines the term, and then test your meaning by substituting it back into the sentence.

The misconception. Students often think that a figurative phrase in an informational text is less accurate than a technical term. Authors of informational texts use figurative phrases on purpose, to help readers picture an idea, and the phrase can be precise in what it points to. The reader's job is to state what the comparison means, not to take it literally or ignore it.

Source 1 — Original printed notice, sent home from the invented Linden Middle School Parent-Teacher Group

Shade for the Blacktop. Our west playground is a treeless blacktop desert. On sunny afternoons students crowd into the one strip of shade beside the gym. The Parent-Teacher Group has received a small grant (invented for this lesson) to plant six young shade trees along the south edge of the blacktop on Saturday, April 18. Volunteers should bring gloves and a shovel. Questions? Ask in the main office.

Source 2 — Original web page from the invented Ridgefield City Parks Department: "Cooling Hot Spots with Trees"

What is a heat island? Streets, parking lots and playgrounds made of dark asphalt absorb sunlight and grow much hotter than grass or soil. Areas with a lot of pavement and few trees can stay warmer than nearby green areas, day and night. Planners call these areas heat islands.

How do trees help? Trees cool the ground in two ways. Their canopy blocks sunlight before it reaches the pavement, so shaded asphalt stays cooler. Trees also release water vapor from their leaves, a process called transpiration, which cools the air around them the way sweat cools skin.

What to expect. Young trees are small. It can take several years before a new tree's canopy shades a large area. Planting on the south and west sides of a paved area puts the shade where the afternoon sun comes from.

Source 3 — Original data table, digital spreadsheet shared by a sixth-grade science class (invented measurements)

Surface temperature measured with an infrared thermometer at 2 p.m. on three sunny days, in degrees Fahrenheit:

Integrating the three sources, modeled. The notice gives the issue and the action: no trees, a crowd in the one shady strip, six trees to be planted. The web page gives the explanation: dark asphalt absorbs sunlight, and a canopy blocks it. The table gives the size of the effect on this playground: sunlit blacktop averaged 128 degrees, shaded blacktop 97, a difference of 31 degrees. Together they support one coherent understanding: shade makes a large difference to the surface temperature of this blacktop, and the planned trees are meant to create more of it. Integration also shows a gap. The web page says young trees need several years to shade a large area, while the notice says nothing about when the shade will arrive. A reader who used only the notice might expect cool pavement by summer; a reader who integrates both knows the benefit grows over time.

Worked example 1 — a technical meaning. In Source 2, "transpiration" is defined in the sentence itself: trees "release water vapor from their leaves." Technical meaning: the release of water vapor from plant leaves. Test by substitution in a new sentence: "On a hot afternoon an oak's transpiration cools the air under it" becomes "an oak's release of water vapor from its leaves cools the air under it," which still makes sense, so the meaning fits. The comparison "the way sweat cools skin" is figurative support for the technical term, not a second meaning.

Worked example 2 — a figurative and a connotative meaning. "Heat island" (Source 2) is figurative: the paved area is compared to an island because it stands apart, hotter than the green land around it. The printed notice (Source 1) calls the playground a "blacktop desert." The denotation is simply "a hot paved area," but the connotation, harsh and empty, adds the writer's attitude. A neutral report would write "a paved area with no trees." Both describe the same place; only one tells you how the writer feels.

Worked example 3 — integrating a number from the table with an explanation from the web page. Question: Why is the grass cooler than the blacktop even though both are in full sun? The table gives the fact: grass in sun averaged 101 degrees and blacktop in sun 128, a difference of 27 degrees. The web page gives the reason: dark asphalt absorbs sunlight and grows much hotter than grass or soil. Neither source alone answers the question; the table shows that it happens here, and the web page explains why. The average of 101 checks: 101 + 104 + 98 = 303, and 303 divided by 3 is 101.

Worked example 4 — noticing what integration cannot answer. Question: Will the six trees make the blacktop 31 degrees cooler next summer? The table's 31-degree difference comes from the gym's full shade, not from young trees. The web page says a new canopy takes several years to shade a large area. So the sources support "the trees are likely to cool the part of the blacktop they eventually shade," but they do not support a specific number for next summer.

Integration grid (representation task): Draw a three-column grid, one column per source. In each column write (1) what the source contributes, (2) what it leaves out and (3) one domain-specific word or phrase it uses, with its meaning labeled technical, figurative or connotative. Under the grid write two sentences that combine information from at least two sources into one idea.

Word meaning log: For canopy, surface temperature, absorb, heat island and blacktop desert, record the sentence, your meaning, the clue you used (definition in the text, example, comparison, surrounding sentences) and the type of meaning.

Independent performance: Write a 250-word explanation for a family member answering Should Linden Middle School expect the new trees to help, and when? Success criteria: (1) information from all three sources is used and cited by source number; (2) at least one number from the table is combined with an explanation from the web page; (3) at least two domain-specific terms are used accurately, one of them technical and one figurative; (4) the gap about how long young trees take to grow is named; (5) no claim goes beyond what the sources support, including any specific temperature for next summer.