FOCUS Books

Tips

Why Use FOCUS Books

FOCUS Books help students dig deeper into high-interest science topics while helping you address language arts standards, such as the Common Core State Standards, and science standards, including the Next Generation Science Standards.*

Each FOCUS Book supports science and literacy skills within the structure of the book:

• A FOCUS Question on each book's title page sets a purpose for reading and identifies a crosscutting concept for the book.
• The Read-Think-Write page assesses students' reading comprehension and their understanding of the Disciplinary Core Ideas, strengthening the reading-writing connection.
• A hands-on, student-directed science experiment or engineering design challenge on the back cover of each book helps students to apply what they have learned and develop Scientific and Engineering Practices.

* Next Generation Science Standards is a registered trademark of Achieve. Neither Achieve nor the lead states and partners that developed the Next Generation Science Standards was involved in the production of, and does not endorse, this product.

How to Use FOCUS Books

FOCUS Books are additional science books for each instructional unit that can be used in a variety of classroom scenarios:

• Introduce a Science A-Z instructional unit by reading a FOCUS Book.
• Extend unit instruction beyond Unit Nonfiction Books by having students read related FOCUS Books.
• Give students a choice of FOCUS Books for independent reading.
• Flip your classroom by having students read FOCUS Books at home and complete the experiments and engineering challenges at school.

The role of FOCUS Books as additional science books within each unit is to spark students' curiosity and inspire further exploration and discovery.

FOCUS Book Teaching Tips accompany each book and contain key features:

• A table that shows the connections to national science standards.
• A vocabulary list that provides key terms for pre-teaching (or front-loading).
• Answer keys that suggest responses for all assessment questions.
• Instructional supports that help you facilitate student-directed activities.