Lesson Plan - Meet A Military Family

Learning Objective

Students will read about the sacrifices that members of the U.S. military and their families make in order to serve the country. 

Text Structure

Profile, Description 

Content-Area Connections

Civics; U.S. History 

Standards Correlations

CCSS: RI.4.1, RI.4.2, RI.4.3, RI.4.4, RI.4.5, RI.4.6, RI.4.7, RI.4.8, RI.4.10, L.4.4, SL.4.1

NCSS: Civic Ideals and Practices

TEKS: Social Studies 4.17 

1. Preparing to Read

Watch a Video: Meet a Military Family
Ask: How have Ava and Adonis Garcia been affected by having a dad in the military? 

Preview Words to Know 
Project the online vocabulary slideshow and introduce the Words to Know.

  • sacrifice 
  • deployed 


Set a Purpose for Reading 
Point out the “As You Read” question and have students identify sacrifices military families make. 

2. Close-Reading Questions

1. How does the author start the article? Why do you think she starts this way? 
She starts by describing a time that Adonis and Ava were at a baseball game and their dad surprised them by showing up after months on active duty. She begins this way to show how military families miss each other during time apart. 
(RI.4.5 CRAFT AND STRUCTURE)

2. Why will Adonis and Ava not be FaceTiming with their dad for a while?
Adonis and Ava don’t need to FaceTime with their dad right now because Juan is home in California. 
(RI.4.1 TEXT EVIDENCE)

3. Based on the sidebar “Life at Sea,” how is the USS Theodore Roosevelt like a floating city?
This aircraft carrier is like a floating city because it is enormous. It holds 5,500 sailors and is as tall as a 24-story building. Inside the ship are a gym, supermarket, and a post office. 
(RI.4.7 TEXT FEATURES)

3. Skill Building

FEATURED SKILL: Main Idea
Use the skill builder “What’s the Main Idea?” to have students identify the main idea and several key details in the article. 
(RI.4.2 MAIN IDEA AND KEY DETAILS)

Text-to-Speech