Lesson 43: Discovering Hidden Innovators, Preparing a Presentation

This section helps students shift into final-stage thinking by prioritizing completion and clarity. Students review expectations for a complete performance task and identify what makes writing feel finished and credible. They begin preparing to move from revision into finalization and presentation planning.

Turn and Talk

Say these Directions: Turn and talk with a partner to discuss your response to the question.

• Ask: What makes a final draft feel complete instead of just unfinished writing with fewer mistakes?

  • A final draft feels complete when the ideas are connected, the evidence supports the claim clearly, and the writing includes source credit. It also feels finished when the bibliography and presentation evidence are ready, not just the paragraphs.

Connection to Today's Learning

• Say: Today, your priority is to finalize your writing first so it is clear, complete, accurate, and ready to share or publish digitally. After that, you will use your final ideas to prepare a strong presentation that explains your claim, evidence, and visuals more concisely and clearly.

This mini-lesson teaches students how to combine source information and evidence into one clear sentence so their informative research essay sounds smooth and professional. The goal is to move students away from quote dropping and toward attribution that fits naturally into their own writing.

Sentence Combining

Sometimes writers drop a quotation or fact into a paragraph without introducing it. That is called quote dropping. It can make the paragraph feel choppy because the evidence is not connected to the writer’s own sentence. Let’s fix that by combining ideas so the source, the year, and the evidence work together in one sentence.

Use a mentor example connected to Hidden Figures:

• Say: We are going to practice with ideas from Hidden Figures because that text shows how expert information can be woven smoothly into an informative research essay.

Display these Short Ideas:

• Margot Lee Shetterly wrote Hidden Figures.

• The book was published in 2016.

• Dorothy Vaughan prepared her team for new computer technology.

Teach the sentence-combining move:

• Say: A strong research sentence does three jobs at once. It tells who the source is, when the source was published, and what the evidence shows. One easy frame is: According to ___ in [source title] (year), ___.

Teach:

• Say: I want to use evidence about Dorothy Vaughan, but right now my fact is standing alone: “Dorothy Vaughan prepared her team for new computer technology.” If I leave it like that, my reader does not know where the information came from. So I start by adding the source: “According to Margot Lee Shetterly in Hidden Figures.” Next, I add the year in parentheses right where the source is named: “According to Margot Lee Shetterly in Hidden Figures (2016).” Now I combine the evidence into the same sentence: “According to Margot Lee Shetterly in Hidden Figures (2016), Dorothy Vaughan prepared her team for new computer technology by learning new skills before the new digital computers were fully adopted by NASA.” That sounds smoother because the source is built into my sentence instead of being dropped in after the fact.

Guided practice with a second Hidden Figures example:

Display these short ideas:

• Margot Lee Shetterly wrote Hidden Figures.

• The book was published in 2016.

• Katherine Johnson’s math work helped solve major flight problems.

• Ask: How could we combine these ideas into one smooth sentence using the frame “According to ___ (year), ___”?

  • According to Margot Lee Shetterly in Hidden Figures (2016), Katherine Johnson’s math work helped solve major flight problems that mattered to NASA’s space missions.

• Ask: Why is this combined sentence stronger than dropping the evidence into the paragraph by itself?

  • This sentence is stronger because it tells the reader exactly where the information came from before giving the evidence. It sounds smoother and makes the paragraph easier to follow.

Say these directions: Now revise one sentence from your own draft. Find a place where you have a fact or quotation that feels dropped in. Rewrite it so the source name and year appear in the sentence using a frame like “According to ___ in [source title] (year), ___.”

• Ask: What should your reader learn right away when you introduce evidence from a source?

  • The reader should learn who the source is and when it was published. That way, the evidence feels trustworthy and connected to the writer’s point.

Connection to Today's Learning

• Say: You now have a simple way to make your informative research writing sound stronger. Next, you will use this same sentence move as you finish your final draft.

Part A: Complete Writing (W.6.1, W.6.2) (15 minutes)

This section focuses on completing and finalizing student writing. Students ensure that their informative essay and argument paragraph are fully developed, clearly connected, and supported with evidence. They prioritize clarity, cohesion, and completeness before moving into presentation preparation.

Say these directions: First, use your digital draft to finalize your informative research essay and argument paragraph so your ideas are complete, clearly explained, and supported with evidence. Use keyboarding skills to complete final draft sections, revise sentences, format citations, and prepare your writing for submission or publication. Use the rubric to ensure your writing includes all necessary components.

Then, use your finished writing to prepare your presentation by selecting your strongest claim, evidence, and visual. Focus on completing the writing before moving into presentation planning.

Final Digital Draft Check:

• Did I complete all required essay and argument sections?

• Did I format my writing so it is easy to read?

• Did I use digital tools to revise, edit, and finalize my work?

• Are my citations and bibliography ready for submission?

• Is my visual saved or prepared for presentation?

By the end of this section, students should have completed final draft versions of both pieces of writing. Their work should show clear claims, supported evidence, and logical transitions that make ideas easy to follow.

Check for Understanding

Provide students with a confidence continuum (i.e., 1–5). As needed, model how to demonstrate a level of confidence using the continuum.

Part B: Prepare Presentation (W.6.8) (15 minutes)

This section prepares students to present their ideas clearly by synthesizing their writing into a short, focused explanation and preparing a visual that enhances understanding. Emphasize that Part 3 requires students to communicate their thinking clearly—not read their essay—so they must select, combine, and explain their most important ideas.

Have students place their draft, source list, Research Notes, and any visuals beside them. Direct students to Part 3: Presentation of Learning in the Performance Task.

Teach:

• Say: In your essay, you explained everything in detail. In your presentation, your job is different. You are not reading your writing—you are helping your audience quickly understand your most important idea.

If I read my essay out loud, it might sound like this:

“Dorothy Vaughan learned FORTRAN so she could help NASA transition to new computer systems. According to one source, she also trained other workers…”

That sounds like reading. It’s long, and it’s hard to follow when listening.

Instead, I want to synthesize my ideas so they are clear and easy to understand. That might sound like this:

“Dorothy Vaughan deserves recognition because she helped NASA transition to new computer technology. One key example is that she learned FORTRAN and taught it to others. This shows that her work supported the entire team. This timeline helps show when that transition happened.”

Notice what I did. I started with my claim, chose one strong example, explained it clearly, and connected my visual.

Say these directions: Say: Your presentation is not a reading of your essay. It is a short explanation of your most important ideas.

To prepare, choose:

• one clear claim

• one strong piece of evidence

• one explanation of how your evidence supports your claim

• one visual that helps your audience understand your idea

Use short, clear sentences. Your goal is to help your audience understand your idea quickly, not to include every detail.

Provide time and materials for students to create, revise, or digitally format their visuals. You may choose to have students use presentation software, a digital slide, a chart, or another approved classroom tool to prepare the visual. Circulate and prompt: “What does your visual help your audience understand?” “How does this connect to your claim?”

• Ask: Which claim are you most likely to present, and how do your evidence and visual work together to support it?

  • The claim I am most likely to present is that Dorothy Vaughan’s contribution enabled NASA to adapt to major technological change. The best support is a fact from my research about her programming leadership, and the timeline visual supports that claim by showing when that transition happened.

• Ask: How is preparing for a presentation different from writing an informative research essay or argumentative paragraph?

  • Preparing for a presentation means choosing the most important ideas and explaining them clearly, rather than including every detail.

Ask two or three students to share quick responses.

• Say: As you prepare, focus on clarity. Your goal is to help your audience understand your innovator’s contribution and why it matters using clear explanation, strong evidence, and a visual that supports your ideas.

By the end of this section, students should have a clear presentation plan that includes a claim, evidence, explanation, and visual. They should understand how to communicate complex research ideas concisely and clearly to an audience.

This reflection helps students identify the final steps they took to complete their performance task. Students consider how their revisions, final edits, or presentation planning improved clarity and understanding. The goal is to reinforce the connection between revision and strong communication.

Quick Write

Say these directions: In two to three sentences, describe one final step you completed today that improved your writing or presentation preparation. Explain how this step made your work clearer, more accurate, or easier for a reader or audience to understand.

• Today I finalized part of my digital draft and chose one supported claim and visual that I can use clearly in my presentation. This improved my performance task because my writing is more complete and my audience will better understand how my evidence supports my claim. This improved my performance task because it helps me explain my ideas more clearly to my audience and makes it easier for them to understand how my evidence supports my claim.

Optional Sentence Starter:

Today I ___. This improved my performance task because ___.

Have students complete and digitally submit or prepare their bibliography, accurately citing each source they used. Students may also finalize their presentation materials using classroom-approved digital tools.