Animals who live underwater are fascinating.
Studying their life and behavior is the focus of a marine
biologist. This might be a career to explore if you like animals
and love mysteries. Take on the role for a day and go hunting
with a seal! Find out what this marine biologist discovered
by reading"Marine biologist gets a 'seal's-eye
view'" linked on the right. While you get involved
in the thrill of diving with a seal, remember to read for
main ideas and supporting details too.
Practice skimming the article for major ideas. Before
you read the article sentence by sentence in order,
first read the title,
then read the first sentence of each paragraph to
get an idea of the major ideas and what the article is about.
Now, try this: As you are reading, use one of these
strategies to help organize the information into important ideas,
and supporting details.
Print the article and use a highlighter for important ideas,
another color for supporting details
On notebook paper, draw a web with main or important ideas
in a circle, supporting details attached with a line to the
circle
On notebook paper, outline the information in the article.
Use the main or important ideas as headings, the supporting
details as subheadings under each main idea.
save your notes because they will be useful in the next
practice item, as well as for other lessons.
Using one of these strategies will help you be prepared
to answer each question.
Question:
To hunt their prey, seals use their highly
developed eyes rather than sound as previously thought.
According to the
passage, which of the following details supports this idea?
Yes
No
Maybe
Answers
A.
An interesting hunting technique used by seals is to blow
a blast of air into crevices where smaller fish hide, causing
the fish to escape only to turn into dinner for the seals.
B.
The tiny video camera strapped to a seal's head
showed how the seal tracked his 100 pound cod dinner by swimming
under the cod before moving in for the kill.
C.
Even though seals make a lot of noise while lounging on the
rocks, they hunt in silence.
D.
Hunting dives usually last 20 minutes, but several dives were
recorded at 65 minutes, and one at an astounding 82 minutes.
Is your answer A, B, C or D? Check for the correct answer.
What did you learn about seals from this article?
They are interesting creatures. Imagine being able to hold your
breath through two entire episodes of your favorite sit-com?
That is a long time!
