I find that some nonfiction texts are overwhelming with information that it is hard to keep up with the key facts about specific topic. I realized that my students end up struggling and needed a high level of prompting. One learning activity I could use to promote student learning would be helping my students synthesize what is at the heart of an informational text by using “text-message” method of brief communication. I would explain to my students that sending a text message is one easy way of communication. We will read the nonfiction story and then “text message” the most important details to our friend. Students will receive a copy of the book in a pocket size view as well as the Text Message Printable. Each student will receive four pages
AICE General Paper - Nonfiction Name: Jeffrey Estimon Nonfiction Major Works Data Sheet: Do not include material from a website, which is a form of plagiarism. Title: Night Author: Elie Wiesel. Date of publication: 1956. Genre: Novel, Autobiographical novel, Memoir, Autobiography, Non-fiction novel. Historical Information about the period of publication or setting of the novel: The book took place from 1944 - 1945 in Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald towards the end of World War II.
Tell students that now that they have completed several lessons about summarizing, they are going to show you that they really know how to summarize. They will break into groups and fill in one part of a story map, about Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. Then each group will present their answer to summarize Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs as a class. Finally, you are going to give them "book" pages on which they will write and draw about Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. They will use their books to summarize the story for their family members. Remind them that their summaries should always be shorter than the real book because a summary only includes the most important information about a story. It should be "short and sweet."
Blood here and blood there! Shots are being fired from every direction and screams begin to emerge from deep within the forest. They become louder and louder and seem to come closer with every step taken. Then there is an eerie silence and as everything seems to calm down, a grenade goes off in the distance. Does this seem real? Could this be real? The way war is portrayed in movies is not always the honest truth. Most of the times the way war is depicted very action packed and heroic. Although this is true in some cases, there are sides of war that some do not see. There are days in war where nothing extremely dangerous happens. There are also sides of soldiers, emotionally, that one does not see. In the book The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, war and the soldiers are portrayed in way that is rarely seen. The same can be said for a poem by Wilfred Owen titled Dulce et Decorum Est. O'Brien and Owen both portray the reality of war, however O'Brien goes deeper into the truth behind the reality or war.
...s book will relate even more to it and increase their interests. This will not only encourage these types of readers to keep on reading but this will also help them have a better understanding of the text.
Perhaps, better choice of books that students can familiarize themselves with would be aid to grab the students attention. Throughout the years in schools, the choice of reading has only become books flustered with similes, metaphors, alliteration etc. As Francine Prose declared, “In fact, less and less attention is being paid to what has been written, let alone how; its become a rarity for a teacher to suggest that a book might be a work of art composed of words and sentences, or that the choice of these words and sentences can inform and delight us.” In other words, not much appreciation is given to the what the book is actually stating or conveying. More attention is being given to unnecessary things such as the authors opinions. For instance teachers think of the students education as only a paycheck, rather than elaborating the meaning of the book which refers to the students education. Teachers have the students discussing why the author has written a certain sentence or in many cases why has the author written particular sentences next to each other. In present day classroom settings, the majority do not pay attention due to the book choice and the few who do are not learning the importance of the story. The majority of english teachers teach the students values through the novels that are being read. For example as Francine Prose preached, “Its
The first and one of the most hotly debated topics even outside the classroom is the fiction vs. nonfiction debate. The current push is for more nonfiction towards the high school level. It has been studied the percentage of reading done for English in 8th grade is around 55% and only four years later in 12th grade it rises to 77%. The push for more nonfiction comes from a belief that our English education focuses on self-expression too much. Which many say is a useable skill in the workplace (Mosle). Even with this push towards nonfiction reading scores of 17-year olds haven’t shown a large improvement since the 1980’s (Mathews).The problem may not be the quantity of the nonfiction or the existence of it in the English curriculum, the problem leans more towards the quality and type of non-fiction being taught. The non-fiction currently being taught is usually a narrative. There is a subgenre of non-fiction that will both keep kids entertained and give them the skills they need from reading non-fiction. This subgenre is literary narrative. There are many examples of these types of texts and novels that can be taught, but rarely are. One wildly, popular, best-selling example of a lite...
The power of nonfiction stems from its ability to address universal themes while simultaneously impacting the reader. By focusing on universal themes, nonfiction pieces resonate with larger audiences that find the subject matter relatable and often reflective of their own observations and societies. The nonfiction pieces written based on diverse perspectives permit the reader to witness the world through the eyes of the author, and simultaneously recall personal experiences. Portraying diverse viewpoints and ideas, authors of nonfiction pieces hold the ability to alter their reader’s opinion. In particular, the four nonfiction essays display their potential to evoke reflection and response through the depiction of universal themes, especially cultural values and barriers.
My favorite piece of reading material this week is Drawing on Text Features for Reading Comprehension and Composing. It echoes chapter 3, from our Content Area Literacy Instruction textbook. It shines a brief, but rich light on the fact that there is a huge variety of text and media resources available to teachers. The article explains how multimedia publications have the potential to draw students into learning, in ways that textbooks may not. It also mentions that sometimes presenting these different types of reading materials to students can add an additional challenge because students may need to use a new or different reading strategy in order to understand them. Typically the information is not presented as linearly
Literature is crucial and significantly important in everyday life; it helps people build vocabulary and develop comprehensive reading and writing skills. Literature consists of a variety of written works or books such as comic books and graphic novels. Comic books are a strip of comics that are produced periodically and are mostly about superheroes like superman, batman, and spiderman. Graphic novels are similar to comic books, but can be nonfictional, fictional, or an autobiography; these books relate more to real-life situations. Graphic novels are more appropriate and beneficial for teenagers to read because these novels will help them become better readers and writers. Graphic novels represent literature more effectively than comic books
This article discusses the increased informational text learning requirements as outlined in the Common Core standards and provides reading strategies to increase student comprehension levels in nonfiction reading. The author notes how reading strategies for informational text comprehension differ from those taught for the fiction genre and finds that the use of informational books within a guided reading program assists primary grade students in becoming more successful readers. She gives specific strategies for teaching informational text comprehension, including question generation, picture cues, text structure analysis, use of background knowledge, and think-alouds. The author analyzed research studies that concluded that students do not prefer fiction over non fiction texts, therefore if students are offered more selection and choice when reading informational texts, and are taught how to comprehend them using proven and specific strategies, they will develop enjoyment for the genre.
By focusing on Christopher Columbus, students were able to learn detailed information on the explorer. The book contained too much information that was hard to cover in one or two lessons. I decided to read two chapters in each lesson. I wanted to do creative activity in my unit, but we had limited time for reading. There were not enough books for all the students so they could not read at home. As the result, students had to share the book and read during class time which took half of the class period.
Our job, as educators, is to create an atmosphere in which students learn and thrive. It is a goal of every teacher to be efficient in guiding students through the learning process, all the while instilling within them the means to succeed. It has become clear that one of the most important ways an educator can do this is by helping students learn to not only read, but to understand what they’re reading as well. Learning to read and comprehend is an important skill that is used consistently throughout everyday life. It is not only used for discovering new things and expanding the imaginations of readers everywhere, but it is also a vital tool in communicating during day-to-day activities. One way that teachers can accommodate students with the gift of reading, is by introducing students to literacy strategies that can help them make reading an easier and more enjoyable task. Luckily, there is a wide variety of strategies that an educator can use, but the one that I will focus on is known as reciprocal teaching.
Motivation plays an important part in most areas of life, including education. It is especially essential in the area of reading. Classrooms are filled with students who never want to read and others who have a book tucked underneath their arms at all times. It is the goal of all educators to encourage those avid and reluctant readers alike to engage in reading activities at school and at home. The engaged reader is motivated, knowledgeable, strategic, and socially interactive (Gambrell, 1996).
“Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become,” said C.S. Lewis, noted author. This quote, to me, is the most appropriate description of the importance of literature in our lives. Literature reminds us of stories, epics, sacred scriptures and classical works of the ancient and modern times, in which the book To Kill a Mockingbird clearly does. Literature is defined as the body of written works of a language, period or culture, produced by scholars and researchers, specialized in a given field. Why is literature important? Well, let’s see as stated in the quotation by C.S. Lewis, literature not only describes reality but also adds to it. Yes, literature is not merely a depiction of reality; it is rather a value-addition. Literary works are portrayals of the thinking patterns and social norms prevalent in society. They are an illustration of the different facets of common man's life. Literary works serve as a food for thought and a tonic for imagination and creativity. Exposing an individual to good literary works, is equivalent to providing him/her with the finest of educational opportunities. On the other hand, the lack of exposure to literary works is equal to depriving an individual from an opportunity to grow as an individual. To Kill a Mockingbird provides its readers with the ‘finest of educational opportunities’ and that is why it is an important literary work. Harper Lee’s book is a powerful literary work because of the following literary devices employed: Setting, Allegory, and point of view. However before one can dissect the devices used, one must h...
This topic should be one that they feel comfortable talking about and one they consider important. I know that my students will need to be first be exposed to different examples of the nonfiction genre. I will do several read alouds with my students followed by a discussion about the author’s choice in layout of the information and how the author used text features to inform the audience. Students will then have to decide what their purpose of their writing will be. During this stage I will have my students learn about research and how to detect good information. This will allow them to find purpose in looking up information and gathering data for their writing. They can choose their purpose to be to inform, instruct, narrate, persuade, or respond. After selecting their purpose, students need to determine their audience as well as how they will relate the topic to their audience. Students will then decide how they will use text features to inform the reader. They will use the examples from the read alouds or other nonfiction books to determine how they will arrange their text features. Throughout the entire process I want to create an environment that lets my students know that I believe in them and that are capable of reaching the caliber of the authors in the read alouds. My students will feel comfortable sharing about their individualized writing process