writing nonfiction

Writing instruction has improved greatly over the years due to the research and work of Donald Graves, Lucy Calkins, Nancie Atwell and Donald Murray. Their research has influenced the way educators look at writing instruction and students are engaged in more meaningful and authentic writing experiences in the classroom. Writing in all forms is a process whether it is nonfiction or narrative.  The authors stated, “the process of writing nonfiction is but one aspect of writing in the content areas. Writing can also play a key role as means to learn content, because it has been demonstrated that writing can enhance the understanding of text and increases the likelihood that content will be remembered.” In this chapter both areas were addressed in nonfiction writing.

1.      Using the writing process and teaching practices to teach students how to write quality nonfiction

2.      Using writing as a strategy to increase learning and understanding in the content areas.

In this chapter, as readers, we were asked to think about the writing we had done this past week. We were asked if any of our writing had involved responding to a novel we had read, writing a poem or short story. The answer for me and they suspected many was; probably not. Instead, for many of us it is homework, memos, grocery lists, information about your students and so forth. The majority of the writing we do in our lives is in fact expository. As the authors stated, “we write to inform, persuade, describe, explain, teach and remind.” As teachers, we need to ensure we are preparing our students to write in this capacity not only in school but for success in their everyday lives. According to Tony Stead, “while teachers are promoting writing more in school, educators are still not promoting enough nonfiction writing.” “Teachers are doing an excellent job in helping students write narratives by teaching students all aspects of the writing process from planning to publication.” But teachers do need to open the doors beyond narrative writing and write in all content areas. According to the authors, teachers have all too often focussed on the product of writing versus process, which has hindered students especially in the content areas. Children need to be involved in the process of questioning, brainstorming and researching.  

 Here are some purposes for writing nonfiction that were outlined in this chapter.

1.      To describe (reports, letters, brochures, captions, poetry, labels, etc.)

2.      To instruct, command, direct or request (recipes, warnings, memos, games, letters, rules and experiments)

3.      To persuade (advertisements, editorals, signs, debates, cartoons, commericals, letters, posters)

4.      To explain (textbooks, recipes, articles, charts, handbooks, rules, reports)

5.      To retell information (reports, autobiographies, journals, letters, diaries, scripts)

6.      To invite reflection (quotations, learning logs, diaries, questions, journals)

7.      To predict or hypothesize (forecasts, theories, graphs, predictions, timetables)

In order for students to produce quality nonfiction, they must be given opportunity as well as explicit instruction in the above forms of writing. They must also be provided with numerous examples and opportunities to read high quality nonfiction. The authors listed some guidelines to enhance effective nonfiction writing:

1.      Give students authentic purposes for writing, with specific audiences in mind.

2.      Provide students with an awareness as to why authors use and write different forms of nonfiction. (this goes along with the discipline Discourse)

3.      Show students a variety of nonfiction writing models.

4.      Give students demonstrations on how to write different text forms for different purposes.

5.      Assure students that there is adequate time to write nonfiction pieces.

6.      Allow students to assume responsibility for their learning.

After reading these guidelines, I feel if we approach reading and the writing of nonfiction text from the discipline’s Discourse, these will fit naturally. We have to encourage and show students how to think like the historian and scientist in order to dig deeper into the material. Ask the students to read and write from that lens so they can develop deeper understandings of why and how things happen within the content area.

Strategies to use while reading nonfiction text

The book listed a variety of strategies that teachers can teach children to use while reading expository text. In my last blog I discussed the importance of general reading strategies to help students make meaning along with strategic instruction to ensure that students are becoming lifelong learners. The remaining portion of this chapter discussed specific ideas teachers could incorporate when working in specific content areas.

The first one is the universal KWL chart. The authors shared the importance of using a KWL chart because we, as educators, do know the importance of the student’s background knowledge in facilitating an understanding of what is to be learned. The authors discussed research on schema theory and that people will understand what they read as it relates to what they already know. Prior knowledge becomes crucial to the successful construction of meaning for learners. The authors continued to share two types of prior knowledge.

1.      Overall prior knowledge- This is all the knowledge that student’s possesses. This develops from student’s experiences at home (primary Discourse) and at school (secondary Discourse).

2.      Text specific knowledge- This is the specific information needed to understand a particular topic or theme developed through types of text and about the topic. Learning this knowledge comes from extensive reading, viewing programs, field trips, discussion and demonstrations. (usually secondary discourse for many students)

This where the importance of a KWL chart comes in when reading nonfiction text, because this graphic organizer can help guide a student while reading and organize information they do in fact know, the questions they have, etc.

In my experiences with nonfiction text, I have read a lot of work by Tony Stead. He suggests that you take the traditional KWL further because he feels the more traditional graphic organizer limits learners in their thinking and experiencing nonfiction text. He calls his chart the RAN chart. (reading and analyzing nonfiction) There are five categories that are connected and lead into the next. This organizer is designed to help prompt the reader to locate new content within the text which examines, strengthens and clarifies their background knowledge. Tony Stead believes that when children come with many misconceptions about the content, write them in the Know column, there usually is not an opportunity to clear them up. So he created this chart. You can organize it in columns just like the KWL chart.

1.      What I think I know (think being the key word)

2.      Confirmed (or yes, you were right)

3.      Misconceptions

4.      New information learned

5.      Wonderings  (questions)

I have found this chart to be extremely beneficial in assisting the students in organizing their thinking as well as any misconceptions they had and how to clear them up. There are many other strategies listed that I may briefly touch on in my last blog along with writing in expository text.

reading strategies and strategic instruction

Last Fall I took a Reading Process course that looked deeply into the miscues that students made while reading. By studying the miscues students made, I was able to truly understand what my students were doing well, what they needed to work on while reading and taught them to see reading as meaning making.  Shortly after beginning that course, I asked my students what it meant to be a good reader.  Most of them replied with knowing your words, reading fast, knowing your letters and being able to sound out words. Not one of them viewed reading as making meaning or comprehending text.  My students were already versed in the Discourse that reading is just sounding out words. I knew then that I would have to work very hard to help students realize that reading far extended sounding out letters. I knew I needed to teach them effective reading strategies beyond sounding out words and help my students to see the purpose of reading.

This chapter outlines how to teach students effective reading strategies and the importance of strategic instruction. First I want to share an anchor chart of reading strategies my students and I created last year.

This chart served as a reference during our skill based guided reading groups as well as our inquiry reading groups.  Eventually the students not only were able to repeat the chart but implement the strategies while reading.  Many students had already started second grade devaluing themselves as readers, but after an intensive focus on valuable reading strategies and miscue analysis; every student believed they were good readers. They didn’t view their mistakes as mistakes anymore- they were miscues. They began to learn how to articulate why they struggled with a particular word and why they read with ease during other times. I used RMA (retrospective miscue analysis) to record my students while reading, play back the session and discuss the session with each individual student. My focus was how to support each student in successful navigation of text and how to problem solve and think about what they were reading. I wanted students to ask themselves questions while reading. This reading reinforces the importance of strategic instruction but shares that no one program teaches teachers how to instruct accordingly. Our goal for students is to develop skills that enable them to critically think and problem solve in any given situation they encounter.  We want our students to be life time learners. If we teach our students to do these things, they can learn to apply their strategies in all areas of life; academic and personal. Strategic instruction involves helping students make sense of their world by teaching them the Discourse of a particular discipline. Therefore, when you ask your students what do good readers do? You want to them to respond with: They will ask does this make sense? Does this sound right when I read it in the sentence? I will use my world around me to help with words I may not understand.  There are many opportunities for teachers to demonstrate strategic learning. You can use mini lessons, shared reading, think alouds and discussion groups to model your thinking. I have found that this way of thinking and modeling has to be embedded into your daily instruction.  It has to become a part of your classroom culture. Make your thinking and their thinking visible.

Here are some questions that can enhance strategic learning for reading nonfiction text:

·         What do I need to do to make sure that I understand what I am reading?

·         Do I understand what I am reading?

·         How will I know that I understand what I am reading?

·         How will I know that I don’t understand what I am reading?

·         What can I do if I don’t understand?

Coupled with teaching students reading strategies, students must be taught and engaged in a way that ensures their learning experiences are long lasting that promote analysis, questioning and problem solving of text they encounter. (but that they can also apply these strategies in all areas of life)

How to begin nonfiction reading groups

I started off our first session by asking the children to brainstorm categories of reading.  I told them to think of as many ways to put books into groups.  I initially allotted about twenty minutes for this part of the lesson and to my amazement; it took an hour.  The children were a buzz and were coming up with one idea after another.  They were excited and engaged and rose to the occasion by stretching their minds to think of as many collections as possible.  Listed below are the initial categories they children came up with.  (there are more- this is just a sample of the list)

The children would also add to the list.  They would go straight to our list and add categories even before telling me, which was so exciting.  Loosely modeled after the leveled article, the next day I allowed the children to group themselves.  Looking at the categories we created together, I asked the kids to select three different groups they were interested in; three different groups they loved and wanted to learn even more about.  I then asked them to write the word wish below the three groups they had just selected. I then asked them to write one group they wish to be a part of because they did not know much about this category and were interested in learning more.  After the kids wrote their choices down, I had them group themselves.  I asked them to walk around the room and find friends who had similar interests.  Again, I was surprised with how smoothly this went.  The kids moved around the room with ease discussing what they loved and wanted to read.  From that day our first groups were formed.  We had a sports group, a scary book group, an ocean group and a reptile group. We immediately went to the library and checked out as many books as possible for each group.  Then we went through our classroom library and pulled as many books that were applicable to each group.  The kids had buy in like I had never witnessed, and I know it was because they were in charge of their own learning.  They were reading what they wanted to read.  Shortly after forming our groups, I overheard a student saying, “This is like our very own little book club.”  I just giggled to myself as my heart filled with excitement of what the future held for my students and their reading experiences.  To be honest, I had no idea what to expect from that day forward.  I was unsure of what our groups would look like or how they would even work.  All I knew, was my students were thrilled and eager to begin reading and that was something I had not seen during leveled literature circle groups.  When I switched reading to interest groups versus literature circles, my students did not ask one time about their other books.  Most groups were at least half way through the book they were reading in their group.  What this tells me is that what we were doing was not meaningful and there were little connections to what was being read.  They were reading out of obligation because I asked them to.  Believe me, second graders do not let you forget anything they deem important or they enjoy.

Each and every day I was impressed and astonished with what was occurring during reading groups.  My kids were reading and were genuinely excited to read.   In changing my reading instruction and how I grouped children, I hoped for several outcomes.  I hoped for meaningful and rich experiences, home to school connections, quality discussions, excitement about reading, a focus on material versus levels and an authentic reading community.  My students have gained far more than I ever could have ever anticipated. 

Here are some pictures of the children working in their nonfiction reading groups.

Upon completion of studying mummies, she built a sarcophagus for each type of salt to mummify apples

Building a volcano to errupt after studying volcanoes.

Studying bottlenose dophins and orca whales



They measured out the actual length of each whale and cut butcher paper to show the size and included their reports.

Studying reptiles together

How to use nonfiction text in the classroom

Literature circles or not?

For years, I incorporated literature circles into my classroom as a part of my reading instruction. I thought they were GREAT and they worked beautifully for what I knew and understood as a teacher, at the time. I divided my students, by level, into groups of six. I usually had between four and five literature circles reading at a time. Each student would read the same chapter, do their assigned job and complete for sharing of their job the following day. The following jobs were:

·         Travel Tracer

·         Illustrator

·         Tour Guide/Discussion Director

·         Summarizer

·         Investigator

·         Connector

My current reading outlines something very similar and gives many suggestions for ensuring Literature Circles are effective to support students in reading expository text. The suggestions were many of the ideas that I have used and or tried. 

I took a Children’s Literature course and read Beyond Leveled Books and my world changed completely. Leading up to that reading, I was beginning to sense and feel they were not as effective, for my second graders, as I once thought. No matter what I tried, my students were not engaged in discussing the literature they had read. It appeared, as I learned more, they were just going through the motions of doing their jobs and reading their chapters. There was no deep or meaningful discussions; period. The conversations were surface level at best.  I still believe Literature Circles can be effective and meaningful. I would LOVE to figure out how to possibly do a whole class literature circle group and everyone read the same book. I felt by dividing my kids up by levels was doing more harm than good to their reading growth.

Afterreading the above book, coupled with an article the following semester (that I mentioned in my second blog) I changed my reading instruction completely.  As to not recap completely, I touched on this in my second blog post. I would like to feature some of the mini lessons suggested in my reading that I find helpful when doing my interest/inquiry reading groups. I have found working in smaller groups, capitalizing on those teachable moments to teach skills that foster discussion and problem solving while reading nonfiction text has worked the best for all levels. I use a reading response journal that my students use during their interest/inquiry time to write down any and all things they encounter, question, find out, don’t understand, want to learn more about, etc.  This could be used to incorporate and document the mini lessons and to check for continued understanding and application in future lessons. (the students could use this as a reference)

I particularly liked idea of the procedural mini-lessons:

·         Conduct effective discussion

·         Choosing books or other nonfiction materials

·         Ways to respond to nonfiction

·         Setting up and using reading journal or reading logs

·         Developing effective conversational skills

·         What to do if help is needed with a passage that is confusing

But there was no “how to” do these, so I really need to use the frame that Penny discussed and that is having students think like a scientist or historian when responding. But we must first help students decide what that looks like. So maybe you could have small or whole group discussions accordingly to establish the Discourse of each discipline and teach the students how to respond and engage with expository text.

Do any of you use Literature Circles and have better luck with them? If so, would you mind sharing your experiences? Next blog, I will share some experiences about the interest/inquiry reading groups that would enhance the reading of how to use nonfiction in the classroom.

Quality nonfiction

Using quality nonfiction

This portion of the reading holds significant importance to me as an educator.  As my graduate studies come to a close in the LLSS department, I take away some invaluable lessons with regard to curriculum that needs to be sensitive to students’ and not marginalize anyone. One area of continued discussion has been the inaccuracies of social studies curriculum. I have to say, that before graduate school, I honestly had no idea. This saddens me greatly. I was operating from my secondary Discourse that I had learned in school. “Columbus sailed the ocean blue….” I clearly remember my third of teaching and I would read stories of Columbus to the children, we would color the three ships: The Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. Then we would cut them out, proudly display along with our completed sentences. (Don’t forget your capitals and periods) Oh goodness…..

To this day, I struggle A LOT with how to approach teaching certain periods in history to second graders. So, to be honest… I don’t. I know that is not good but I don’t know how, so I would rather not teach them inaccurate history at all. I know if I taught older students, they would be better equipped to compare texts and books.  They would be able talk about why history is presented in one way but there are truths that are not represented in books for students to date. I approached Christopher Columbus this year and just shared what is true. He was an explorer.  He was searching for riches and got lost. He thought he was sailing one way and ended up somewhere else. I showed a map to the students to pinpoint his travels and we talked about mapping skills and how to read a map. I will say that the Scholastic News, current events, my students receive each month are as accurate as I have found. (The bad side of him was left out but he wasn’t depicted as a good man either) Christopher Columbus was depicted as an explorer looking for riches.  My question is how I do I approach controversial topics with my young students. I do not want to be the teacher that teaches them inaccurate information and they grow up believing something that is untrue. I did and was floored to find out, LATE in life, otherwise.

The authors state, when choosing nonfiction books, it is a multilayered process and one must examine the merits of the books , as well as how the book will work with the students and curriculum. (I interpret that as making sure it is sensitive to students and doesn’t marginalize anyone.)

First layer: Examining accuracy, the organizational structure, style, access and visual features, and the formats

Second layer: Examining the role of the use of the nonfiction in the curriculum, and determining how the book fits the needs of the students

The reading outlined steps to take in selecting high quality expository text for your classroom.

·         Accuracy Noting and checking the copyright date, the credentials of the author, author bias, inaccuracies, the author’s research process, the acknowledgments, avoidance of stereotypes, authenticity of the facts and details, the scope and depth of the information, inclusion of multiple perspectives

·         Organization clear presentation, logical development, clear sequencing of information, ways the author grabs attention of reader and the way the author supports the reader in navigating the text

·         Writing Style ways author combines words, form and content to present information, the use of vivid and stimulating language, effectiveness of leads and conclusions, age appropriate vocabulary, tone used

·         Design attractive and visual appeal, readability, illustrations that compliment text

With all of that, it is still difficult to select quality nonfiction text.  I have found that my biggest hurdle has been age appropriate and accurate text. I know many teachers; I myself was one, operated from a schooled Discourse that was inaccurate. How do we combat that and teach our children the truth and what is considered appropriate for each age and grade?

Text Structures

What’s good in nonfiction?

Two key points that stood out to me while reading chapter two were the idea of teaching students text structures to support their reading of expository text and how one must evaluate nonfiction materials to put into their classroom. (stay tuned for the next blog on evaluating materials)

Text Structure:

From my experience, young children LOVE reading nonfiction material, and I have had amazing success from incorporating interest/inquiry reading groups into my daily reading block. While sometimes, students select fiction materials to study (i.e. fairy tales, chapter series) most wanted to read about “stuff they could learn more facts about.” I felt overall the students did a great job navigating Wikipedia (even some with some reading struggles and I feel it was related to their desire to figure it out) to some text that would be categorized as inconsiderate. But there are students who just don’t understand the writing patterns that are used in expository text. “Insensitivity to text patterns hinders not only students’ comprehension and recall but also their abilities to write well-developed content material” (Richards & Gipe, 1995, 667). With that being said, I know this upcoming school year, I want to do a better job of teaching my students how to recognize signal words and phrases that deem the text to be expository. Knowledge of text structure can improve learning from content area texts (Harvy, 1998; Allen, 2000). The authors listed the following expository text structures in writing as follows:

·         Description

·         Simple listing

·         Sequence or time order

·         Cause-effect

·         Comparison and contrast

·         Problem-solution

·         And question/answer.

In the book, they authors provide examples of lessons to support teaching each structure. They believe that by supporting students’ recognition of the writing of expository text patterns aids in students understanding and help students to recall and retain material.

 The above lists are skills teachers often are expected to teach and are often taught as isolated skills in basal programs. (at least with my experience) It will be interesting to me because common core standards, in true from, take concepts from their whole and learn smaller parts as you go. (more natural and progressive/building) I want my students to be equipped and understand cause and effect relationship, compare and contrast, etc. This all goes back to our talk on have students approach reading as the historian or scientist.  If students can learn to recognize text structures, then you could teach students how to critically read that text through the lens of historian to compare and contrast. I know when these skills are taught in isolation, many students do not grasp the true concept of how this skill can benefit them as a reader and writer. When a student understands compare and contrast, the true test of comprehension lies within their ability to take the learned skill and transfer the knowledge into other areas of future readings. As in the case of Rachel, she clearly demonstrated and appeared, on the surface, to understand the expected assignment. But when you looked more closely, she was missing the entire idea of the assignment. She was spitting out information she felt was valuable to her.  She had good intentions and wanted to compare and contrast a present war to past but was unable to do so.  Her skill set was not permanent and had not been learned in previous assignments. I believe, as teachers, we must take children to different Discourses to critically read expository text and read from the lens of the discipline’s Discourse.