Friday, November 16, 2012

Non-Fiction Text Features

Our current unit in reading workshop is on non-fiction text features.  Students typically prefer fiction so it's important to us that we make this unit fun and engaging.  We started with an inquiry lesson with our fabulous teacher librarian.  She gave each group of students several books (both fiction and non-fiction) and asked students what they noticed about their books.  Kids replied with things like rhyming words, bold print, an index, cartoon pictures...anything.  From there, she asked students to classify their books as fiction or non-fiction.  This was relatively easy for our students since they had some work with this before.  Then they noticed that non-fiction text often has similar text features.  To stay true to our reading workshop model, we asked each student to check out a non-fiction about a topic they are passionate about. 
With the help of our creative teammate, Holly, kids created a non-fiction foldable.  As we move through our unit, students will define each of these text features and look for examples in their text.  Of course, we will begin with a model text.  Kids can keep these until we begin our research unit in January and they will have this wonderful resource to access. 

This foldable is so easy to make!  Start with five sheets of plain copy paper.  Lay each one on top of the next with about 1" difference.  Fold the entire stack in half and you have a great resource for your students!

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