Thursday, May 12, 2016

Digesting Nonfiction

Overall, students tend to stick to reading one genre of books and more than likely it is fiction. However, this year with our new reading curriculum we have been to able give students an in-depth look at many different genres of texts. With all this exposure you’d think they would open up a nonfiction book once in a while, but many were still hesitant. Rightfully so, by fourth grade the nonfiction can get very complex and lengthy. So we needed a way for our students to take in smaller chunks of their nonfiction texts and give them an outlet to process the information they are learning.
That’s where our informational text menu came in. Students are able to pick different activities to do while reading their nonfiction book. The activities range from drawing pictures of important words to explaining the main idea of what they read. This menu give students the opportunity to stop and process while they are reading and gives them the freedom to chose what activities they want to complete. So far, students have really gravitated to the choices that involve creating a drawing, which is a great way for them to process some of the tough vocabulary they are facing.   

1 comment:

  1. Very informative! Nonfiction reading can be a little dry, depending on the subject. However, it can be a valuable tool in reading and writing fiction, especially historical fiction. Illustrations bring the understanding to light in a very creative way.

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