Part I Teaching Nonfiction and Citing Text Evidence
We all know that with the switch to Common Core 50% of elementary and 70% of secondary reading instruction needs to be nonfiction texts. This also applies to math, social studies, and science curriculum. So in order to reach this, teachers need to have creative lessons that involve nonfiction text. The Common Core standards also require students to cite text evidence. That's easier said than done. How can teachers achieve this standard and teach it at a level their students need? Well, I have a few suggestions for you!
First, here are three great websites with nonfiction articles of high interest.
www.delanceyplace.com
www.nowiknow.com
www.todayifoundout.com
Before requiring your students to cite evidence, you (as the teacher) need to teach students how to summarize, draw conclusions, and formulate questions. Here are some suggestions for teaching these three mini-lessons.
1) When teaching summarizing, especially if you are in a lower elementary class, it's all about modeling! Read a non-fiction article to the students. The, re-read the article paragraph by paragraph. After you read the first paragraph, ask students what it was about. Remember to take away the article when asking this question. After students give you their answer, take their answers and formulate a sentence that summarizes the paragraph on a sticky note. Continue to model this with each paragraph. (See image below).
Students often have a difficult time putting text into their own words. Many students are taught to look for key words. This can be a great strategy when answering a comprehension question from a text. However, this is a horrible technique to use when attempt to write an essay in their own words based on a text. Instead, have students read an article all the way through. Then have students verbally say what they read. This is their summary.
2) Before teaching students how to draw conclusions, you need to first teach them how to summarize. After they are able to generate a summary, they can then tackle drawing conclusions. Students need to be able to give reasons that support their conclusions. (This is what the summary is for).
To model drawing conclusions, first you will need to draw a graphic organizer on the board consisting of several squares connected with arrow to a larger rectangle. In order to draw a conclusions (point to the rectangle), you need to make sure to have plenty of support (the squares). Once you have modeled this a few times, allow students to choose a nonfiction text that you've already discussed to make this process easier. Help them to use the graphic organizer to draw conclusions from the text. Once they are familiar with the process, have them repeat with an unfamiliar text.
3) Now for the kicker. Teaching students how to formulate their own questions after reading is one of the hardest tasks required by Common Core, especially for elementary students. A great way to teach students how to generate questions is to use 5 Domains of Higher Order Thinking Questions. Create a large poster with the 5 domains: Recall, Apply, Compare, Infer, and Evaluate. Add question starter templates under each category (See images below). Explain to the students that each domain increases in difficulty.
Create Index cards with a different domain listed on a card. Have students draw a card and practice generating a question in that domain.
Check back soon for Part II!
