The Truth in Nonfiction Reading

After teaching 3rd grade for so many years, I've learned a few things that always seem to be true.

Truth:  Third graders haven't really changed much in 20 plus years.  Sure, their toys and music have changed, but they are basically the same kids.  They are learning to be big kids now instead of little ones.  They are learning how to be responsible for themselves.  They are testing the waters to see what's acceptable at home and school.  This is a year where a lot of growing up happens.

Truth:  It doesn't really matter how many years I've been teaching, but something about having my principal come in for a formal observation is nerve-wracking.  Does everyone else get worked up about this too?  I know my teaching is solid, and I know I'm giving kids my best, but I still feel the need to be extra impressive.  Luckily, this latest observation went well and now I can relax and get back to just doing my thing.

Truth:  Third grade readers are approaching a whole new stage of reading.  They are moving from learning to read and headed towards reading to learn.  This can be a little tricky because most times we have kids with toes on both sides of this line.  And rarely does this show up more than when we are reading nonfiction text.

This past week we started our unit on reading nonfiction text.  The primary goal is for students to be able to determine the topic, main idea, and key details of a text.  Over the course of the unit we will review text features and how they are used, learn how to identify different text structures including vocabulary used with each, and read many many different authors and texts.

As I was planning for the week, I knew that my observation lesson was coming up.  I also knew that we were just getting started in this new unit, and I would need to spend some time reviewing what they had learned in 2nd grade (We are very lucky at my school because our 2nd grade teachers have our kids very well prepared!).  I decided it would be important to begin with reviewing the differences in reading fiction and nonfiction, and then move straight into text features.  We spent a day looking at different examples of text features and where we might find them.

Here's an example of a diagram with labels that was part of our study.

The following day I wanted to dig a little deeper, so I created a sort for kids to match the text feature and its purpose.  The kids worked in partners to complete the sort.  It was a bit challenging, but overall the kids were very successful (I have already modified it some by changing a few words in the descriptions).  We then went through the sort as a class, and I had examples of each text feature to be placed with the example and purpose.  You can see our steps here:

This is the beginning stage of the student sort with all the pieces spread out for sorting.

Here is a finished student sort.

This is the completed sort we did as a class.  You can see the examples of each text feature after the example and purpose.

I decided I then wanted to take it one step further (this was my observation lesson).  I put my students into pairs again and gave them a choice of 2 different articles I had written about Yellowstone National Park (that's where my family went for vacation, and it's such an interesting place!).  I explained that yesterday we were thinking as readers, but today we would be thinking as writers.  Their job was to read the article and decide what text feature or features would be of most benefit to readers.  They then created those features for a nonfiction page they might see in a book.  It was interesting to watch them work.  Some groups knew right away what features they would include, and others needed more guidance.  But after a few quick questions, most went right to work.  I worked with my ESL students to read the article and discuss what helped them most when reading something.  Overwhelmingly, they said pictures, so we decided that photos and captions would be the best route for their groups.  Here are a few of our finished pages:

As I monitored the groups while they were working, I liked hearing their conversations.  Some pointed out words that were difficult and decided a glossary would be helpful.  One group of boys was curious about the workings of a geyser, so they set out to create a diagram.  Others knew that photos and captions would be the things to help them the most.  What I liked the most was that kids were genuinely thinking about the purpose of the text features and why an author would choose different features for different pieces of text.  My goal, exactly.

Truth:  Nonfiction reading is a crucial skill for all readers, and most of what we, as adults, encounter on a daily basis is just that.  With a little more practice and the addition of a few more skills, these 3rd graders will be ready for the challenge.

These products can be found here at my TpT store.