What's your type?

When you are teaching students how to comprehend a text, do you lean toward fiction or nonfiction?


My type tends to be nonfiction ...
      Is this because of the population I am teaching?
      Is this because of my interest?
      Is this because of student interest, especially during the early elementary ages?
      Is it really easier to use nonfiction?


"Much research has been done on why and how students can best comprehend a text, but less has been said about what kinds of text can best aid the development of comprehension skills"  according to Carol Einstein, in Activating Comprehension (EPS).

Nonfiction text allows for quick and easy instruction with "RIGHT THERE" kinds of questions. You know, those kinds of questions that have direct answers that are right there in the text. This is a common first step when teaching comprehension.

Nonfiction has many features - those great TEXT FEATURES that we emphasize. Have you heard yourself saying ...
    "these extra features contain information ..."
    "read the text features, too..."
    "Did you survey the WHOLE page?"
    "What extra information does the page give you?"
Questions that guide comprehension are often linked to text features. Students are instructed to use all of the juicy details from these features to better understand the story. This, again, is an early, and fairly explicit way to teach comprehension.

Nonfiction texts are usually high interest for young readers. Animals, insects, weather, natural disasters, space, cars, sports - you see what I'm getting at. Interest in the text makes comprehension much easier AND students will willingly reread, practicing close reading strategies. Rereading is, of course, a cornerstone to deeper understanding and comprehension instruction.

Nonfiction also allows for meaningful connections. Many times, students may come with prior knowledge or a partial understanding for nonfiction topics. Think about weather ... students usually have some knowledge of sun, rain, snow, etc, - this allows comprehension to be easier. Students can think back to what they know or have experienced. This is a wonderful asset to teaching comprehension.
AND, if prior knowledge is not there, nonfiction topics allow teachers to build that schema with field trips, videos, photographs, artifacts, games, activities, music and much more.

So ... is nonfiction text an easier choice for teaching beginning comprehension skills?
What's your thought?


Some great nonfiction resources I use:

      Close Reading                         Informational Text                                   

                                         

         

      ReadWorks  

Concept Confession - Marian Anderson

Have you heard of Marian Anderson?

I didn't know much about her, but I had noticed the book, When Marian Sang, in our school book room. I saw an award on the cover . . . and that always draws me in. It's black history month and I wanted to expose my students to more biographies, soooooo here we are :)

This is Marian Anderson. She overcame many obstacles to follow her dream of becoming an opera singer. The video shows Marian singing at the Lincoln Memorial, after being denied the right to perform at Constitution Hall by DAR (Daughter's of the American  Revolution) because of the color of her skin. She was supported by many, including, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Her story is one that has and will continue to inspire and encourage.

I created this packet to use for guided reading and it lends itself to a great close reading activity.

Teacher instructions are included, but the pages are pretty easy to understand. I wanted to start with some basic level comprehension - for the first reading. 

 

After some discussion of the book and further discussion of the time period -students can dig a little deeper and establish another purpose for reading.

For a third reading, I threw in some review skills - you can never review figurative language enough. It can always be tricky to understand and interpret. I also wanted my students to extend this book beyond Marian's story and connect it to themselves. 

This book was written by Pam Munoz Ryan and illustrated by Brian Selznick. It's a great read and a wonderful way to connect history, character building and language arts into one lesson. 

LLI - Leveled Literacy Intervention

I have been using LLI for about 2 years and I LOVE IT! I have students all over the board, in terms of their reading levels. the fact that this intervention resource lays out the word work, the book lesson, comprehension skills and running records allows for teachers to plan more individualized things for students. I know I have the framework when i sit down and teach a guided reading intervention session. But, I usually want to dig deeper and add specific IEP objectives to the lesson. LLI allows me to do that without planning for hours each night.
I have a student who is a non-reader. I started using the Orange Kit with him to expose him to basic, patterned books. I have created some activities to go with the first few books. I thought I would share one of these activity packs and see if they could help someone else. Click here to download.

 

A writing activity to go with the story and includes icons to student selection.

A sorting activity for awake and asleep . . .

And icons to sort onto each mat
There is a teacher instruction sheet at the end with a brief explanation of each piece of this mini-packet. If you have LLI and you try this, let me know what you think.


Okay - a few more links to some of the other books:
At the Market
Rex
Frog Food

Concept Confession

Number Two

Okay, I skipped a week . . . so I will throw two things in this post.

I have been working on a Mini Lesson to go with Patricia Polacco's  Thunder Cake! It's a cute book with some links to weather (great time of year to study that) and character development. I just posted it on TpT - but here is the character development page as a FREEBIE . . . hope you can use :)

My second concept is a social skill guide for personal space. I have a student who is struggling with knowing WHO she can hug and HOW CLOSE she can get. She wants to talk to everyone and she immediately loves every person she meets. I am sure you can think of an adult like this :) but, I need to help this girl set some limits. SO . . . I started to make a personal space guide called THE KNOW ZONES. I am still working on it, but here is a peek.

My concept confession is Thunder Cake AND Know Zones!

Guided Reading Direction Cards

I am co-teaching with a gen. ed. teacher this year during the Language Arts block. We started our Guided Reading block and students are required to work at stations while groups are doing Guided Reading. I created this FLIP CHART of step-by-step directions so that my students can be as independent as possible. Guided Readind Direction Cards