Author-educator Melissa Stewart shares
fun, practical ideas for helping K-5 students develop information literacy skills
as they read award-winning nonfiction books and produce their own informational
writing. Attendees will go home with creative ways to support student learning
in the library and via collaboration with classroom teachers.
READING
Nonfiction Smackdown!
Upper elementary students read two nonfiction books on the same topic.
Then they evaluate and compare the two titles, recording their thinking on a worksheet that other students can
use to help them make book choices.
Sibert
Smackdown!
Similar to Nonfiction Smackdown!, but
books are selected from a list of picture books contenders that I compile on my
website. The worksheet uses a kid-friendly version of the criteria considered
by the real Sibert committee. Several librarians have also used their own
creative ideas to record students’ thinking, such as Padlet, Flipgrid, posters,
and voting forms where students write the rationale for their choice.
March Madness Nonfiction
Inspired by the annual March Madness basketball tournament,
students participate in a month-long, whole-school activity to select their
favorite nonfiction title. Can be combined with the Nonfiction Smackdown!
http://www.melissa-stewart.com/pdf/March_Madness_NF.pdf
http://shellymoody.blogspot.com/2016/04/march-madness-nonfiction-celebrating.html
http://celebratescience.blogspot.com/2016/03/march-madness.html
“March
Madness has not only created an energy and excitement for read aloud; it has
also exposed students to more nonfiction. [It has been] a springboard for
discussions of text features and structures, vocabulary and author's purpose.”
–Instructional Coach
“I like that these
nonfiction books really make you think about things for a while and then
sometimes your thinking changes.” –Fifth-grade student
Nonfiction
Family Tree
A system for sorting nonfiction to help students predict
the type of information they’re likely to find in a book and how that
information will be presented. It can also help them identify the kinds of
nonfiction books they enjoy reading most.
#ClassroomBookaDay
Read aloud and briefly
discuss a picture book every day of the school year. Display book covers, so
it’s easy to refer back to them for comparison to new texts (theme, text
structure, voice, writing style). They can also be used as mentor texts during
writing workshop. You can work with teachers to get them started and make book
recommendations or you could adopt a classroom.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/classroombookaday/
http://www.allthewonders.com/podcasts/classroom-book-a-day-w-jillian-heise-books-between-episode-30/
http://www.heisereads.com/
Text
Feature Posters
After
reading a variety of age-appropriate books, K-2 students use the text features
in those books as models in creating their own text feature posters.
http://www.melissa-stewart.com/video/videos_mini.html
http://www.melissa-stewart.com/pdf/Nonfiction_Text_Feature_Posters.pdf#zoom=70
PRE-WRITING
Choosing a Topic
Ideas are all around us. I can get
inspired by things I read, things people say to me, or things I see or
experience myself. For me, the challenge is keeping track of the ideas, so I
have one when it’s time to begin a new book. I have an idea board in my office,
and I use it to remind myself about ideas I’ve had.
Teachers could have an idea board in
their classroom or they could encourage students to write their ideas down on
the last page of their writer’s notebook. ABC Brainstorming can work too. Other
ideas include:
A Wonder Wall
An Idea Jar
Why Students Copy Their Research Sources and How to Break
that Habit
Why do students copy rather than
expressing ideas and information in their own words? Because they haven’t taken
the time to analyze and synthesize the material they’ve collected so that they
can make their own meaning. In other words, they haven’t found a personal
connection to the content, and that’s a critical step in nonfiction writing.
http://www.bookologymagazine.com/article/why-students-copy-their-research-sources-and-how-to-break-the-habit/
http://www.kirbylarson.com/friend-friday-melissa_stewart/
Team Notetaking
Pairs or small groups
participate in collaborative note taking on paper or using google docs, so that
struggling students can access the thought process of more advanced students.
This activity also reduces copying from sources materials.
http://celebratescience.blogspot.com/2016/02/team-note-taking.html
Sources
Students Can't Copy
Encourage students to use a wide variety
of source materials, including some that it's impossible to copy, such as
personal observations, webcams, and interviews. To facilitate interviews, your
school can develop a list of adults in the school community with knowledge in
particular area.
http://celebratescience.blogspot.com/2017/10/in-classroom-community-of-experts.html
Create
a Visual Summary
When
students take the time to represent their notes visually as infographics or
other kinds of combinations of words and pictures as part of their pre-writing
process, they will find their own special way of conveying the information. And
using that lens, they can then write a report that is 100 percent their own.
http://celebratescience.blogspot.com/2017/10/in-classroom-how-infographics-can-help.html
Use Thought Prompts
Invite students to synthesize their research and make
personal connections by using some of the following thought prompts:
—The idea this gives me . . .
—I was surprised to learn . . .
—This makes me think . . .
—This is important because . . .
WRITING
Struggling with Structure
While
writing Can an Aardvark Bark?, I
experimented with 4 different text structures over a 4 year period before the
manuscript was accepted for publication. The timeline on my website shows the
details of my process through a series of 8 video, which take about 11 minutes
to watch. The timeline also features
downloadable version of 4 rejected manuscripts, so students can see what
changed over time.
Text
Structure Swap
After
reading No Monkeys, No
Chocolate, upper elementary students make book maps to get a
stronger sense of the architecture of the main text’s cumulative sequence
structure. Then each child chooses one example from the text and rewrite it
with a cause and effect text structure. The third and fourth links are for
worksheets that guide a similar activity based on the content in Can an Aardvark Bark?
http://strohreads.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-power-of-picture-book-melissa_14.html
Same Structure, New Topic
Students read a
selection of my books and chose one to use as a mentor text. They created a
book that emulated the structure and style of my book but presented information
about a different topic.
http://celebratescience.blogspot.com/2017/09/in-classroom-what-great-idea.html
A Feel for the Flow/
Colorful Revisions
Typing
out a mentor text can help students get a fee for the flow. They can study how
the text was constructed by highlighting various elements with different
colors. They can use a similar technique to look for ways to improve their own
works in progress.
http://celebratescience.blogspot.com/2017/05/in-classroom-language-devices-in.html
Radical Revision!
First graders write a piece of nonfiction. When the students are in second
grade, teachers share the No
Monkeys, No Chocolate Revision
Timeline on my website and ask the children to revise
the piece they wrote in first grade. Both drafts are placed in a folder, and
students revise again in third, fourth, and fifth grade.
Authentic Illustration
After K-2 students write nonfiction about a topic of their choice, children in
another class at the same grade level illustrate the text. Then the original
writers review the artists’ work and write a polite letter asking for any
necessary changes. This activity mimics the process nonfiction picture book
authors go through when they review sketches created by an illustrator.