Warming Up Our Brains for Nonfiction Reading

We kicked off the week with our new reading unit ~ Nonfiction Reading!  The major focus this week was learning before reading strategies.

First, we learned good readers prepare themselves to read a nonfiction book by first activating their schema or background knowledge.  We created a chart of our schema and then after reading we added to the chart our new learning.  During the read aloud students had their own chart to complete.  During independent reading students first added to a new chart their schema about their independent nonfiction book and during reading updated their chart with learned information.

Next up - word predictions.  Another before reading strategy is jot down or think of important words that may appear in the text.  

Before reading solids and liquids, I asked for some important words that may appear in the text.  We jotted them down and while we read placed a check mark next to the word each time it appeared.  

 Once we finished reading we jotted down key vocabulary that appeared in the text and then wrote two sentences using some of the vocabulary words.  During independent reading students completed this assignment with their own nonfiction book. 

Our final before reading strategy was to generate questions. 

I placed the Martin Luther King Jr. read aloud on the easel and asked students to jot down one or two questions they have about MLK Jr. BEFORE we read the text. 

 Post-it notes were collected and added to the easel.  We discussed some of the questions and then began reading.  While I read, again students had to jot down one or two DURING reading questions.  After reading the first half of the book students added their during reading questions to the easel. 

 During independent reading, students jotted down before and during reading questions as they read their own nonfiction book.

On Friday, we began investigating nonfiction text features that help us learn more. 

I read a couple pages from Caterpillar Diary, asking the students to focus on the photographs.  After I read each page I asked how the photographs either helped them understand the text better or what new information did they learn from the photographs. We added to our charts how this nonfiction text feature helps us. 

 Then, using their own book they recorded a photograph into their Nonfiction Text Features booklet and wrote down how it helped them.

This upcoming week is going to be filled with learning new nonfiction text features, and completing independent nonfiction reading activities while I will be reassessing reading levels using the Developmental Reading Assessments (DRAs).