Reading to Learn: Nonfiction Book Clubs Within a Content Area
Download 248.47 Kb.
|
- Navigate this page:
- Unit Overview
- Teaching Plan
- Bend 2- Readers seek connections between what they know and what they dont know about a topic.
- Bend 3- Readers use the pictures and words in a text to create a picture of what they are learning.
Goals for the Unit
Unit OverviewThe unit unofficially begins a week or two before the month begins, as topical read-alouds begin to immerse the classroom in a study of Africa. The unit officially begins with students activating prior knowledge and strategies relating to non-fiction reading. Students will begin this unit in multi-topic leveled book bins as prior knowledge is activated and the foundation is laid for more focused non-fiction book club reading. For the first week of the unit, students are reading from a wide variety of topical texts. For this week, the available texts will not only lead into the future topical work, but will also help to lay a foundation for this line of study. Book bins will include books on the continent of Africa generally, specific countries, African animals, specific locations within Africa, etc. Spending the first week in this way allows students to begin to build a schema on which to hang the topical information they will begin gathering in the weeks to come. During the first week it will be necessary to gather book clubs together outside of the reading workshop to make a group decision on topic (in this case, country) of study. In order to accommodate readers who may need a higher level of scaffolding, we’re recommending that book club select a country such as Egypt, for which we found texts starting at approximately level G. We also recommend using that same topic for your modeling, thereby providing further scaffolding for students that may need it. If this does not apply to your readers, you could also have a country specifically set aside for your own modeling. For the second, third and fourth weeks of the unit, students will be working in leveled book clubs gathered around a topic of choice. Texts should be provided at a variety of appropriate levels for each topic, in order to allow book clubs the ability to chose their topic of study (from the topics provided). As we previously mentioned, one topic should set aside to be used for modeling, with the understanding that that topic could be a choice for readers who would need a higher level of scaffolding, particularly in this non-fiction book club unit. During these weeks, students are expected to be reading, gathering information, discussing that information and organizing it in a logical way. Students are reading to become experts, so we expect to see students seeking further information or clarification on subtopics in which they do not feel expert. The culmination of the unit surrounds presenting or sharing content learning in some way. While we have suggested presenting aloud to peers using a newscaster voice, this information could be presented in a variety of other ways. Please see the attached brochures that came out of student writing about reading during the piloting of this unit for further ideas. Teaching PlanBend #1- Readers read nonfiction to become experts on a topic of interest.1. (reading) Nonfiction readers keep track of new information from their texts. One way readers can do this is by stopping to record this information (with page references) on paper when it comes up in their reading. 2. (talk) Readers read non-fiction with a book club to help make sense of the text. One way readers can do this is by bringing new learning to their book club and connecting it to what other club members are learning. 3. (reading) Nonfiction readers expect to learn about a topic as they read. When a reader does not feel like they are learning, one way readers can support themselves is by slowing down and asking themselves, “What could this part be trying to teach me about this topic?” 4. (talk) Readers read non-fiction with a book club to help make sense of the text. One way readers can do this is by bringing questions or confusions about the text to their book club. 5. (reading) Nonfiction readers can read to become experts on a topic. One way readers can do this is by reading a variety of texts on the same topic and looking for connections or disconnections between the texts.
2. (talk) Readers in book clubs talk together about subtopics as one way of knowing the bigger topic. One way readers can work efficiently as a club is by asking themselves, “Is there a subtopic that I really want us to look at as a group?” and planning ahead by bringing ideas to the club. 3. (reading) Nonfiction readers connect what they are learning about a topic with what they already know. One way readers do this is by adding on to the list of things they know about a topic, grouping similar information together. 4. (talk) Nonfiction readers think across their topic, noticing areas where they need to gather more information. One way readers can do this with their book club is by grouping information by subtopic (housing, climate, food, etc.) and paying particular attention to subtopics where they don’t feel like experts yet. 5. (reading) Nonfiction readers pull in prior knowledge about a topic to support them as they read more about it. One way readers can do this is by looking for parts in the text that connect or disconnect with what they have already learned.
2. (talk) Non-fiction readers use what they learned from the pictures to inform their thinking and conversation. One way readers do this is by thinking about what they noticed in the picture and putting the information in their own words to share. 3. (reading) Nonfiction readers use text features to organize their thinking about a topic and gather main ideas in a text. One way readers can do this is by paying particular attention to the headings they come across, remembering that they will be gathering lots of information about those subtopics as they read. 4. (talk) Non-fiction readers read photographs so carefully that they are able to look at a photo of a specific place and pull out several main ideas, just like they would with a page of writing. One way readers can do this is by really zooming in on the details of a picture and questioning what those details tell them about the photo, the people, life. 5. (reading) Non-fiction readers read the pictures and the text together. One way readers do this is by looking for a big connection asking themselves, “How do the pictures show what the text is saying?"
Bend #4- Readers hold onto key ideas from text to text and conversation to conversation, putting it all together to make sense of non-fiction reading.1. (reading) Non-fiction readers have a "wow" reaction to the pictures and the text, especially when they learn something they didn’t know or see something that doesn’t go with what they already know. Readers can learn more about their topic by noticing when the text surprises them and asking themselves, “Why did that surprise me?”. 2. (reading/talk) Non-fiction readers question the text. Non-fiction readers react/notice when the ideas in the text do not fit with their picture of the topic. Readers make sense of this by discussing, with their book club, why the ideas do not fit together. 3. (reading) Non-fiction readers hold onto key ideas and form an overall theory about their topic. Readers can do this by asking themselves "what did the author want me to learn and how does this fit with the information I have read?" 4. (talk) Non-fiction readers talk about their topic as a whole. Readers can do this by connecting the subtopics together to create a big picture. 5. (talk) Non-fiction readers report with their book club the information they learned and the theory they formed. Readers can do this by sharing the main ideas they have and report the information like a newscaster. (They report the information in their serious newscaster voice)
Directory: file -> view view -> Western Europe after wwii view -> Author study: paul fleischman view -> Qpa1 7ela study Guide view -> Arctic Oil/Gas Neg view -> November 1970 Approximately 150,000-500,000 deaths Bhola Cyclone Bangladesh view -> Grade Level: 6 Unit of Study: Caribbean glce view -> Citation: Duffield, Katy view -> Table of Contents Lesson # view -> Chinese Wind Energy Disad Download 248.47 Kb. Share with your friends:
|