Reading to Learn: Nonfiction Book Clubs Within a Content Area
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- A Look Inside the Unit
- Reading Skills Addressed in This Unit of Study: Monitoring for Sense
- Envisionment
- Interpretation
- Synthesis
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Reading to Learn: Nonfiction Book Clubs Within a Content Area A Unit of Study for Third Grade Written by Annie De Lucia and Jill Fay C&T 4139- Spring 2008 Rationale for Teaching Non-Fiction Book Clubs within a Content AreaAs classroom teachers, we know that many students are enthusiastic readers of nonfiction. We also know, however, that nonfiction texts are often more challenging for students to read and comprehend than fiction. With this in mind, we began to consider ways that an interest in nonfiction reading could be fostered and nourished, while simultaneously supporting student growth as readers. In thinking about our own nonfiction reading lives, we realized that in many cases we are reading nonfiction for a specific purpose in our lives. Perhaps we need to know good places to visit on our next vacation, or how to change the oil in our cars. Whatever the need, we are always reading multiple sources to cross-check and synthesize information as readers, and often we are discussing our study with friends or family and building our knowledge of the subject through these conversations. It is this type of work, the natural work we all do as nonfiction readers in our own lives, that we want to highlight in this unit of study. Our unit of study is designed to focus third grade reading instruction in the month of March on Non-fiction Book Clubs within a Content Area. This unit is written with the intention of lifting the level at which students read non-fiction and giving the students an opportunity to work collaboratively as they read and discuss non-fiction texts across a topic. This unit addresses and further develops the reading skills essential to non-fiction reading, reading across a topic and book club conversation. The skills that are highlighted and expanded in this unit are monitoring for sense, envisioning, interpreting, and synthesis. Students are practicing and using these skills throughout the unit, which will allow them to become experts on their topic. This unit specifically addresses the following New York City Public Schools English Language Arts performance standards: E1b) Read and comprehend at least four books on the same subject, or by the same author, or in the same genre. E1c) Read and comprehend informational materials. E3b) Participate in group meetings. (City of New York Board of Education, 1997) Comprehension across topical nonfiction texts is the major thrust of this unit. Much of the book club work we imagine readers doing revolves around understandings gleaned from the text. In order for students to be successful within this unit of study, all three of the above performance standards would need to be met. The content area we chose to feature in this unit is exploring a country’s people, their ways of life, and land features within a continent. The unit is set up so that each book club will initially read to build a foundation of knowledge surrounding a continent, in this case Africa. Students will then go on to read across texts that focus around a country from the same continent. The recommended countries, for which a multitude of appropriately leveled texts exist, are South Africa, Egypt, Kenya, and Nigeria. This unit of study addresses the third grade standard below, taken from the New York City K-8 Social Studies Scope and Sequence (Draft).
Please note that while this unit was written with the above standard in mind, this unit would be easily adaptable to other content areas within social studies or beyond. It is assumed that this unit will be taught in a third grade class in March or April of the school year. At that point in the year, students will have been exposed to non-fiction reading previously in November during the Non-fiction Unit of Study. Students have also had the opportunity to explore book clubs and have had much practice in the structure and flow of these clubs. With non-fiction being a recent and familiar topic of study and the structure of book clubs being in place already, this unit works to move readers beyond the basics of those topics and into a deeper understanding of topical nonfiction reading, through the collaborative, meaning-making structure of book clubs.
Being that this unit was planned in detail, incorporating the goals of the unit, the bends in the road, and teaching points, there were clear expectations that allowed the unit to flow smoothly and in the right direction to achieve what was expected. The students had a foundation in non-fiction reading from the November Unit, so the higher level teaching points/minilessons allowed the students to push themselves. The students have prior experience with book clubs, so incorporating non-fiction reading skills and strategies with book clubs has so far proven to be engaging and has lifted their level of thinking and conversation. The students have really taken accountability for their reading and their book club work. I relate this accountability to the excitement the students have for becoming an “expert” on a topic. This also seems to be connected to the fact that they have a foundation, which this work is building upon, in both non-fiction reading and book clubs. Just prior to the bibliography of this unit, you will see some of the written work that came out of piloting this unit. While these brochures were not written during the reading workshop, the text comprehension that made their creation possible took place during this unit in reading workshop. Reading Skills Addressed in This Unit of Study:
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