Sunday, May 1, 2016

Nonfiction Notebooks

Nonfiction is such an integral part of the Common Core State Standards.  As teachers, we tend to gravitate towards using fiction books for our read aloud books in class.  When we think of "classics" or favorites, we think of beloved book characters and feel-good stories.  I find that if I don't plan to use a nonfiction book as my read-aloud, it just doesn't happen.  My personal library contains LOTS of books, but the only nonfiction I have are important people, Social Studies books, and a small area for Science books.  My classroom library also contains mostly fiction books.  I've been trying to build up the nonfiction over the past few years.



The truth of the matter is, that while students enjoy hearing classics, they also LOVE having nonfiction read to them!!!   They eat it up!  Lions, Tigers, Bears, Insects, you name it!  Our kids are like little sponges that soak up what they read and learn about.

A few years ago, in an attempt to incorporate nonfiction more frequently{long before CCSS}, I created a nonfiction unit.  The unit focuses on giving children time to browse nonfiction books and take a deeper look at the components of nonfiction.  The components are compiled into a book, called  a "Nonfiction Notebook."  Teaching this nonfiction unit is one of my favorites!  I'm currently knee- deep in the middle of it now!  We started last week and are finishing up this week.  My kids have had many experiences with writing nonfiction during writing workshop.  They've also been exposed to nonfiction print {because we don't have a reading series or any materials to teacher reading other than what we buy ourselves on TpT...rant over} with Lyndsey's nonfiction reading units.  Thank goodness for those or our poor kids wouldn't have much exposure to nonfiction at all!

Below are a few pictures from our nonfiction notebook unit!  If you'd like to snag this great resource for your room, click the cover below!









xo
Megan

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Thanks for your comments!