Making Most Of Information Books
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A presentation directed towards teachers using english in a bilingual context, showing ideas of how to exploit non fiction sources in the primary classroom
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Making Most Of Information Books
- 7. Year 7 Duties What duties are expected of Year 7 students? The first duty of every Y7 student is cleanliness. Consequently they are often to be found cleaning the corridors or school toilets. Secondly, each Y7 student must make sure that their teacher always has a cup of coffee… Let’s explore some of these features in this extract from the Whackem Secondary School: Student Guidebook. The passive voice is used. Connectives are used ( in this case to show cause) Notice the question to interest the reader. This text is organised with subheadings. The beginning of the paragraph shows the sequence of information. The present tense is used .
- 8. Here is another extract from Whackem School, this time from the Teachers’ Handbook. The characteristics of Y7 students They are miserable creatures, often found skulking in the cloakrooms. Here they swap tacky bits of junk and tell bad jokes. Moreover, these students are also known to write on walls and vandalise toilet doors. Do they have any appealing traits? None have been observed. Work with a partner and analyse the features of information texts present in this passage? Did you spot any of the following?
- 9. The characteristics of Y7 students They are miserable creatures, often found skulking in the cloakrooms. Here they swap tacky bits of junk and tell bad jokes. Moreover, these students are also known to write on walls and vandalise toilet doors. Do they have any appealing traits? None have been observed. question connectives Passive voice Subheading Short sentence Third person (plural) Present tense
- 12. Discussion texts
- 15. Persuasive
- 25. Introducing Non-Fiction: Case Study fiction Non-fiction
- 26. Working with a non-fiction text: Report (Hermit Crabs)
- 28. Working with Non-Fiction: ICT (Powerpoint)
Editor's Notes
- Guiding principles we should consider as the foundations for introducing non-fiction What introducing Non-fiction should achieve Non-fiction texts have many common threads. I will elaborate on these What texts exactly are we talking about when we say non-fiction? The main emphasis of today: how do we work with these texts in the class? How do we exploit them? I will offer various examples and would like you to participate as much as you can. Only through doing , will you understand as the Chinese proverb says! Finally assessment. I will look at this thinking about what skills we hope children have achieved through working with information texts
- According to Dr Margaret Mallet… these three principles offer a foundation for developing non-fiction and informational aspects of children's learning. Children learning actively We all know that children are very inquisitive and constantly interact with those around them and are constantly trying to make sense of everything around them Piaget´s “DIGESTIVE SYSTEM” metaphor is very graphic in explaining how ACTIVE learners children are. Children adapt before consuming new information just as our bodies transform food before digesting. Learning seems as natural as eating. We have to adapt information we are giving our pupils so that they can assimilate and accommodated it for themselves. If we don't it is like giving them a plate of raw potatoes! Learning is social and collaborative Perhaps we are too used to thinking that children should study and find out alone when actually the company of others helps animate them to find out and clarify their ideas. For example in a small group, one child's comment could act as a catalyst for other children's opinions making them modify and reflect on their thinking. This process is essentially verbal. Finding out is a social aspect as we all know with children who are constantly asking questions. However, a child's curiosity which is first explored by action and spoken language is soon taken to secondary sources and hence NON-fiction The role of the adult is important When we are preparing children for getting information from secondary sources we should consider the following as teachers: Treat what the child says as worthy of your attention Try and understand what he/she means or is trying to say Take what the child says as the basis for what comes next
- We can help children do achieve these aims if we employ powerful and imaginative ways of doing this. In the course of the talk I am going to first of all outline the different types of non-fiction material available
- Common elements they tend to be in the third person they often use the present tense to describe how things are they tend to use simple or compound sentences to keep things clear the active and passive voice may be used connectives are used to indicate time, cause, effect or comparison. subheadings may help to organise the text paragraphs will help to progress the text questions may be used to interest the reader Almost all have content, index and glossary to help look up specific information All of these can be thought of as tools- a can opener helping us to access this information that we need as learners
- 1.Before going any further with this slide I would like you to get together with a partner and think of the different categories that would be possible in this section on non-fiction resources.
- These look at two or more points of view on an issue. They discuss the pros and cons of each point of view and examine the evidence for them before drawing a conclusion or leaving the readers to make up their own minds. Balanced books on controversial topics like fox hunting and animal experimentation fit here but ones which are heavily biased in one direction are really persuasive texts.
- As the name suggests, these explain how or why something happens or answer a question. They include books with titles like 'How the universe began?', 'How your body works?' and 'What happens to the food you eat?'. Exploiting an explanation text 1.Definition or question to introduce the topic - how does product X work or how is it used? 2. materials and components - what the product is made from; 3.series of logical steps - explaining how the product works in terms of cause and effect (because, so) or explaining the sequence in which it used (then, next). * Give out photocopies of HOW TO FLY A BALLOON and get students to put the paragraphs into one of the three categories* Follow-up Activities SPEAKING: WRITING:
- These tell the reader how to do something, often with the help of lists of instructions and diagrams. 'How to .' books fit here as do cookery books, art books and books on improving your football. The framework is: -a list of what is needed - steps to show the way to do something -followed by an evaluation.
- These aim to persuade the reader to agree with the author or to follow a particular course of action like not smoking or keeping safe in the sun. Although they may look at alternative opinions, they don't do this in the balanced way of a discussion text. Very often persuasive takes the form of advertsing and publicity or in the case of above a governmental leaflet about food facts
- RECOUNT These retell a sequence of events in chronological order although there is often an introductory section to set the scene. Biographies and autobiographies are recounts. So are books with titles like 'A day in the life of a fireman', 'The discovery of penicillin' and 'The ascent of Everest'. The text is usually in the past tense and follows a when? who? where? why? plus evaluation , sequence.
- Description This gives factual or scientific information and could be a simple report about an animal. e.g. Dolphins or a bigger project book e.g. My book about space, My book about volcanoes, Welcome to Medieval Times.
- This is really the future of reading There are many internet websites now dedicated to this.
- It may seem strange to mention fiction when we are talking on non-fiction but comparing it may help the children see more clearly the difference between Fact and Fiction. There are also many books on the market that are a mixture of fact and fiction. http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=196 (ready made lesson on whales fiction and non-fiction http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=129
- Criteria for selection -
- Non-fiction can be introduced at the same time as fiction, that´s to say from the very beginning. Some teachers tend to concentrate on fiction but for the reasons I outlined at the beginning of the talk, it is essential to also have a balance of non-fiction work in the class. Here I am going to an idea of introducing Non-fiction to a class who have not been exposed formally to it before. The idea has been taken from www.readwritethink.org Overview This lesson introduces second-grade students to different types of nonfiction writing. Students explore a variety of nonfiction books and compare them to fiction. Students also learn about different categories of nonfiction writing and practice identifying books that fall into these categories. Peer interaction, hands-on experiences with nonfiction books, and the use of graphic organizers facilitate student understanding of the texts. Students record their thinking and new learning and discuss them as a class. Student Objectives Students will Practice analysis by comparing fiction and nonfiction texts and classifying the latter into autobiographies, biographies, and informative books Apply their analysis by creating class charts and Venn diagrams that list the information they have compiled about these different texts Demonstrate comprehension by discussing their findings in small groups and with the class Synthesize what they have learned in writing
- Session 1 1.Gather students in the designated group meeting area. Tell them that you will be discussing fiction books. 2.Hold up the fiction books you have set aside. Flip through the pages of some of them and then read one aloud. 3.Ask students to list some of the things that they noticed about the story. Questions you might use as prompts include: What do you notice about the pictures? Who is this story about? Could this really happen? Record the students' responses on the sheet of chart paper with the heading "Fiction." After you have written down a few responses, you might invite students to help fill in the chart. 4.Explain to students that they have just described a category of books called fiction. Tell them that a fictional book tells a story that is made up. Some parts may be true, but the story did not really happen. 5.Read aloud the nonfiction book you have selected. (You do not have to read the entire book. You want to illustrate the difference between fiction and nonfiction texts; reading part of the book may accomplish this goal) 6.Ask students to list some of the things that they noticed about the book. Questions you might use include: What do you notice about the illustrations? Who or what is this story about? Could this really happen? Record students' responses on the sheet of chart paper with the heading "Nonfiction." After you have written down a few responses, you might invite students to help fill in the chart. 7.Explain to students that they have just described a category of books called nonfiction. Tell them that nonfiction books contain real or true information.
- 8.Show students the blank Venn diagram you prepared on chart paper. Explain that all of the information about fiction texts will go into the first circle and the information about nonfiction texts will go into the second circle. Ask them what information they think might go into the center section. Look for answers such as "stuff that's the same" or "things that are about both of them." 9.Go through all of the information that appears on the nonfiction and fiction charts and place it in the correct place on the Venn diagram. After you have started to fill in the diagram, you may want students to practice filling in the information themselves. 10.Using the diagram, talk to students about the differences and similarities between fiction and nonfiction. What do they see that is different about fiction and nonfiction? What appears in the intersecting area in the middle? Why would they choose to read a fictional book? Why would they choose to read a nonfiction book? What type seems most interesting to them and why?
- Description This gives factual or scientific information and could be a simple report about an animal. e.g. Dolphins or a bigger project book e.g. My book about space, My book about volcanoes, Welcome to Medieval Times. The book we are going to look at is about Hermit Crabs and has been designed by Margaret Locke who has kindly lent me the material to let you see how you can develop some lessons with non-fiction report
- Background: Year _______________class? Lesson time?____________ Follow-up activity?________ Introduce theme What do we know about Hermit Crabs? – show its OK not to know anything! AIM:-creating context for enquiry What do we want to find out? AIM: Giving pupils choice too Select Appropriate Books Give children option to search for relevant information Find answers to question Use contents page Read together Use Index: give me information about claws Look in index and report back Interpret Information: -Cover words eye stalks/Antennae in text -Observe and write number on card -Report back Word Level Work Catch a crab = Competative, fun, motivating, reinforcing body parts Using a glossary: spot bold word and look at meaning
- Advantages of powerpoint:
- ICT excellent tool for teaching Non-Fiction. On Internet now there are many possibilities: ebooks, powerpoint presentations, interactive activities… I am going to work through how you can exploit a PowerPoint presentation in the class. The one I have chosen is about Grace Darling and comes from the website:_____________ Introduction This lesson is linked to history and the study of famous people- why do we remember them? In the form of recount – gives the main events of her life in chronological order. The aim of the lesson for the children is to learn: about the life of a famous person from the past and why she acted as she did? to infer information from a written or visual account of a person's life Why do we remember Grace Darling? The Lesson Whole Class Teaching Teacher opens the ready made PowerPoint presentation, Grace Darling.ppt and shows slide 1. Teacher explains that the class is going to see a number of pictures which illustrate the story of Grace Darling. Q What is this person doing? Where might she be? Show Slide 2 and read through the text. Q Who was Grace Darling? She was the daughter of the lighthouse keeper. You may wish to discuss the work of a lighthouse keeper and where the Farne Islands are located. Show slide 3 and read through the text. Q What important job did William and Grace have to do? Q What do you think it would be like living on this island? Show slide 4 and read the text Q What happened on this stormy night? Q How do you think the people on the ship felt? Show slide 5 and read the text Q How do you think Grace felt when she saw the ship on the rocks? Show slide 6 and read the text. Show slide 7 and read the text Q What were the weather conditions like? Q How do you think Grace and her father felt when they arrived on Little Farne? Show slide 8 and read the text Show slide 9 and read the text? Q What does this story tell you about Grace Darling? Slide 10 has been deliberately left blank. Do not show slide 11 yet. Main Activity Explain to the children that their task will be to sequence a set of five images from the story of Grace Darling, either using Textease or Word. If children are not familiar with dragging and dropping images into a table the teacher will need to demonstrate this technique. Children, working in pairs on the computers, should open the Word file Grace Darling Sequence.doc or the Textease document Grace Darling Sequence.t2 and drag the images into the appropriate space in the table. They should then click their mouse in the space underneath each picture to write a sentence to help them recount her story. If children are using Textease or Talking First Word they can have their sentences read to them. Encourage children not only to recount the story but also to make inferences about Grace Darling's character. Plenary Draw children back together and recap the correct sequence of images. Show slide 11 which has a photograph of a memorial to Grace Darling Q Why would people want to have a statue of Grace Darling? Q Do you know of any other statues of famous people?
- set the stage for the activity. catch the reader's attention to draw them into the quest provide background information. state what the students will be required to do avoid surprises down the road detail what products will be expected and the tools that are to be used to produce them. give a step-by-step description, concise and clearly laid out provide links to Internet sites interwoven within the steps. display a rubric to measure the product as objectively as possible leave little room for question summarize the experience allow reflection about the process. add higher level questions that may be researched at another time. Give food for thought as to where they can go with the info they have learned, using it in a different situation.
- Obviously each text we use has its specific assessment criteria. However, if we were to think in general about what we want our students to achieve by using this genre then I would suggest the following to consider when evaluating: Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics). They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and nonprint texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience. Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.