Lesson: Genres of Nonfiction

Time

Description of Segment

Teacher #1 Says/Does

Students Are

10 minutes

Quick Questions/ HW Check

Teacher uses a variety of kinesthetic, engagement, and checking for understanding strategies to lead students in short discussion of their DRP quick question work and their reading comprehension homework from the night before

Listening and tracking; raising hands and participating in call-and response activiites and discussions

5 minutes

Hook With Journal Writing

For one minute in your journal, I want to you to write about some type of nonfiction that you really enjoy reading. It could be a magazine, a newspaper column, anything.

Instructor invites students to share what they wrote. Instructor then shows the website for the ESPN fantasy breakdown on the overhead.

This is some of my favorite nonfiction to read. Every Saturday night, I pull up this article and try to decide who to play in my fantasy games the next Day. This is nonfiction I read because I really want to—the information helps me to understand other peoples’ ideas better, and I enjoy it.  

Listening and tracking, writing in the journal section of their notebook, participating in the disucssion

10 minutes

Mini Lesson

As you guys just proved, there are also lots of different types of nonfiction that we use everyday without even thinking about it. We’re going to start a list of them and think about how nonfiction fits into our lives as readers. As we go through this list, you’ll start to realize how important nonfiction is for you everyday.

Instructor should give the following chart with two sides in the student’s lesson notes:

I wonder how much nonfiction you guys read on a monthly basis. Raise your hand if you can think of some types of nonfiction you use at least once a month.

Through discussion, the students will continue the chart by adding other pieces of nonfiction they use in their lives.

Wow. You guys just added a lot of information to that. Now I want to you go through that list and put a star next to all the types of nonfiction you think are important for your life…what couldn’t you live without?

What did you come up with? Based on that chart, is nonfiction important in your life? Why or why not? (Instructor leads discussion—this could also be done as partner talk)

Listening and taking notes in the Lesson Notes section of their  notebook

15 minutes

Guided Practice

In the Guided/Independent Practice section of the notebook, the instructor will draw the same chart they just drew for lesson notes.

You know where you can find a lot of different types of nonfiction? The newspaper. Let’s look through today’s edition of The New Haven Register and see how many different types of nonfiction within that paper are important to us in our lives.

The instructor will then find the EDITORIAL section of the paper. After reading aloud an editorial for the day, the instructor will write, OPINOIN PIECE/ TELLS ME WHAT OTHER PEOPLE IN THE COMMUNITY ARE THINKING ABOUT in the T chart.  Within discussion, students may add other comments to the “what it does for me” side.

Listening to others read; reading aloud; taking notes in the guided practice section of their notebooks

40 minutes

Independent Practice

Now you’re going to have the opportunity to peruse the newspaper and some other pieces of nonfiction on your own and add at least 4 more ideas to our T chart. The only rule of the game? NO COMICS! J

Instructor hands out newspapers, appropriate magazines, biographies, dictionaries and encyclopedias. Students will continue the T chart independently or in groups.

Reading and taking notes in the IP section of their notebooks; conferencing with instructors on reading strategies

10 minutes

Exit Ticket

Observing and assisting

Completing their exit ticket