What do you think you know about...?Two activities for helping students read,

write, and comprehend non-fiction in the classroom

Anne Weisenbergaweisenberg@csustan.edu

Nonfiction

Why don't we just call it life!Tomie dePaola

Reading and analyzing non-fiction

textA modified KWL with RAN

K- what they know

W- what they want to learn

L- what I learned

Benefits of a RAN

Develops literal understandings

Makes distinctions between “what we think we know” and actual information from text.

Leads to “wonderings”.

Multiple exposures strengthens literal understandings

Develops interpretive understandings by making connections.

Develops evaluative understandings by questioning the validity of different sources.

What do you think you know about...

Naked mole rats?

Think-pair-share

Record information on post-it notes

Add to chart

Read and view visual literacy to confirm prior knowledge

Reading for a purpose

To confirm prior knowledge

To learn new information

To determine misconceptions

To pose questions

What can this lead to?

Independent reading/ research

Other research opportunities

How can you use it in your grade level?

Shared ReadingUsing non-fiction text

A great way to integrate science, social studies , and math into the ELA

Lesson example

Life cycle of a frog

WordWord PredictionPrediction Final Final meaningmeaning SketchSketch

EmbryoEmbryoH: 12H: 12

NH: 18NH: 18

1. A 1. A dinosaurdinosaur2. A baby 2. A baby

frogfrog

A mass of A mass of cells in the eggcells in the egg

TadpoleTadpoleH:18H:18

NH: 12NH: 12

1. A baby 1. A baby frogfrog

2. A 2. A polliwogpolliwog

A baby frog A baby frog with a long tail with a long tail

and lives in and lives in waterwater

What can you do?

Use a variety of text structures; exposition, argument/persuasion, and procedural

Questions?