Nonfiction Reading Strategies

We have focused our second nine weeks on the genre of nonfiction. Who would have thought that nonfiction incorporates so many wonderful pieces of literature. We have read some exciting stories in our Prentice Hall Copper Series and learned some interesting things from each story. We have completed "The Shutout" which was a historical essay about a variety of stick-and-ball games from different cultures and how events in our own history lead to current "baseball" as we know it. We learned about Amanda Borden, an Olympic gold medalist, who shared her personal journey to reach the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. We got a different understanding of Mark Twain, the author, through his own daughter's eyes. Susy Clemens shared in her biography, how Samuel Clemens was a family man, with striking features, and a humorist with a kind sympathetic nature. We will continue in our journey through nonfiction focusing the next several weeks on autobiographies, first-person narratives, and three types of essays; persuasive, informational and narrative.

My noticing for the first weeks of the beginning of the second quarter is that the students are not continuing their hard working habits they started for the first quarter. Specifically, we have already gotten one Selection Test under our belt. The students are very familiar with the test format and the types of questions that are asked (they range from simple recall to higher level inference.) If students remain diligent in doing the Review and Assess at the end of each story, they complete and utilize the study guides that are provided prior to the test, and they reread their stories more than 3 times prior to the Selection Test, they should perform at average to above average on the Selection Test. If your child's score is below average, ask them if they are taking advantage of all the resources available to them to help them be successful. Another noticing that I have is that most of my student's reading comprehension is average to above average. Therefore, if they are not practicing the reading strategies made available to them during the daily lessons, they are simply reading words. It is much easier to just read words and say "I read," however, as I model in class everyday, reading, thinking, and applying the reading strategies takes time and patience. These strategies must be practiced every time they read. It is truly a mental workout! Just a note; there are fiction specific reading strategies and nonfiction specific reading strategies. Please feel free to review in your child's Prentice Hall Copper Series textbook the nonfiction strategies that we have been and will continue to focus on the entire semester. They are located on page 529.

Engrade is still extremely slow. Grades are not posting for several days. Please be patient to view your child's information and the monthly calendar. I have updated the lessons and expectations for the entire month of November. Enjoy!