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I agree what you wrote about how the videos are a great way to show students engaging in learning about nonfiction texts. I believed that the 1st teacher did a great job in engaging with the students, but I also thought she could have listened more to what her students were saying. I think she over-talked with the students...instead of taking a breath and listening more to what the kids had to say. I think my favorite examples were the 2nd & 3rd videos because these teachers listened a little bit more (to the students) and then asked the questions that they needed to.

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I enjoyed watching all the videos and how the teachers interacted with their students but these following comments are my views of each video.
1st Video- The teacher seemed nice and I can tell that she loved talking to the students...but she OVER-TALKED! She didn't really give the students the opportunity to voice their own opinions. As a viewer, I can tell that she wanted the students to think about her guided questions, without letting the students form their own opinion. Some of the kids just looked a little lost to me!
2nd Video- I loved this teacher! She spoke to her students, but she also gave them the opportunity to speak (without her butting in) and she listened to the students! I think that's important!
3rd Video-
I loved how the teacher began the class by telling them what she liked about their essays and I felt that she built up their confidence to write better! I also loved how she took an example of another essay, and she discussed what was right and wrong about the essay. She also gave the students time to talk it over, with each other.

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I agree that the 3rd video gave us new ways of using mentor texts. I have always thought of mentor texts being books, never handwritten essays. I also like this because I feel like my students always need a mentor text of some sort. They also need peer interaction. This was a great exercise to integrate both!

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While watching these videos, I thought about how my students feel about nonfiction. The goal is that nonfiction texts be written in narrative form.  However, I fear that my many of my students would reject this idea. Many of my students prefer nonfiction texts because it is real life. It is something that has happened and they don't feel like they have to use their imagination.

I loved how all videos added socialization into the activity, specifically in the video with older students analyzing the persuasive essays. The students critiqued the text given to them and took that information to their partners and self-critiqued. It reminded me of my writing workshops in my grad classes. I'd be interested to see how my students would self-critique after seeing a mentor text.

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Yes, you are correct about the fact that a similar discussion on non-fiction text could be very helpful for students to "see it done correctly!" I plan to do something like this before my biography lesson.

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I agree! Finding materials to use for guided reading and mentor texts is often challenging! The dinosaur text that was used in the first video was awesome! I like that the nonfiction was written in a narrative format. This changes the way our students view nonfiction and may lend to a change in approach to reading other nonfiction texts.

The anchor chart was awesome and I think that I would definitely use something like that in my classroom. It's a great scaffold for guiding conversation.

I also got a lot out of the 3rd video. I have never thought about using professional writing as a mentor text, especially for the editing process.

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I struggle to find nonfiction books that are appropriate as well. I love to use Gail Gibbons to supplement nonfiction units. She has great vocabulary and writes for a younger audience, but I don’t know whether I would use her books as mentor texts.

I also liked in video 2 when the children had to support their answers with evidence from the text and this completely transfers to writing when supporting an argument. It made me think of the swear word “PSSAs”.

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Veronica O'Leary Response to Alyssa Mizak

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Veronica O'Leary Response to Alyssa Mizak

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I do agree with you on the first video. I believe a lot of time was spent watching them read. They all seemed to be able to read the text independently. With the limited amount of time I have with my students to teach writing, I could not afford to spend that amount of time simply reading it if they could have done it previously.  I also thought that having the students question each other and ask for clarification was an essential part of the lesson. It teaches valuable skills for both in and out of the classroom. Having the students continuously provide proof for their points and reasonings was very important. Too often we allow students to talk without having them fact check what they are saying by referencing the research. This is a great way to teach research in the classroom. Having students provide proof is extremely important. I agree that I need to work on my revision as a class. I work with young students and revision is not a key point in our writing, but it is something that is necessary. One way that I have been thinking of incorporating it is by giving them specific goals to work towards in their revising.

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1st Video: I thought that the teacher did an excellent book introduction. I read an article recently; I am not sure if it was for this class or a class prior, but it discussed the importance of a book introduction especially in a guided reading setting. It builds excitement, background knowledge, purpose for reading, and familiarity with unknown vocabulary words. These are all very important when reading nonfiction texts. This then transfers with students’ ability to write. If they feel comfortable with the content and know how to access their resources, they will be more successful when writing about a topic.

2nd Video: I really liked the Ways to Listen and Grow Ideas Together poster that the teacher used to scaffold discussion about the nonfiction text they read together. I thought that it gave the students a chance to deeply connect with the text and the content presented. It also gave them an opportunity to speak, formulate thoughts and connections about the information that they read, and it helped them to form “arguments” and back them up with information. I know in second grade, speaking in complete thoughts and sentences is difficult enough, but then to have students reiterate and share information learned is especially difficulty. This transfers to writing because writing is telling what you know on paper. Having that scaffold helped the students to speak, which in turn would help them to write about the topic.

3rd Video: The way that this teacher used a mentor text to help students revise was awesome. I have never used a mentor text for the revision process, but I now see the benefit. I usually use mentor texts at the beginning of the writing process. I also liked that students, as they turned and talked, were having good and meaningful conversations about their writing. That is nice to see in middle school when peer interaction is so difficult for some. It shows me that the teacher has created a safe environment where the students feel comfortable sharing writing and ideas.

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I agree with you that the third video was the one I enjoyed the most and could really relate to and find things to apply to my own classroom. I plan to do something similar in my own classroom as well.

I as well, would like to add more mentor text and nonfiction text to help my students with writing. :)

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In the video, Teaching Narrative Nonfiction with Guided Reading for Early Elementary Students, I loved how the teacher previewed, along with a picture walk, with the students to grab their attention. It was great that the students were making connections to their life through the preview and picture walk. I liked seeing how she was asking students about their predictions and what they are currently learning. My students love making predictions and then seeing if they are right, so this is something I try and have them do a lot with their reading. Something I try to do in my guided reading instruction is really use the time for discussion and my higher groups, that do not need to read the passage with me, read it before coming to me. Or, we will preview the passage at the end of a group and they will read it to me before coming to me the following time. This way I am not using a lot of time watching them read. Sometimes I can give them a writing it, so their thoughts and predictions can be written down if they want to. While I felt like this teacher was having great discussion I do think there was a lot of time watching them read, that the students might have been able to do independently.

Something I really enjoyed in the video, The Ensuing Accountable Talk Discussion of Bugs! Bugs! Bugs! I liked the idea of a quick talk about a book. The ways for students to ask other students if they don’t understand what one student saying is great! I think that will help students to not get offended if a student is asking them something. I would love to incorporate something like this into my classroom. I like that the teacher brought up authors purpose from the start to talk about why the author wrote this and understand why they wrote it. The students seemed engaged in what she was doing in this video, more so than the first video watched. Having students return to the text to find evidence is so important right now and she was having the students give proof from what they read to support their claims. This is something I am always having my students do, and I hope that this becomes second nature to them.

The last video I watched was Teaching Students to examine Craft Moves and Author’s Intent in Mentor Persuasive Essay in Order to Support Revision (5-8). I thought right away that revision is something I need to get better out. My class has not done any formal writing prompts yet, so I am struggling with how to go back to their free writing to add things. I like that she put up an example and was working with that to revise. This is something I could adapt and do more to teaching writing skills, such as craft. I like that this lesson let students pick out the ways they could improve their own essay writing. You can tell this teacher does a lot of open discussion in her classroom because of how open students seemed to talk and the great conversations they were having. I would love to do more of this with my students. I have a comfortable and open classroom, but my students are 4th grade and they appear to be worried a lot about what their peers think, and if what they are saying is the correct thing. I really liked that she had her students turn and talk to someone next to them and pick just 2 things off of the list that they were going to do to their writing. This way they are not overwhelmed by trying to do them all at once. It was great to hear how the students were relating it to their own writing. F

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Video 1 Comments

I thought it was very interesting how the teacher previewed the information of the story and had the students make predictions on what the text might be about. I also thought it was very important that she continuously stated that it was non-fiction. I thought that it was a great idea to pull a non-fiction text that reads like a story. I cannot say that I have any non-fiction text that does that. That will be something to invest in for future writing instruction. I also like how she pulled the students in for a small group lesson. I have added guided writing to my stations. Every Friday now, we are writing in response to the text we read during the week. It is not necessarily creative writing, but it definitely is a place to help them see the various points of writing. I also liked how she went around and had the students talk about their learning and then expand on it using the evidence from the book. She did not leave it at that however, she had them make inferences based on that research. I think it is important that she shared the objective of the lesson at the beginning and the end of the lesson.

Video 2 Comments

I found this video to be very interesting. I loved how she had the anchor chart with questioning examples on it for her students to reference during their discussion. She focused the instruction on what the author wants the reader to know. That is a great way to look at what the story is mostly about. Every time a student would bring up a different topic, she had the class connect it to the text in some way. She had them support their ideas and answer other students’ questions. I also loved how she incorporated the technology into the lesson. She showed the students the book that they had read on the document camera. That is a great idea because students could access the text even after they finished reading it. She had the students respond to one another and question each other to gain deeper knowledge. The part that I loved was when she had the students turn and tell their partner what they thought before having students share out loud. Not only does it give students the opportunity to share their thinking in a non-intimidating manner, it allows students to hear multiple perspectives.

Video 3

I was surprised to see how much I took out of this video even though I won't teach anything remotely similar to this lesson in my classroom. I found it interesting to see how they discussed various strategies to use in their own writing. She like all the others introduced what they were going to learn about before the lesson began. She started the mini-lesson by showing them a sample of writing. I love to highlight writing, but I loved the idea of using a professional writing piece. Finding writing pieces that focus on the mini-lesson can be hard, but once you find them they are crucial to teaching writing. After the teacher had the students discuss their ideas, she had them share out. She wrote down their ideas and rephrased them by saying, “what I hear you saying is...” Every time she had one of the students share out their idea, she had them cite back to the article; what they found and where they are found. She then had the students look back at their writing to make sure it makes sense and has all the words.

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Revision has always been a challenge in my teaching, as well.  Having enough time for teaching writing is difficult in itself.  Revision is such a broad thing that I feel I don't really know where to start or what strategies to use.  I always try to only focus on a few FCAs at a time, but this still only give some structure.
One editing or revising technique I would like to incorporate is the editing circle.  You get the whole class in a circle with their writing piece, then they pass these around.  At each person, they correct something new.
I love that you are trying discussions in your classroom. This is a regular part of my classroom, especially science. It is so important for students to share their knowledge. It also helps solidify the knowledge in their brains.

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I love that they do some predicting in the beginning of the nonfiction text.  I think this is so important for students to do if they are reading this type of text.  Most good readers do this rather naturally further along in their reading life.  The teacher also talks them through some predictions as they continue to read.  I think it might be important to also discuss why you make predictions as you read, as students will be more willing (typically) to do this if they are told why they should.
I think narrative nonfiction are such an important part of student reading.  This gives students and any reader, really, a connection to what they are reading.  Good textbooks include this type of teaching, but it is rather rare to find.  I find a lot of my students really enjoy reading nonfiction on their own, especially about animals.  I think that often nonfiction, especially textbooks, kill students' love of nonfiction because they are poorly written.
Since my students are beginning a unit of research, I would love for them to have access to these types of texts, although I have little choice in what they use.  Our librarian tends to do an excellent job of choosing books that are more interesting to students.
It's great in the second video that there is also writing involved, though it is done by the teacher.  This would be something my sixth graders could do, writing in response to a text.  This could also later become their own nonfiction writing.
I think this conversation about what the author wants us to know is also important.  In sixth grade we discuss author's purpose, which would connect to this discussion they are having.
It's so important, like in the third video, to boost student morale when it comes to writing.  Oftentimes, they don't feel like they write well.  They need to know what they are good at.
Instead of telling students what the author does to convince the reader, the teacher asks students to do this, which is very important.  Students are capable, so we should treat them like it.
I would like to focus more on pulling excellent examples of nonfiction into my classroom. I often use it in science, but finding examples to use in ELA are much different.

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I love your thoughts on using both fiction and nonfiction to show how they can be intertwined.   I think that it is important for students to see this from a young age.  I also like the way the students interacted with each other in the second video.  This discussion, gave the students many different perspectives on what they had read.   Your comments for the third video make me want to use anchor charts more often.  I often make lists with the kids on the board but then they are erased.  I would like to use anchor charts more often.

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All of these videos showed great ways to engage students in their learning.   I have noticed that nonfiction texts are becoming more and more popular with my students.  They love learning new information from these stories. I liked that even though there were different ages represented all students still worked together in similar ways.  As a first grade teacher I don’t always get to see what will be expected of my students in their future.

In the first video, the teacher did a great job explaining what to expect from a nonfiction text.  The teacher was able to have good discussions with each student as they were reading.  I think these discussions are important to be having especially at a young age.  It gets the students engaged in what they are reading and writing.

I like the way the second video had the students leading the discussion.  The teacher modeled how the discussion should look and the students were able to use the sheet the teacher referenced in leading their discussions.  I have been trying to have more discussions like this is my classroom.  My students have loved having the freedom to discuss new stories with their classmates.  We have used more fiction stories for these discussions but I would love to start trying more informational texts, as well.

In the third video, I loved the way the students pulled out points they liked from a mentor text.  This was a fun and inviting way for students to think of what they would like to revise about their own writing.  There were also discussions between the students that showed they understood what they should add to their writing.

I would like to try some of the ideas from these videos.  I would like to start, right away, adding more informational texts into my daily routine, since my students have been responding well to them.  I would like to spend more time revising our writing as well.  Revising is not something we have been spending a lot of time on and I would like this to be more of a focus.

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You had some great responses and connections to these videos :)

I walked away with the same thing from watching the fist video...Narrative Nonfiction is such a cool genre that I don't think of using much...and I agree, it can be confusing for students. I'm sure I've used it before, but never intentionally or with purpose. It's something I would love to do, and I also think it could lead to great discussion in the classroom.

Reading your response to video 2- I LOVE that you're working on using evidence from the text in first grade!!! Being a third grade teacher, it's awesome to hear that there are primary teachers instructing these higher level concepts- it helps LEAPS AND BOUNDS when they get to the older grades and have to take PSSAs. Thank you for being awesome!

I am also an anchor chart lover! :) When I started teaching, I was more about using technology to display charts, and didn't fully grasp the importance of having them PHYSICALLY posted around the room for students to refer back to. My room is now COVERED with anchor charts about anything and everything we have learned- and I have seen such a big difference in my students. They really refer back to them and use them as tools!

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One thing I loved about the choice of these three videos is that it showed a variety of age groups working on reading and writing using persuasive and informational texts. I always love seeing what teachers do with students not only on my grade level, but above and below third grade as well. It gives me insight on how I can modify my instruction for students who may need extra help or to be challenged.

As many others have been discussing, incorporating non-fiction into my writing instruction is a difficult thing to do. In my district,  third grade has a big focus on narrative writing. Our writing curriculum is broken into six writing pieces....three of which are narrative: an autobiography, a personal narrative, and a fictional narrative. The other three, which I feel like don't get touched on as much as they should, are an opinion piece, a responsive piece, and an informational piece (informational is put at the end of the year, so sometimes I feel like we have to rush through this, and I don't want to!)  Because of this, I do spend a lot of time using fiction mentor texts/instruction techniques to teach writing.

In the first video, I do love how the text being used is a nonfiction narrative. You don't see these a lot, but I think they can be a powerful tool: a way to "kill two birds with one stone" in a sense. Students can see the elements of a narrative (somebody wanted but so, as the teacher was pointing out) but also learn new facts and see how nonfiction writing can be made interesting.

I LOVED video 2...to the point that I want to go duplicate this lesson on Monday. I often struggle with getting my students to have discussions with each other and ask important questions. The way this teacher had these talk moves posted on chart paper was a great scaffold to get these students to ask questions and understand their peers. I especially liked how the teacher only asked students questions when it was absolutely necessary....rather, she pointed to different talk moves on the board that would work to extend other students thinking and had students ask the question. Once practiced, this could really get students have deep and useful conversations about reading and writing. This could be a good technique for peer revision as well!

Video three was awesome for me to watch, as third grade is the big year for really pushing EVIDENCE for reasons students write about. A big thing we work on in my classroom is writing a response based on a skill (cause/effect, compare/contrast, main idea/details, etc.) and using evidence from the text. Although the teacher is helping students revise a persuasive text, I can really relate this to my students' writing responses!

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I too feel as though my nonfiction and fiction reading instruction is separated.  This is something I would like to improve on.  I agree that guided reading would be a great place to include books that are nonfiction with a narrative structure.

The teacher in the second video was fantastic!  I was so impressed with her questioning techniques and her ability to keep her students fully engaged in the conversation.  I agree that young kids love having the opportunity to talk.  She seemed to channel this and turned this lesson into something really meaningful and engaging for her young students.

Mentor texts are fantastic! I like the idea that you state of having students create a list of ways to revise. This would be beneficial for young students, as they like having a goal to work toward.

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I too have not used many narrative nonfiction books in my classroom.  In my post, I talk about how I often shy away from them because they seem to confuse my students.  They get confused on whether the book is fiction or nonfiction.  But, this video helped me to see the benefit in incorporating texts like this in my guided reading instruction.

I too noted that the teacher in the second video was phenomenal at questioning her students.  This is an area that I too would like to improve on.

I like your note of "being on the hunt" for an item to revise. Young student would enjoy this sort of scavenger hunt for information!

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Video 1 Comment- Teaching Narrative Nonfiction for Early Elementary Students
I liked how the teacher really stressed that the story was a nonfiction book with a narrative storytelling element.  Our guided reading series has a few books like this, but I often shy away from using them because I find that my students struggle to then decide if the book is fiction or nonfiction.  After watching this video, I realize that incorporating this could allow for some great discussion to take place on this subject, and it would help the children learn that fiction and nonfiction can intertwine, even though we often don't teach in that way.

Video 2 Comment- The Ensuing Accountable Talk Discussion
I liked the way that the students asked each other clarification questions.  I also liked how the teacher rephrased what the student said for the class.  The teacher did a great job of having students provide support for their answers by going back into the text.  This is something I am currently working on with my first graders.  We are practicing finding details to support main ideas by highlighting evidence in our texts. I also really enjoyed how this teacher allowed the students to kind of debate back and forth and come to a conclusion on if a wood ant is helpful or not somewhat on their own.  This can be really powerful for students.  She also did a great job of giving them sentence starters (i.e. "For example") to help students learn how to phrase their evidence from the text in a statement.  She encouraged them to be specific.

Video 3: Teaching Students to Examine Craft Moves
I LOVED how the teacher used an anchor chart at the start to review all that students have already learned.  This is something I am passionate about.  If you walk into my classroom, you will see anchor charts all over my walls for each subject area.  I feel like these are incredibly beneficial for students, since we make them together as a class.  Then they can refer back to them at any point and remember all the important conversation we had when making the chart.  I also liked how she had the students complete a turn and talk.  This is a strategy I enjoy using as well, as students enjoy being able to share and often feel more confident in their answers. The students did a great job of sharing revisions ideas for the paragraph. I like that she made another anchor chart to document their suggestions for improvements.

I believe that using nonfiction is so important. I would like to begin exploring ways to connect nonfiction to the narrative style, and to help them build connections between fiction and nonfiction.

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As I was reading your video comments it didn't surprise me that we had many similar ideas. I truly do believe we need to work harder to incorporate narrative nonfiction into our reading and writing instruction.

I have also been finding myself discussing craft moves in mentor texts without even thinking about it. Just imagine how much more we can do once we start to incorporate the lessons we have been planning :)

I haven't seen a revision process that I felt I could use as easily as this videos ideas. I believe I could use this process to MODEL very easily for my class. After a few chances to model they would be able to pick a few items from a list to revise.

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While watching these videos, I saw some great opportunities for me to incorporate or extend my classroom practices. I far too often separate fiction and nonfiction texts in my classroom. By combining them I could have some very powerful teaching moments.

1st Video:

This video showed a great use and introduction of narrative nonfiction in a small group setting. I have not used many narrative nonfiction stories in my classroom. This is something that I think my class would love. I would love to incorporate this genre into my whole group and small group reading lessons and also encourage my students to write informational writing pieces similar to narrative nonfiction texts.
2nd Video:

In my school district, as well as at my grade level, we have been discussing how we can use questioning more effectively in the classroom. Having student generated questions is always so important. I love that in the video they were able to share and cite evidence for their answers. I have been working on citing evidence in my class a great deal! I also really liked the chart, Ways to Listen and Grow Ideas Together, that she created and referenced throughout her lesson.
3rd Video:

With any read aloud that I do in the second grade classroom the strategies from the video could be utilized. We could pick one item that we would like revised and be on the hunt for it as I reread a text or portion of a text. We could make a list of revisions and students choose one or two goals that they would like to use to revise their own writing.

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Cynthia, sounds like we both really want to use some more nonfiction books in our writing! I definitely use more fiction books than nonfiction books when modeling writing strategies and skills. It is definitely a struggle to find these books for the little ones.

The teacher did a great job facilitaring the class discussion in the second video. It would be great for students to extend the lesson and write an all about book. It would be awesome to do a narrative! A story about a day in a bug’s life, using true facts and details from the original text.

I agree that the last video could be adapted for younger student too. I am thinking of read alouds and picking out word choice or a skill you are working on revising. Students can make a list of ideas and pick 1-2 to try out in their writing.

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I feel that so much of informational and nonfiction reading or writing in my classroom is very separate from a narrative. We work hard to teach the distinction between the two. We don’t really discuss the moments that they intertwine enough. In fact, I have several silly nonfiction books and when we did a book sort at the beginning of the year the kids were really confused about what to categorize them as: fiction or nonfiction.

In the first video, I thought it was important that the teacher stressed that it was a nonfiction text, containing real facts, but told as a narrative. I am desperately wanting to include more books like that in my classroom. Guided reading would be a good place for this introduction as well. I feel that experimenting in small groups would open students’ curiosity.

In the second video, the teacher did a fabulous job facilitating a group discussion. Her chart of talking points and sentence starters helped students when asking questions or using text evidence to support their ideas. I loved the title: Ways to Listen and Grow Ideas Together. This reminds me of a push for questioning we are currently experiencing in my school district. Students were actively engaged in questioning and answering and the conversation stayed on topic and related to the book. Young kids love to talk, and this is a great way to keep them focused and on track!

The third video gave a great example of a way to use a mentor text to help with the revision process. Revision is something I am focusing on working on in my classroom. I could definitely do something like this with my 2nd graders. Just this week during whole group reading and my read aloud, I found myself focused on the author’s craft and pointing out and questioning students about the way things were written. For example, the use of “rainbow of colors” in one text and pointing out similes and playful language in The BFG. I seem to be focusing on that a lot lately without even planning it! Having the students work together to create a list of ways to revise and then having students just pick 1 or 2 goals, as the teacher did in the video, would be a great place for them to start.

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Lisa,
I agree with what you said about adding more nonfiction mentor texts to the writing curriculum. I definitely need to get my hands on some nonfiction texts for my own classroom.

I think the revision strategy would be a great strategy to use in your classroom. Let me know how it goes when your try it out.

In response to your comment about the second video, I laughed when you said you could see common core drafters smiling in the back of the classroom. I totally agree! The teacher was definitely meeting common core state standards by having her students cite evidence from the text.

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After watching the videos, I learned that non-fiction books are excellent tools for teaching writing.  I find that I use more fiction books than nonfiction books to model writing skills for my students. I would love to incorporate more nonfiction books into my writing lessons.  However, I struggle to find nonfiction books that are appropriate for my students who are just learning how to read and write.

Video 1 Comment: I like how the teacher used a nonfiction text that was written as a story. While watching the video, I thought about using a similar book to teach students how to write informational pieces that are written in narrative form.

Video 2 Comment: I like how the students participated in the discussion and were required to support their answers with evidence from the text. One way of extending this lesson is having the students choose a bug from the story and writing an “all about book”.

Video 3 Comment: I like how the teacher started the lesson on a positive note by complementing her students on a job well done. I like how she used a mentor text to get her students thinking about how they could revise their own writing. At the end of the lesson, it was evident that the students knew exactly what they had to fix in their writing. This lesson could definitely be adapted for the younger students.

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I agree with you on the first video -- I did not feel it was effective for her to guide her students to their responses -- it felt like she just wanted to get to her next point so she could keep the lesson moving. The one little girl had something to say about the dinosaur show she watched and the teacher just shut her down. Sharing prior knowledge is a great way to generate interest in what a student is about to read.

I also like your idea of students creating an infographic from this text and sharing what they know with their peers. That would be a terrific, grade-appropriate lesson on information writing.

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Fifth grade students have much to say and they often have a lot of confidence in their work. I have found that I could show them mentor texts and exemplary work from past grades and they will read them, nod their heads, and get to work writing their own piece. Some pay attention to the guidelines I lay out and pick up details from mentor texts, but others do not. And when they are done, I am left with the job of helping them revise.

I loved the third video,

Teaching Students to Examine Craft Moves and Author’s intent in Mentor Persuasive Essay in Order to Support Revision, because  I think a similar lesson could help me solve the above problem. The teacher demonstrates a wonderful strategy for helping students understand what they need to revise. First, she reviews the guidelines for writing strong essays. Then she reads the mentor text and asks students to "turn and talk" to discuss which guidelines the author of the essay was using.  I love how she asks students to cite lines from the mentor text as examples of the guidelines. They are coming up with the examples on their own -- drawing their own conclusions, which is so much more effective than simply listening to a teacher read guidelines. I also love how she has them re-examine their own essays, then "turn-and-talk" to discuss the revisions they can apply to make their essays stronger. This is a revision strategy I can use in my classroom immediately, since I can see it working just as well with fifth graders as it worked in the video.

The first video, Teaching Narrative Nonfiction with Guided Reading with Early Elementary Students did little to inspire me. Like the comment-writers below the video, I felt this teacher did too much interrupting and guiding. I didn't get enough of a chance to see these students think. I also feel this video is geared more toward reading lessons than writing lessons. The second video, The Ensuing Accountable Talk Discussion of Bugs, Bugs, Bugs was delightful to watch. I enjoyed watching the teacher pull textual evidence from the students -- I could almost feel the Common Core drafters smiling from afar. I also enjoyed how she directed students to the questions of "What does the author want us to know," which is a great way to teach theme. I could imagine taking this the next step toward helping students write a theme for their own informational piece.

Overall, through watching these videos, I can see that I need to add more nonfiction mentor texts to my curriculum and incorporate them into my writing unit. It is clear that they can be a very effective addition when used properly.

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Sabrina, thank you for your response back! I agree that at times it can be hard to find nonfiction texts at my students' instructional levels. Sometimes I just focus on parts of the texts rather than the whole piece (like nonfiction text features), or I provide extra support as students interact with the text. Sometimes I go online to find articles instead. Readworks is a free site I use to find nonfiction and fiction texts!

In response to your post about the videos, I agree with your point that nonfiction tends to be "overlooked treasures." You admitted your students find the genre boring, but maybe this is only because they haven't had many positive experiences prior to being in your classroom. If so, this could be a great opportunity for you to seek out nonfiction mentor texts that would interest your students and inspire them to write nonfiction (like you mentioned in response to the first video)!! I think our students' opinions are often formed by their perceptions of how others think/feel... If they see that you are excited about nonfiction and present it in intriguing ways, they may be more willing to change their pre-existing opinions and appreciate all nonfiction texts have to offer!

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With third graders, they have often started to establish their identity (what they are interested in, opinions of their family, etc.) It is really interesting to watch them read nonfiction texts and second-guess or reevaluate their opinions about certain subjects. Nonfiction is a great vehicle for bringing students together to learn about difficult issues or interesting topics. ln our book room (which is packed into storage until construction), we have a lot of nonfiction texts. Unfortunately, they are on different DRA levels and I can't always find texts that students will be super interested in.

I think you have come up with a very valuable lesson for your students. Using a mentor text to facilitate your writing will be beneficial to the entire class. I think it is a great idea to have them participate in discussions and share the information with their peers.

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I have used mostly fiction stories to teach the elements of writing and narrative writing and I seldom use good nonfiction texts until the holidays, when we start to tech informational writing. My students do get some exposure to nonfiction, but I find that I utilize nonfiction texts more often during the reading block. This is, perhaps, due to the fact that we have combined a social studies and science unit to teach our reading skills. I think that nonfiction texts get an unfair label of being “boring” for students

The topic comment on the first video Teaching Narrative Nonfiction struck me. It said, “This was a good video, but the teacher spent too much time instructing the students and seemed like she guided them towards their conclusions instead of letting them come to them on their own.” At times, I think we do not allow students to share their extensive knowledge with us. They have a lot of knowledge to share with us and need to allow them to share those experiences and pieces of information in their writing. Using nonfiction books in small groups could lends itself well to informational writing. Students could use the text to create a piece of informational text (maybe even an infographic) that could be used to teach their peers.

In the second video, the teacher is using great questioning techniques to guide students toward discovering the author's purpose and the main idea of the story. She asks the students to be explicit with their answers and give detailed explanations to support their answers. This is a great way to talk about adding details from the text to support your answer to an open-ended response, which is something that is required for the PSSA and is typically difficult for students to do.

In the last video, the teacher uses a real-life example to show her students how to add more detail to their essays. Revision is a very difficult thing for students to master. Using nonfiction texts that they may recognize or find interesting is a great tool to help them to see what the authors they read are doing. I think it is also very powerful when students use their peer's work as models. When students take ownership over their writing, they are able to be proud of what they have accomplished.

Overall, I notice that nonfiction books are a great gateway to larger discussions about the content. Students are able to share their connections and knowledge about vocabulary. When they share, they can sometimes learn coincidental vocabulary (and typically they remember it because of the way their friend/peer described it.) Nonfiction allows students to be able to share their vast knowledge and to learn more about the world around them. It is an overlooked treasure that needs to be used more often in the classroom for both reading and writing instruction.

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As a first grade teacher, I am exceptionally lucky to work with children young enough to have almost completely unbiased views of reading. Many of my students are learning to read for the first time, and we spend a portion of the year discussing genres of literature and their specific characteristics. My students are filled with curiosity and wonderment as they constantly ask questions and share personal stories about the material at hand. As their teacher, this makes it “easier” for me to work with nonfiction and informational text because, instead of casting it off as "boring," my students respond with excitement because they know new learning will ensue. When my students ask questions, I try to direct their attention to information found in a text in our classroom library, or we refer to an educational site together. I can also find informational texts (sometime with a little more work) to use during small reading group time to revisit previous discussions and extend the learning.

While student exposure to nonfiction and informational texts is "at a high" in my classroom, I will admit nonfiction/informational writing is where I should focus now. I currently use mentor texts to teach writing, but not as often for this genre. I was really impressed by the second video, where the teacher facilitated an academic discussion among her students to discuss take-aways from a story about bugs. In watching this, I got an idea for my own classroom:

After reading a nonfiction text with my students, I think it would be beneficial to facilitate a similar discussion to see what information stands out to my students and to determine what questions are left answered. I could extend this activity by pointing out to my students that, when they were readers, there were parts they really enjoyed, and possibly confusing parts that left unknowns. Then, when students go to write their own informational pieces, they could borrow the aspects of craft helpful to them as readers, and abandon the ones they did not enjoy. Similarly, if the mentor text provides information through narrative(like in the first video), students could be reminded of how that strategy helped us as readers follow along and new information in interesting ways. Finally, as students share their published writings (probably in smaller groups), I envision students participating in similar academic discussions to the one with the mentor text to reflect on strategies borrowed and information learned.

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Teaching Narrative Nonfiction with Guided Reading for Early Elementary Students

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http://www.unitsofstudy.com In-class example of teaching the guided reading strategy of using story structure to help read narrative nonfiction. The teacher is using the Units of Study for Teaching Reading instructional model developed by Lucy Calkins. Watch as the teacher demonstrates guided reading strategies such as looking at the cover and title page to predict what the book will be about.

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Teaching Students to Examine Craft Moves and Author's intent in Mentor Persuasive Essay in Order to Support Revision (5-8)

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This is "Teaching Students to Examine Craft Moves and Author's intent in Mentor Persuasive Essay in Order to Support Revision (5-8)" by tcrwp on...

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The Ensuing Accountable Talk Discussion of Bugs! Bugs! Bugs! (K-2)

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Lucy Calkins and Colleagues at the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project present The Ensuing Accountable Talk Discussion of Bugs! Bugs! Bugs! (K-2)