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.

 

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.

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.

 

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.

 

 

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. 

 

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. 

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. 

 

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. 

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. 

 

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

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”.