We are immersed in nonfiction during Writer's Workshop and the kids' enthusiasm is certainly contagious! The children are bursting at the seams, eager to share their areas of expertise as they craft nonfiction books.
this writing unit by directing the kids' attention to the nonfiction
section of our classroom library. I pointed out that none of "their"
nonfiction books could be found on the shelves and that the only way to
fix this problem was to begin writing nonfiction of their own. I used
this as a springboard to encourage the children to choose nonfiction
topics on which they are already an expert, and with some scaffolding,
the writing began!
During the second minilesson, the kids
each chose one nonfiction book from their book box to use as a tool to
study another nonfiction author, noticing the interesting things they do
to teach the reader. The kids quickly noticed many interesting ways to
teach a reader about a topic, including the use of diagrams, using a
table of contents, including a glossary and bold faced words, and
including fun fact bubbles. I encouraged the students to use these
ideas, to borrow these "craft moves" in their own nonfiction writing. I
was absolutely amazed at how quickly the kids were able to include
these sophisticated text features in their own pieces!
several days of crafting nonfiction books, I introduced the Information
Writing Checklist to the children. This is a wonderful tool that
teaches the kids to reflect on the nonfiction writing they have
completed and to set a goal for themselves moving forward. During this
lesson, each student created a nonfiction writing goal and created a
plan in reaching their goal. Be sure to ask your child about their
personal writing goal.
The kids have already begun to fill our "Room 208 Nonfiction Authors"
book bucket that now resides in our classroom library. This is a bin
that kids are able to "shop" from during Reader's Workshop, as a way to
share their work with one another. I am thrilled to see the excitement
and enthusiasm around this new addition to our nonfiction classroom
Information Writing Checklist