Exploring Nonfiction Text

This year I have had a difficult time motivating my lower readers. They seem to dread anything that resembles writing that they have to read and interpret. I have tried many different things to motivate them and they finally seem to be enjoying fiction a little more. The problem is, we have now moved to studying nonfiction text. The sighs and huffs began immediately.

I decided that if I used text that the students were interested in and allowed them to complete a ¨scavenger hunt¨ the students may be more interested in learning the characteristics of nonfiction text.

I created the following Nonfiction Exploration Activity:

First the students began by selecting a partner and then selecting their text. They enjoyed selecting a text a lot more than I thought they would. I tried to find books in the library that were about many different topic areas and that would spark their interest.

Then they took pictures of the text features they found in their book and added them to a Google Slideshow.

The exploration began! They looked at the text structure and vocabulary. They also tried to find the main idea of sections of their text.

Students became excited about their text and were truly enjoying learning about the topic of their choice. One student who is normally one of my biggest sighers even said, "Next week, can we choose a different book and do it again!" I'm still in shock! Like I have stated in a previous blog....choice is everything for students!!

Student Example #1