Since the 2019-2020 school year marks the 10th
Anniversary of this blog, on Fridays, I’m resurrecting and updating old posts
that sparked a lot of conversation or that still have a lot to offer people
teaching or writing nonfiction. Today’s essay is number 4 in a six-part series
that originally appeared in spring 2016.
Because
it’s difficult to create authentic, self-driven research experiences for early
elementary students, I’m in the midst of sharing a series of activities that
will allow K-2 students to develop research skills, such as visual literacy and
information literacy, without actually doing research. As a result, they’ll be
ready to start doing authentic research in third grade.
Last
week, I focused on the Visual Teaching Strategies method. You can scroll down
and read that post if you like. Today, I’m going to continue my discussion.
As students do research
for a report, they need to decide what information is important enough to
record. You can help students learn this critical skill by posing a focus question or developing a
wonder statement, and then working with them to extract relevant content from a
fiction-nonfiction book pair.
As you read each book aloud and discuss the content, organize the
pertinent information in a table, list, or diagram, as shown below, so that students have
a visual record of the process. Then have the children participate in an
activity that involves synthesizing and integrating the information in the
table(s).
Here are two examples:
Focus Question: How do animals depend on the place where they live?
Book Pair: Just Ducks by
Nicola Davies & Hip-pocket Papa
by Sandra Markle
Sample Tables: Guide your students in compiling tables on chart paper after
reading the books.
Sample Activity: Students create a mural that compares what ducks and frogs need to
survive and how those needs are provided by their environment.
Southwestern Desert by Madeline Dunphy
books.
list. Then they draw a picture of the animal. All the poems are compiled in a
class book that compares the creatures and features of each environment.
see Perfect Pairs: Using Fiction & Nonfiction
Picture Books to Teach Life Science, K-2 by Melissa Stewart & Nancy
Chesley
ready for research? Next week I’ll discuss the role of graphic designers in
creating books and other visual materials, including advertising. Stay tuned.
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