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Exploring the Joy of Nonfiction Reading and Writing

Behind the Books: Getting Ready to Research, Part 4

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.

What
do taking notes during class and doing research for a report have in common? In
both cases, students must decide what information is important enough to
record. To help children learn this skill, I suggest that you pose a focus question or develop a wonder
statement, and then work with students 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 students participate in an
activity that involves synthesizing and integrating the information in the
tables, lists, or diagrams.

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 met
by their environment.

 

Wonder
Statement: I wonder how a rain forest is
different from a desert.



Book
Pair: The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne
Cherry & Here Is a Southwestern
Desert by Madeliene Dunphy

Sample
Lists: Guide your students in compiling
lists on chart paper after reading the books.

Sample
Activity: Students fill in blanks to create
poems about one of the animals in the list. Then they draw a picture of the
animal. All the poems are compiled in a whole-class see-saw book that compares the creatures
and features of each environment.

 

 

For more examples and details about how to implement
this method, please see Perfect Pairs:
Using Fiction & Nonfiction Picture Books to Teach Life Science, K-2 by
Melissa Stewart & Nancy Chesley

What’s next in getting ready for research?
Next week I’ll discuss the role of graphic designers in creating
books and other visual materials, including advertising. How does that relate to building research skills? Check back next week to find out.

4 Responses

  1. I just want you to know that I love this series of posts on research. These procedures make so much sense for the type of research that younger students can do. Unfortunately, many of the teachers only remember what they did as an accomplished researcher so they have unrealistic expectations or a hopeless "these students can't do research" attitude. Thank you!

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