Behind the Books: Two (Very Different) Ways of Teaching Nonfiction Text Structures
Ah, text structures. If I did a Wordle of all the topics I’ve discussed on this blog, I bet that phrase would be bigger than anything else. Why do I keep coming back to this one element of nonfiction writing? Because, as far as I’m concerned, finding the perfect structure for a manuscript is the […]
My Favorite Social Studies Book of 2016
Oh how I wish I had read Lincoln and Kennedy: A Pair to Compare by Gene Barretta before I published my Mock Sibert list in early December. But for some reason, I didn’t discover this book until my Christmas reading binge. Still, it’s easily my favorite social studies book of the year. Why? Let’s digress a bit. […]
Behind the Books: Shopping for Text Structure
Let’s face it. Convincing young writers that their nonfiction writing can benefit from experimenting with different text structures isn’t easy. The last thing kids want to do is revise a piece of writing four or five times, each time using a different text structure. And who can blame them? I’m not crazy about it either. […]
Behind the Books: Q & A: The Forgotten Text Structure
Here are a bunch of great children’s books that make excellent use the Q &A text structure: And what’s more, this is a text structure that even young children can understand and use successfully. In other words, it’s a great window into text structures, allowing kids to get their feet […]
Exploring Text Structures
Last Friday, I shared some great text feature work that the fourth graders at Kennedy School in Billerica, MA were doing. But the truth is those students have been busy, busy, busy immersing themselves in nonfiction projects. After reading my book No Monkeys, No Chocolate, the students made book maps to get a stronger sense […]
Book of the Week: A Place for Butterflies
Educators often ask me which of my books would work best in their classroom. So this year, I’ve decided to feature a book each week and highlight related teaching materials and strategies. A Place for Butterflies was originally published in 2006, but was revised and updated in 2014 and 2024, so it has the latest […]
Book of the Week: A Place for Bats
Educators often ask me which of my books would work best in their classroom. So this year, I’ve decided to feature a book each week and highlight related teaching materials and strategies. You could share one or two spreads of A Place for Bats to support NGSS PE K-ESS3-3 or read the whole book as […]
Behind the Books: Writing Science/Nature-themed Picture Books
While there are certainly exceptions, most nonfiction picture books fall into two broad categories—picture book biographies and science/nature-themed picture books. As I discussed last week, almost all picture book biographies feature a chronological sequence text structure and a narrative writing style. That means that if you’re writing a picture book biography, most of your big-picture […]
My Favorite Book of 2015
The Great Monkey Rescue by Sandra Markle is my favorite book of 2015. Truth be told, I’m a big fan of many of Sandra’s books, but I think this one really stands out. (Are you listening Sibert committee? I sure hope so.) Okay, I admit it. The book hooked me at first sight (on Alyson […]
Behind the Books: Nonfiction Text Structure
This year, I’m taking a close look at what I call the Nonfiction Triumvirate—nonfiction categories, writing styles, and text structures. So far, I’ve focused on Nonfiction Categories and Writing Styles. If you missed the discussion, you can scroll down or use the search box to see past posts. Today I’m looking at text structure, which […]