Nonfiction with 4th and 5th grade

A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting in a vertical planning meeting with 4th and 5th grade teachers. They mentioned that they needed to do more with nonfiction.  That is where I come in! We started planning immediately.

4th Grade

The 4th grade teacher mentioned that her students were specifically having trouble making inferences with nonfiction text. We scheduled a day/time for each of her classes, then started planning our lesson. We decided to create a Nearpod lesson, which is an edtech tool where teachers can create interactive lessons. The lesson shows on the students device screens (we use Chromebooks) and the teacher can give immediate feedback. 

I was in charge of finding the nonfiction passages and the questions. We reviewed making inferences, then we practiced together. We used text clues + schema to come up with our inference. 

I made a note taking sheet for students to fill out while they found clues in the story, plus writing down their schema. 

 

At the end of the lesson was a short quiz that students completed. I was able to send them their scores immediately after completion, and students could see what they answered correctly or missed. 

5th Grade

The 5th grade ELA teacher mentioned that she needed her students to have a better understanding of:

• the different types of nonfiction 
• text features
• purposes of text features

I decided to pull books and magazines to allow the students to have examples in their hands. We reviewed the types of nonfiction, and in groups, students sorted out their books/magazines into types of nonfiction. We discussed features of biography, procedural, magazines, newspapers, and informative texts. 

Then, I showed examples of types of text features commonly found in nonfiction texts. This part was a review, but then we went deeper and discussed how each type of text feature helps us comprehend the nonfiction text. 

The final piece was for the students to find examples of text features in their books and magazines at their tables. They added the examples to a collaborative board in nearpod, but had to include specifics on how that text feature helped them as readers. This was the hardest part, and many students had to go back and add specifics. In the end, they got it! 

Collaboration

If you aren't already collaborating with your teachers, please start! Start small, and your collaborative partnerships will grow. 

Start off by asking to sit in on a PLC or a vertical planning meeting. These are perfect places to offer to help out on a skill that the classroom teachers mention their students need more help. 

Co-teaching and collaborating with the teachers have done wonders for our students on my campus. They have 2 teachers in a lesson to help them, monitor, and teach them.