Comprehension Strategy: Questioning in nonfiction

Questioning is paramount when teaching nonfiction.  One example in Strategies that Work by Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis is to do a "I Learned/ I Wonder" chart as a whole class or in the upper grades, it could be done individually in the students' Reader's Notebook.  As students learn as they engage in a nonfiction text they are encouraged to continue to ask questions to learn even more about the subject.

This technique helps students become independent researchers as they follow up on what they are wondering about the subject.

Here is the chart we make about why we ask questions

Making Connections Through Predictions in Informational Text

In Karen Feathers' book Infotext: Reading and Learning, she discusses predicting as a way to make connections and to set a purpose for reading informational text.   Making predictions is a type of inference, so it is important to explain to students that they combine what they already know with what they read or see in the text to make a prediction.  Therefore, the first step is for the student to read the title and see the cover.  The first couples times you do this with students, you may want to scaffold by having them also go through the text and read subheadings, look at pictures, and read captions.  Then you simply ask the student what information do they think they will learn in this text and make a chart of their predictions because once again, this sets the students' purposes for reading.

Feathers cautions against going back to see who made right and wrong predictions.  It is not about whether the predictions are correct.  What is important is, did they use the knowledge of the text and types of text and connect that knowledge with what they already knew to make reasonable predictions?  Feathers encourages students to keep their own list of predictions, so they can check those that are confirmed, cross off those that are not in the text, and to continue writing predictions as they read and come to new subheadings. You also may want the students to meet in groups or in pairs after they read, to compare predictions that they made and information that they learned. After the text has been read, then the class can come together again and goes back through the chart to discuss how their predictions were confirmed or changed as they read the text.

Making Connections with Nonfiction

As most teachers know, the easiest way to activate your students schema and make connections is to ask your students what they already know about a subject.  But many times we stop there, or we may do a KWL chart, but not follow up on what we have learned after we have read a book or finished the unit.  One thing I have noticed is that when you ask students what they KNOW about a subject, they will not tell you anything unless they are absolutely 100% positive about the information.  This means  as the teacher, you really don't truly know the extent of your students' knowledge.  In Karen Feathers' book Infotext, she suggests doing a brainstorming chart instead.  To do a brainstorming chart,  you ask the students to write down on paper everything they know about the topic; and then come together and brainstorm a collective list of what the class knows.  

On my chart, any disagreements are marked with a question mark to show that the class did not feel completely comfortable with that information.  This then helps the students set their purpose for reading.  I am going to read to find out this information because I don't know if frogs swim fast or what they eat.  This makes the students more independent because they are setting their purposes for reading according to the information they need to learn, not what a textbook states their purpose for reading should be.  After they read, then it is extremely important to come back as a class and clear up misconceptions or any false information on the chart.  If I was doing this in class, I would probably leave the brainstorm and then cross out or modify the information, so they can see how they made connections and how they created new knowledge.  Remember these charts are not for beatification but to anchor learning.  

Teaching Comprehension Strategies: Making Connections

There are hundreds of lists on the web of Mentor texts for comprehension strategies.  However, most of the books on the lists are fiction.  I have always read fiction books to teach the strategies.  But as I am writing this through my Informational Text class lens, I can see how the strategies work in nonfiction as well as fiction.

For making connections I usually teach three separate lessons. My first lesson for making Text-to-self connections is done using, Oliver Button is a Sissy by Tomie dePaola (Debbie Miller pick) about feeling different and being bullied. This is because every kid can make a text-to-self connection to those feelings.  When I was teaching third grade, I read The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes, which is a chapter book with the same theme of not fitting in.  I have also read The Pigeon Wants a Puppy by Mo Willems because kids understand wanting a pet and being told no and they also understand getting what you think you want and then realizing you don't really want it.  So as I started thinking about nonfiction selections,  I think that reading Tomie dePaola's biography off his website after reading Oliver Button is a Sissy could lead well into text -to- text connections because Oliver Button was written from events in DePaol's life.  So you can also discuss how writers get their ideas.
Or perhaps another option would be All About Cats and Kittens by Emily Neye where they can tell you about all their pet stores.

Whenever I teach text-to-text connections I usually do teach fiction and nonfiction book on the same topic together like Frogs by Nic Bishop with Frog and Toad are Friends by Arnold Lobel.  Another option I sometimes utilize is using one of the Magic Tree House books with its Nonfiction matching book.

The easiest connection to use a nonfiction book with is text-to-world.  I like to use something that is going on at the time I teach it, so a recent newspaper article, or back when I had Scholastic News we would make text-to-world connections.  My third graders favorite text-to-world story was "Here's My Dollar" by Gary Soto but I can only find the story in textbooks.  It is about a 9year old girl that hears that the Fresno zoo is running out of money so she wrote a letter to the paper asking everyone to send a dollar to the zoo.  Her campaign ended up raised $600,000 in six months.  This year would be the perfect time to read a book about the Olympics.

Schema

Another pre-comprehension strategy to teach is what is schema/background knowledge.  Some teachers teach schema with making connections.  I teach schema first because to me schema is a part of all the strategies even though it is essential for making connections.

My favorite book to teach schema with is a Fish is a Fish by Leo Lionni.  This lesson idea came from my former teaching buddy Tracy (by way of Debbie Miller's Reading with Meaning).

First, you give each student a piece of paper that they fold, so that they have four boxes (or give them a little many book with four sheets). While you read a Fish is a Fish, you do not let the students see the pictures.  I don't even let them see the front cover.  At points in the book, where the frog tells the fish about a new animal,  you stop and ask the kids to draw the new animal.  At the end of the book, you have them show their drawings and then you show them the pictures from the book.   Fish in the book sees everything as a fish but with something added.  So a bird is a fish with wings.  Then we discuss that are drawings are different because our schemes are different.  And that fish's pictures in his head were OK for fish because that is all the schema fish had.  He knows fish and the pond-that is his schema. This lesson really helps the students understand that every one's schema is different, and that their limited experiences can be a hindrance to their understanding of a text.  So we usually have a conversation about how we can add to our schema or background knowledge.

As for a nonfiction text to teach schema, I have a book called Unusual Animals (It is out-of-print but there are several books like it.  I found one on Amazon called 101 Freaky Animals) that have facts about strange creatures that the children probably have not seen.  I would teach the lesson in a similar fashion.  I would read the description of the animal but not let them see the pictures, but have them try to draw the animal.  Then we would talk about why their pictures are different from each other and different from the real animal. It is because our schemas are different or because we do not have enough schema to draw the animal.

Teaching the Comprehension Strategies: Monitoring Comprehension

The first comprehension lesson that I actually teach is about Metacognition.  This past year I started using Tanny McGregor's "Salad bowl lesson" from her book Comprehension Connections.  You can read all about that lesson with printable at Reading Resources.net  They also have resources for some other awesome concrete lessons from her book that teach some of the strategies.

Your students need to be able to understand that we need to be able to think about our thinking and think about our reading before they can use and understand the comprehension strategies.  Once that is established then we discuss monitoring our comprehension.  I always introduce all strategies by reading a book and doing think alouds where I use the strategy.  Then I have them use the strategy.  Finally we make an Anchor chart.   Every time I do any reading aloud I will then use the strategy if needed and make sure I point out what strategy I am using and why I am using it.  Therefore, I literally teach the strategies all year.

Also please always make an Anchor Chart with your students. please do not make it on your own, pretty it up, and laminate it to use year after year.  If you going to do that then just buy a pretty chart from Really Good Stuff or something because the only way they will anchor their learning to the chart is if you go through the process together. That is the whole point.  Do you want them to use what is on your classroom wall?  Or do you want it to just become background stuff?

Also, when you choose a book make sure you have read it before you read to your class and that there are actually places where it make sense to monitor your comprehension.  Ok, getting off my soap boxes, so a nonfiction book actually works very well for a read aloud in the upper grades to teach monitoring comprehension.  Any Nic Bishop or Seymour Simon book would probably work here.  Choose one that covers a topic you need to cover in Science.  My personal favorite Nic Bishop book is Frogs but they are all beautiful and well written.

Another lesson and read aloud are spent making this Comprehension Fix-Up Strategy chart.

Standing on the Shoulders, Part 2

Through reading Debbie Miller, I started realizing that she came out of a awesome place and time in Denver with the Denver based Public Education and Business Coalition  (PEBC) that includes a lot of amazing teachers.  So I started reading their books also.  

Mosaic of Thought by Ellin Keene and Susan Zimmerman is another part of the Comprehension Strategy development that was happening in Denver. Keene directed staff development and Zimmerman was  director of the  PEBC, which has really shaped the discussion of comprehension strategies.  Mosaic of Thought  filled out ideas for me and helped me own them for myself. 

Then I read Strategies That Work written by Stephanie Harvey (former PEBC staff developer and Denver school teacher)  and Anne Goudvis  (another former PEBC staff developer).  Can you imagine Debbie Miller, Ellin Keene, Susan Zimmerman,  Stephanie Harvey, and Anne Goudvis all in the same room together?   I love this book, right now it is my favorite because I am working with 3rd through 5th grades and this book has so met me where I need to be for this age group.  Also I love how it gives the underpinnings and then lessons in each chapter.  You are going to see a lot of ideas form this book reflected in my anchor charts.

Presently I am taking a class in Nonfiction Reading and Writing and one of our textbooks is 

So now this year I will be trying to introduce more nonfiction and inquiry into our literacy program through the lens of this book.  Like Strategies That Work this has a lot of ideas that I could walk  into a classroom tomorrow and teach.

Finally, another textbook from our class,  I really wish all elementary teachers would read this book.  Not because it gives you lesson plan ideas (only a couple), but because it will give you the why informational text is hard and what you should do about it (which would lead you to make your own lesson plans)!

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

Before I start discussing teaching and posting my Anchor Charts and lessons, I need to give shout outs to all the people/books whose ideas influence my teaching.  Sometimes it is straight up from these books and sometimes I have adopted and modified their ideas.  So when it comes to reading, the ideas on this blog will probably come from books or conferences I have went to involving these awesome passion-driven teachers.

First it was Debbie Miller's Reading with Meaning,  I can't remember a time before I read it, but I think it was introduced to me by a member of my former 1st grade team.   Several of my former colleagues and I happily got to go to one of her one day workshops when Teaching with Intention came out (another fine book).  Once I started putting her ideas in practice in my 1st grade class, I finally felt like students were really thinking and learning.  I am so glad I did because now I know that 1st graders can become fabulous reader's and thinkers and so can 2nd-5th graders.  

Then I think the same 1st grade colleague (shout out to Heidi) introduced me to the Daily 5 by the Two Sisters, and we were off and running with it.  I love this book!  Because honestly, I just never was a "Center" person the way Centers were explained and taught to me before.  They frustrated me and I felt like that 30 minutes was chaos in my classroom,  and that I must be doing something terribly wrong.  This book transformed my classroom and my students' lives as they become better readers and writers.  And now, most importunity, we were INDEPENDENT, loving-reading, readers and writers.  If you haven't read this book yet, do it!  But read the whole book because if you try to piecemeal it together between the Internet and Pinterest, it will not reach its full potential in your classroom. 

The year after I started using The Daily 5, The Cafe Book: Engaging All Students in Daily Literacy Assessment and Instruction was published.  I struggled with this book at first because I was still trying to teach my Basal and do the whole 60 minutes whole group, 30 minutes small group thing.  That does not work with this book or really with the Daily 5.  So finally with the co-teaching help of my kind Literacy Coach (shout out to Terri), we transitioned to a Reading Workshop class. Yeah! Even more time for the students to read, write, and think.  Now you need to know my back story, which is my first public school teaching job was at a Reading First school, which means you were not allowed to do Reader's Workshop.  You taught from the reading series, exactly, only from the reading series.  So even though I had been moving toward Reader's Workshop for years, it took me a bit to throw off the shackles and embrace it.  I knew it was right because I felt so free and teaching didn't feel as forced.  

Why do we read?

The first reading lesson I do with every class even when I had my own classroom is "Why do we read?"  Last school year I was able to do this lesson K-5 and it told me a lot about these students' lives.  Until last year I was a teacher (1st grade then 3rd grade), in a school district on the other side of my midwestern state.  It was a college town near a military base.  Just like every school, children entered my classroom at different reading levels.  However the majority of them enjoyed being read to and seemed to have a positive reaction to this question every year.  (Now there was always that one boy- yes, it was always a boy-I will blog on that eventually) who would say, "I hate to read or I don't want to read."  But the majority of students were cool with it.  It might take them a bit to get started discussing it, but it wasn't a crazy question.  Now let's go to last year.  Now I am a Literacy Coach at a more rural district outside of a metro area.   I ask this question,  I am now apparently crazy.  I especially remember some of the 5th graders.  What?  Because we have to.  No one has asked us that crazy question before.  What is the point of asking that anyway?

I hope you ask your students this question.  You need to DISCUSS it.  Not tell them why they should read or what you think.  You need to LISTEN to what they say.   So this is usually the first anchor chart in my room.  The anchor chart above was done with one of my first grade classes.

Albert Einstein once said,  "If you can't explain something simply, you don't understand it well enough."  In my quest to understand what I teach, and how best to teach it, I am starting this blog.  I have wanted to blog for a long time but time is not something a teacher has, and I have always been impressed and a bit jealous of all the fabulous teacher blogs I have read.  How do they have the time?  What am I doing wrong?  But you make time for something that drives you. This summer I took a class and was given permission to fall in love with writing again. Now I don't want to stop.  I also presently need a voice.  Like many teachers I struggle with being "just a teacher." The irony is that I am entering my second year as a Literacy Coach, which just means that now people say, "A what?  What does that mean?"  I given up trying to explain it because some days I am not even sure. And somedays it really means nothing.  It was easier  when I could say, "I teach 3rd grade."  (The teaching wasn't easier just explaining my job was).    


Anywho back to that class I am taking.  I needed a final inquiry project that would make use of what I have learned.  The class is reading and writing informational text, so with professor support here is my project.  But I will continue to blog even after the class is over.  So thanks for giving me a kick in the pants.  The name of the blog comes from what other people have said about me, sometimes they just say that I am driven (not always as a compliment), but I am driven because I am sooo passionate about teaching and learning.  I hope you are too and that we can journey together as we become and stay passion-driven teachers.