Susie's+Page

Teaching Nonfiction Genre Writing to Early Childhood Students **//Introduction//**

Is it possible for early childhood students to identify informational genre types and use nonfiction conventions in their writing? Studies have shown that students do have the ability to identify differences in genre (Donovan, 2001; Duke, 1998). In addition research shows how the availability of nonfiction texts in the classroom and the exposure of such texts may in fact have an impact on student understanding of nonfiction text (Coker, 2006). It is necessary to expose students to nonfiction texts at an early age in order to provide children with more experience to bridge the gap between the upper grade levels. Many studies have examined the difficulties upper elementary students have in writing, specifically fourth graders, because there seems to be a shift from reading narrative texts in younger grades to reading expository texts in upper elementary and middle school. Research has shown that younger students are not being exposed to a large number of informational texts, which could be the cause of this “expository gap” (Donovan, 2001, p. 396). Overall, the research encourages teachers of early childhood students to make informational texts available in classroom libraries, read more informational texts to help students to develop book knowledge of nonfiction conventions, and allow students opportunities to experiment with nonfiction writing. After reviewing the research, evidence shows that these young students can develop their schema for nonfiction and can in fact use some nonfiction conventions in their writing if teachers infuse a few simple modifications to their current classroom settings.

Research

Click on one of the links below to find information from various research articles that support teaching nonfiction genre writing to primary age students.
 * Primary Students can Differentiate between Genres
 * Kindergarten Students have a Basic Understanding of Nonfiction
 * First Grade Students use Nonfiction Writing in Family Message Journals
 * The Importance of Nonfiction Text Exposure in an Early Childhood Classroom
 * Conclusion
 * References

Classroom Applications

 // Teach Specific Nonfiction Text Structures During Shared Reading //Teachers can instruct students on Nonfiction Text Structures by modeling each one and explaining their purpose. Some examples of Nonfiction Text Structures are:
 * **Labels** -Students can also label their own pictures/drawings/diagrams.
 * **Captions** -Students can also draw a picture and write an appropriate caption to go beneath it.
 * **Graphs** - Students can also create their own graphs by collecting information and then organizing their findings in a whole group or individual graph.
 * <span style="color: #ff4900; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 14pt;">**Table of Contents** -If students create their own All About Book, they can also create their own table of contents.
 * <span style="color: #ff4900; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 14pt;">**Glossary** -Students can practice using a glossary to look up definitions of new words in text.
 * <span style="color: #ff4900; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 14pt;">**<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 14pt;">Index ** -Students can practice using the index to look up information in a nonfiction book.

//<span style="color: #d78709; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 20pt; text-align: center;">Keep Nonfiction Texts available in Classroom Libraries // <span style="color: #d78709; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 14pt; text-align: left;">Below are examples of appropriate nonfiction texts for primary age students. Click on the books below to link to websites to find more book titles and information about authors. <span style="color: #d78709; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 14pt; text-align: center;"> Gail Gibbons (Author of All About Books)

David Adler (Author of Nonfiction Biographical Texts)

Jerry Pallotta (Author of Nonfiction ABC Books)

Dorling Kindersley's Eye-Openers Books

Harper Collin's Let's-Read-And-Find-Out Science series

<span style="color: #008000; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 20pt; text-align: center;">//Guide Students to Keep a Family Message Journal// <span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 14pt;"> Family Message Journal (Wollman-Bonilla, 2000) – Have students synthesize their thinking about classroom science experiments by keeping a journal of experiments and their conclusions that they can share with their families. Parents and other family members can respond to journal entries by writing underneath of what the student has written. This correspondence between school and home will encourage student writing and also offer students an audience for their writing.

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 20pt; text-align: center;">// Create Descriptive Webs // <span style="color: #0081ff; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 14pt; text-align: center;"> <span style="color: #0081ff; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 14pt; text-align: left;">This activity can be done as a whole group or students can work individually. Students can describe a topic by listing various characteristics and features. When using a web, the middle of the web will be the main topic and the webbed information will be the characteristics and features that would describe the main topic. Students can turn this into a nonfiction text by writing the topic as the main idea and the webbed information as the supporting details. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0d00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 14pt;">

<span style="color: #1f09f1; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 20pt; text-align: center;">//Riddles// <span style="color: #1f09f1; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 14pt;"> Students can compose several facts pertaining to a particular topic and then ask for the answer to the questions in the format of a riddle. For example, they can come up with three facts about an animal and then ask "What am I?" <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 14pt;">

//<span style="color: #800080; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 20pt; text-align: center;">Posters //<span style="color: #800080; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 14pt; text-align: left;"> Students can create a poster displaying information about a particular topic of interest by drawing pictures and writing facts. Posters can be created by individuals, partnerships, or small groups.

<span style="color: #ff00ff; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 20pt; text-align: center;">//ABC Books // <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 14pt;">Use the letters of the alphabet to organize factual information about a particular topic. For example, if the class is doing a unit on animals, students can each take a letter of the alphabet and pick an animal that matches that letter. On their individual letter page, students can write their alphabet letter, draw a picture of their chosen animal, and write facts about their animal. Depending on the age group, students may work on this individually, in small groups, or as a whole class.

<span style="color: #e50b2c; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 20pt; text-align: center;">//Write How -To Stories// <span style="color: #e50b2c; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 14pt;"> There are many easy directions that young students are able to give, such as how to make your bed, brush your teeth, play tag, and make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Students can list events for how to do something in sequential order and draw pictures to depict each direction. Teach students how to use transitional words such as //first//, //next//, //then//, and //last//. Also teach students that every "How-To" story has various parts such as What You Need (the materials) and What You Do (the directions). <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 14pt;">

<span style="color: #ff4900; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 20pt; text-align: center;">//All About Books// <span style="color: #ff4900; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 14pt;"> Students will create a text that gives factual information about a topic. There are many topics of interest that students know "all about." For example, students may write about basketball, dogs, or ice cream. Giving students an opportunity to share factual information about a topic they have a lo of schema for will also give them an opportunity to use an example of nonfiction writing.

<span style="color: #d78709; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 23pt; text-align: center;">Websites for Lesson Plan Ideas <span style="color: #d78709; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 14pt; text-align: center;"> <span style="color: #d78709; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 14pt; text-align: left;">[|Lucy Calkins] Nonfiction Writing: Procedures and Reports – Lesson Plans online [|Scholastic] - 5 Day Lesson Plan for Introducing Nonfiction - Grades 2-4