Teaching 7 Essential Nonfiction Craft Tools Through Mentor Texts

Teaching 7 Essential Nonfiction Craft Tools through Mentor Texts

Literacy for All Conference 2017

Georgia Heard

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Twitter: @georgiaheard1

Immersion

Critical to the study of any genre is taking time to explore, enjoy, and respond to the genre as readers. The experience of reading and responding to nonfiction is essential in appreciating and understanding the genre. Developing an appreciation of nonfiction will help inspire students to want to learn how to do it themselves. During this time, you will be introducing the books and authors that will become the models and mentors for your students.

What we need to do...

o Read aloud often and make touchstone texts available for students to read independently.

o Model ways we think and talk about books as readers and writers.

o Think about the writer behind the words. Read author bios and blurbs. Whatinspired the author? What did the author have to do to write this?

o Name and chart things, you are learning from touchstone texts and mentorauthors. You will use these anchor charts throughout the study.

o Point out powerful language and other craft moves. Invite students to do the same.

o Begin to imagine ways your students will use what they have learned in their ownwriting.

What are Mentor Texts?

Mentor Texts are used by a writing community to study craft, genre, and the process of writing

Mentor Texts help writers envision the kind of writer they can become

Mentor texts can become a coach and a writing partner for writers

Mentor Texts serve to show, not just tell, students how to write well

Mentor Texts are to be studied and imitated

•Mentor texts should be books that students love

Nonfiction Craft Tools

Focus: The Hearth of Nonfiction
Turning Facts into Scenes: Writing with Imagery
Leads: The Doorway into Writing
Point of View and Voice: Who Are We When We Write?
Precise Language: Details, Details and More Details
Text Structures: Bird by Bird
Endings: Letting Words Linger

Finding the Heart of Nonfiction by Georgia Heard (Heinemann, 2013)

Turning Facts into Scenes: Writing with Imagery

Fact:Over eons of time, the peninsula of Florida was created by erosion and natural forces.

Scene: Over the eons the sea lowered, and the rock became land. The long Florida peninsula took shape in warm sunny waters.

Purple clouds, flashing with lightening, roiled and boomed above the land. Rain gushed from the storm clouds in summer. Sun bathed the land in winter. Moss grew, then ferns, then grass and trees.

The rain eroded holes in the soft limestone and filled them with water. Florida glistened with green land and blue-green lakes (Jean Craighead George, Everglades, 1997)

Fact: Like most ancient cultures, the Mohawks had no formal system of writing. Their history and traditions were passed down from generation to generation through the spoken word.

Scene: During the winter months, as storms raged outside, the village storyteller would gather the children around the warmth of the longhouse fire and, accompanied by the crackling, sputtering flames and the flickering shadows, entertain them with exciting tales of their ancestors. The children sat entranced as the storyteller’s voice went from a whisper to shouts and cries. With flailing arms and great leaps, he would reenact battles of me and gods and then, just as suddenly, drop to an almost inaudible hush again. (David Weitzman, Skywalkers: Mohawk Ironworkers Build the City, 2010)

Nonfiction Books K-3

Books to Inspire and Support Nonfiction Writing

Dunbar, Joyce. (1991). Why Is the Sky Up? Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Grindley, Sally. (2006). Why Is the Sky Blue? Andersen Press.

Kantor, Sid. (1994). Armando Asked, “Why?” Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Library.

Ripley, Catherine. (2004). Why? The best ever question and answer book about nature, science and the world around you. Toronto: Maple Tree Press.

Ripley, Catherine. (1996). Why Do Stars Twinkle?: And Other Nighttime Questions. Toronto: Maple Tree Press.

Aliki. (1989). My Five Senses. (Let’s-Read-And-Find-Out Science 1). New York: HarperCollins.

Aston, Dianne Hutts. (2007). A Seed Is Sleepy. New York: Chronicle Books.

Baylor, Byrd. (1997). The Other Way to Listen. Aladdin.

Cobb, Vicki. (2003). Discover Your Five Senses Series: Your Tongue Can Tell; Follow Your Nose; Perk Up Your Ears; Open Your Eyes; Feeling Your Way. Millbrook Press.

Christian, Peggy. (2008). If You Find a Rock. Sandpiper Press.

DK Publishing. (2008). First Science Encyclopedia. New York: DK Publishing.

Nonfiction Books Grades 3 - 8

Aronson, Marc. If Stones Could Speak: Unlocking the Secrets of Stonehenge (National Geographic Children’s Books, 2010)

Fleming, Candace. Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart. (Schwartz & Wade, 2011) (Grades 4-‐7)

Giblin, James Cross. Secrets of the Sphinx (Scholastic Press, 2004) (Grades 4-‐7)

Lasky, Kathyrn. The Man Who Made Time Travel. (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003) (Grades 4-‐6)

Nelson, Kadir. Heart and Soul: the Story of America and African Americans. (Balzer + Bray) (Grades 2+)

Pringle, Lawrence. Billions of Years, Amazing Changes: the Story of Evolution. (Boys Mills Press, 2011) (Grades 3+)

Shea, Pegi. Noah Webster: Weaver of Words. (Boyds Mills Press, 2009) (Grades 4-‐7)

Stewart, Melissa. Titanic. (National Geographic Children’s Books, 2012)

Tunnell, Michael O. Candy Bomber: The Story of the Berlin Airlift’s “Chocolate Pilot.” (Charlesbridge Pub Inc, 2010) (Grades 4-‐6)

Turner, Pamela S. The Frog Scientist (Scientists in the Field Series, Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2009) (Grades 5-‐8)

Tavares, Matt. Henry Aaron’s Dream. (Candlewick, 2012) (Grades 3-‐5)

Walker, Sally M. Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland. Carolrhoda Books, 2009). (Grades 6-‐9)

Webb, Sophie. Far from Shore: Chronicles of an Open Ocean Voyage. (Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2011) (Grades 3+)