Started my nonfiction reading clubs unit of study at the start of this week. I really enjoy teaching this unit. First, because it is always a big hit with students. Second, because there are so many great resources to draw from. Finally, for me, this unit seems to target so many great strategies for reading and writing.
This year I have so many boys interested in sharks and whales. I knew all of those ocean creature books I purchased a few years ago would come in handy. Girls this year are interested in plant and animal life cycles.
I started with a review of nonfiction text features. Had my students do a "text feature hunt" for the first two reading workshops. They took the features from a variety of resources that I made available to them. Magazines, books, websites, and brochures. They had a great time with this. Some of my kids (about 7) still can only ID photos, titles, bold print and labels. I did some small group work with them with teaching points that focused on other text features and the benefits and usefulness for the reader. 
My whole group teaching points will begin to help students in identifying main ideas and using text evidence to support their thinking. We will be using the "boxes and bullets" idea that I learned a few years ago at a summer institute at the Reading and Writing Project at Columbia. 
We started with a RAN (originally presented by Tony Stead). He is such a great workshop leader. If you ever get the opportunity to attend one of his sessions...it is a must. This is a copy of the RAN chart that I put together. The students place it in their Interactive SS/Science notebooks. They were introduced to the organizer earlier in the year and have used it with a great degree of success, not only as a reading tool but a writing tool as well.
TGIF!
Peace,
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