Nonfiction Living Minutes

Throughout the school year in my classroom, students were always immersed in both Nonfiction and Fiction materials. Just because we were involved in a unit of study focusing on a particular genre, we would always continue our work in both genres. One of the routines I had students engaged in was the Nonfiction Living Minute. Below you will find a description and some pictures of the materials in my classroom that should give you the gist!

Each day during our morning meeting,  two students would share a nonfiction resource — any kind of nonfiction text deemed important in their lives. 

Each student had one minute to share a nonfiction resource, explain why it was chosen, and talk about why it is important to be able to use the resource in their everyday lives.  The shared resources remained in the classroom for others to peruse. 

Students love the activity and gain so much knowledge about how being a successful nonfiction reader is so important, not only in our classroom but in the world outside of our classroom as well!

                                

                                 

    PEACE!

Preview - Predict - Confirm

I love this strategy for activating students' prior knowledge and for exposing them to vocabulary they will encounter in a text.

The strategy Preview, Predict, Confirm (PPC) is designed to build content-specific vocabulary by requiring students to think about and use language of a discipline. Through the use of PPC, students are accessing their background knowledge as well as building background knowledge on the topic of a text. Students are exposed to the vocabulary of their peers and are encouraged to pay close attention to the author's language while reading or listening to the text. Students learn from their peers, who may have different experiences and other knowledge of a topic.

                       --Ruth Helen Yopp & Hallie Kay Yopp, 
                                                  The Reading Teacher (Vol. 58, No.1, September 2004)

BEFORE READING 

1. Preview key pictures in the text and important terms/vocabulary.  

2. Sort words into meaningful categories and label the categories. 

3. Predict what the text will be about. 

AFTER READING 

Confirm predictions while reading and discuss predictions and new ideas after reading. Add new words after reading the text.

Student written responses in my 4th-grade classroom in 2019: 

Teacher written responses in my 2nd-grade classroom in 2017