Nonfiction Unit

Informational Writing: Grades 3-5

· Generating
· Structure
· Craft- Elaboration/Details/Voice
· Revision/Editing

Interactive Read Aloud Plan: Conventions of nonfiction text- keep notebook of conventions

Generating
Day 1: Nonfiction writers select topics to share with an audience by generating a list of what they know and care a lot about.
MWTP: How you narrow down- by listing things you know about a topic

Day 2: Pick a topic by what you know most about
Think of audience
What do you want to tell/convince your audience
Develop Table of Contents (TOC)
MWTP: What if you get stuck?

Day 3: Try on another topic or two
MWTP (10 min before end): Select one seed idea to develop major piece of writing

Day 4: Develop Table of Contents- pick one subtopic and add details (Web form)
MWTP: Partner jobs (responsibilities) as talk through web- writer talks off details
Homework: Develop second table of contents

Day 5: Develop third table of contents
MWTP: Continue partner jobs to talk off details of TOC web (organize chapters into logical sequence)

Day 6: Put chapters in an order that flows well (write one chapter)
MWTP: Our partner can help us determine whether our work makes sense (share first chapter)
Homework-write another chapter

Day 7: Nonfiction writers include fun extra bits (write third chapter)
MWTP: Headings match what we write under it.

Day 8: Nonfiction writers use tools to teach about their topic (review of nonfiction features)




Choose 2 nonfiction mentor texts- read for craft and fill in chart
Example
What do you call it?
How do you do it?
“He measured 48 inches from nose to tail… Leo is as long as an 8 year old kid is tall.”
Comparing “new” fact to something the reader might already know
1. Write my first fact
2. Visualize the fact “happening”
3. Ask “What else looks like that?”
“It was a quiet day by the pond… Dragonflies are flying killers that eat and eat and eat.”
Use a small moment to illustrate a fact in order to provide mental image for the reader
1. Write my new fact/content
2. Visualize the fact or an experience that allowed me to know this information
3. Write this experience as a small moment including essential piece (snapshot)

Suggested nonfiction titles:
How Dogs Really Work- Alan Show
Bugs! Bugs! Bugs!- DK Kingsley
Oh, Rats!- Albert Mann
Know It All Series
Smart About Series
The Sweet History of Chocolate
A Boy Called Slow- Joseph Bruchac
Free at Last! The story of Martin Luther King, Jr- Angela Bull
Friendship in Nature- James Gary Hines
If Your Name Was Changed at Ellis Highland- Ellen Levine
Looking at Maps and Globes- Carmen Bredson
Spies!- Richard Platt
The Story of Money- Betsy Maestro
Urban Roosts: Where Birds Nest in the City- Barbara Bash
Will We Miss Them?- Alexandra Wright