It’s
summer, so do you know what that means?
It means teachers sell things!
Lots of things! I’m on this
Facebook Group of local teachers that post all kinds of fun things they are
getting rid of, right there, shopping online, at home! I resist most things! I have plenty-trust me! But sometimes I must invest!
About
10 years into my teaching career is when Balanced Literacy hit the air-and I
was in LOVE! One of the key features of
Balanced Literacy was to being to teach HOW reading happened within
nonfiction. I purchased Make it Real!
by Linda Hoyt. I became very interested in something called
Text Features! This captured my
attention for one main reason-I just discovered the secret to my success as a
student! I was always fascinated by
history and science (still am!) and I devoured our text books in high school
and college! I read every square inch of those books, I examined the pictures,
read the materials below them, paid attention to headings, and I could go on and on! The other kids couldn’t figure out how I
could so easily find answers and information, and, frankly, I couldn’t see why
it was so difficult for them-it was right there! It wasn’t until Make it Real! that I
understood-I had taught myself text features and I was using them for full
advantage-and the other kids in school didn’t have a clue! And, that, became my goal-to never leave
another kid (in this case student) in the dark again! So, every year, including when I taught in
the Science Lab at my school, out come the Gail Gibbons books. So, here’s the Five for Friday top reasons
you should be using them in your classroom!
TEXT
FEATURES! Can I tell you that EVERY text
feature is found in one of her books (ok, not every one-no table of context and
no index!) She does have an appendix if you pay attention-her extra
information page!) I always start with Frogs as my first book because it has
the key features found within this text.
Within the first pages read you will have encountered labels, diagrams,
headings, bold print words, pictures, and captions! You will also encounter some that, in my
opinion, are just as key: insets-where pictures are places within pictures, and
cut-aways-where a picture shows the inside, or cut-away- of an item. In this case, it is the hibernation of a
frog, showing them underground in their burrow.
And, above all that, Frogs is an attention keeper! They LOVE it!
No matter what grade (I’ve done this from 1st grade all the
way to 5th grade!)
That’s
right! The second reason to use Gail
Gibbon’s books is because they are highly engaging. She does a considerable amount of research
for each text. If you pay attention to the dedication page of each book, you
will find out EXACTLY how much research she does, because she thanks the
experts who help her. One of her books
that I use right away is Sea Turtles.
Living on the Gulf Coast of Florida, my students have first hand
experience with turtle nests, but don’t really understand the why behind
staying away from them. Many are from
the North where there are no sea turtles.
So, great teaching moments-BUT there’s more. At the end, I go back and show them the
dedication page! She thanks a researcher
at Mote Marine-where many of them have visited and have year round passes! Their faces EVERY TIME! Then we go through and do a picture walk of
how it does look like our beaches! This
is not an isolated event! We end up
really examining and discussing the information within the text! Total engagement!
Her
books can teach the students the WHY of text features. As I look at many products on TpT and other
places, I see a lot of name calling!
What I mean by this is I see a lot of “This is a caption.” “This is a picture.” I don’t see a lot of
WHYS! Why did the author use this text
feature here? Why does this text feature
SUPPORT the text? Why would you stop and
pay attention to this text feature? We
need to be teaching the WHY! It always
amazes me when teachers skip this part.
Trust me, it unlocks everything!
When I was in the Science Lab, I had student whom I had taught in 2nd
grade. When I was sharing text features
each week, those kids knew the WHY and could explain to others! They were in 4th and 5th
grade! It had UNLOCKED THE SECRET CODE
to nonfiction text! This wasn’t just higher
achieving students-this crossed the whole range of kids I had in class! WHY matters-it unlocks the secret code!
You
can also teach author’s craft with Gail Gibbons books! She has, literally, HUNDREDS of books! I always pick some of her middle of her
career books to start with. We
continually talk about her work as an author.
I share facts about her writing life and begin to slowly introduce some
of her older material next. It is much
weaker and has less information and text features. I do this on purpose. So we can compare them to what we have been
reading and talk about how her work has changed. Then, I begin to introduce her newest
material. Then we can fully see the
progression of a writer’s work over time.
How it changes, flows, develops!
It is a GREAT thing to do with kids, and it doesn’t take tons of effort
or time, because it is right there, and they can see it!
Readability! By 2nd and 3rd grade,
her books are totally at a readability place.
Even 4th and 5th graders enjoy her writing. It is meaty enough for children at these
ages, especially if they are struggling.
The pictures are still mature enough for older kids on the whole. My kids begin checking out her books almost
right away from our school library and this continues throughout the year. It doesn’t take long for them to start
trading books-which means tons of exposure to nonfiction topics in a friendly
way! It is truly a great thing to see!
So,
there’s my Five for Friday! I have
another totally cool activity I do with my students, but I’ll save that for
another post ! When it is up, I will
link it here! I also plan on creating
materials for both the Polar Bears and Penguin books (Penguins is a GREAT one
for teaching maps as a text feature!) so
watch for those at my store! You can
follow my at The Best Days by clicking the green star! Remember to
also follow me here at my blog and on Facebook!
And, if you have used Gail Gibbons before, share a comment to tell
everyone how!
(This has been transferred and updated on my new blog!)
