April Pulley Sayre Children's Book Author » Nonfiction Writing

Lexington Elementary Models Nonfiction

admin — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 21:41:58 +0000

Mrs. Leaphart’s and Mrs. Bates’ Class did some extraordinary writing inspired by the structure of Vulture View and Trout, Trout, Trout: a Fish Chant.

Understanding and Decoding Nonfiction Text

admin — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:43:53 +0000

Understanding. Decoding. Absorbing. Whatever you want to call it, kids develop skills to dig into nonfiction text. They learn to pay attention to details and themes.
Apparently this kind of work is an integral part of South Carolina’s Standards for reading and writing. During my 10-days of school visits in Lexington, SC, I saw teachers using a variety of strategies. They gave me permission to share their ideas here.

One focus was graphing. Students researched a topic and then graphed what they learned. Sometimes it was the part of an animal’s body. Sometimes it was a fact related to the animal. Some students did this work after reading Ant, Ant, Ant: an Insect Chant.

Another strategy used by literacy coach Lee Motley at Red Bank Elementary is to have young students, right after reading, talk/write/draw about what they remember from a book. This solidifies what they have learned. It carries it from past memory into future understanding.

Still other students and one brilliant teacher took facts from The Bumblebee Queen and leapt into their own creative ABCs of bees. Beautiful! Reorganizing what you have learned solidifies it, as well.

My thanks to the teachers and librarians at the Lexington Elementary Schools.

Bumblebee Poetry and Nonfiction Writing at Midway Elem

admin — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 23:53:24 +0000

Read The Bumblebee Queen. Pull out the chewiest, most evocative vocabulary and put it on sticky notes. Then move around the words to make a poem of your own.
This is one of the activities done at Midway Elementary in Lexington, SC. by Mrs. Huff’s and Mrs. Crapps classes. Wow. These student are digging into nonfiction and finding their own voices. Understanding nonfiction “informational” texts is parts of the S.C. state language arts standards. These teachers are fulfilling that standard and going beyond, to inspire young writers and scientists. Hooray!

I believe that Mrs. Huff mentioned T he National Writing Project as one of the sources for her ideas. Also mentioned frequently in S.C. were workshops and books by Ralph Fletcher, Linda Hoyt, and Jeff Anderson.