Slicing Connections - And some links

           Tuesday Slice of Life is hosted by Two Writing Teachers, Stacey and Ruth every single Tuesday.  Please join us, and find out about the March Challenge—coming soon!  

If you're on twitter, tweet at #Slice2013!

              The first thing I need to acknowledge is that last week I left out an important thing that happened at the literacy conference I attended a week ago.  I was walking in the lobby, on my way to another session when this person, whom I’ve only seen pictures of, came towards me.  I had to say it, “Is that you, Carol?”  It was! Carol Wilcox, of Carol’s Corner, who wrote last week about a new friend, ME, so nicely.  We spoke for a little while, then had one other time to visit, but that was all for now.  We did discover we live fairly close to one another, and I know we’ll connect some time, but it was just lovely to see Carol in person, to ask about her sons whom I’ve read so much about, and be happy to hear their news, too.  I am looking forward to more!

         More connections are what I want to share about today. 



 At the conference I focused on non-fiction as much as I could, and the first session I attended (after the keynote) was with Tony Stead, author of publications on teaching reading and writing, including Is That a Fact?: Teaching Nonfiction Writing K–3; Reality Checks: Teaching Reading Comprehension with Nonfiction K–5; Good Choice!: Supporting Independent Reading and Response K–6; and Should There Be Zoos?: A Persuasive Text. 

          Also, one teacher with whom I work has asked me to help plan a non-fiction genre unit with her students, helping them improve their approach to this genre as well as do better in their research.

          And today, Cathy Mere, of Reflect and Refine, has joined two of her own blogger friends to host a non-fiction picture book 10 for 10 day, TODAY, where others link up to post their favorite non-fiction picture books.  I’ve joined the fiction picture book day before and discovered so many wonderful books that I couldn’t refuse this one.

           Thus—connections!  I was so impressed with the words Tony Stead spoke. For your information, he shared that all the appendices of his book Good Choice! are free and online.  You can find them here!  Included in these are some handouts from what he calls RAN (Reading and Analyzing Non-fiction).  It’s similar to a K-W-L chart, but Tony’s idea takes it a bit further. 

              The chart itself is here.    He suggests taking large pieces of paper where the student has plenty of room to write, drawing the chart, and then folding it up when it’s time to store it for another time.  Headings include Content, What I think I know, C (for check-marked confirmed), M (for misconceptions), New facts, and Wonderings.  I haven’t tested it with students, but think that the idea of actually having a place for students to confirm information with a simple checkmark means a good reminder as they move through the research.  The sources are kept on another list.

               One further idea shared by Tony for organizing this was that the teachers in his school used blue and red folders for the research.  These are the sentences telling the meaning of the colors:  “If it’s red, it’s still in my head; if it’s blue, it must be true.”  He stressed that this is still one more way for students to remember to check facts, not just continue with what they “think” is true. I am willing to give this a try, perhaps tweak it as I work with it.  I liked the way each part of research was stressed as important.

             Please let me know if you’ve used this method before, or what you are using for non-fiction.  I understand it takes much direct teaching in each part of the research, and if you have some special ideas you’ve used, I’d love to hear them.

          And, you can access my contribution to the 10 for 10 favorite non-fiction picture books here, on another post.  As an overview, they are able to show students that information can be communicated in a beautiful variety of ways.

photo credit: Ravages via photopin cc