Boosting Student Literacy with Effective Nonfiction Writing Techniques

Ready to unlock the secrets to teaching nonfiction writing? We are setting you up for success in this episode by deconstructing the process of nonfiction report writing. We tackle the vital role of spiraled instruction in literacy and nudge you to ignite your teaching by shifting the focus from disseminating information to engaging students actively in the writing process. We lay out the five-step strategy for writing nonfiction reports, underscoring the necessity of a well-chosen topic. Expect practical insights on nurturing grades three to six students to leverage their past writing experiences and enhance their current writing abilities.

Ever wondered how to teach your students the clever use of jot notes? We've got you covered! Building on the premise that jot notes require higher-order thinking, we stress the need for regular practice, hinting that it's a skill that needs revisiting throughout the academic year. We walk you through the process of organizing research into subtopics, and the piecing together of a powerful paragraph within a specific framework. Be prepared for some groundbreaking advice on allowing students to refine their skills on their own work, all while you provide the necessary guidance and feedback. Don't miss out on this exciting journey to equip your students with the skills to use jot notes effectively in their writing. Tune in and experience the art of teaching like never before!

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Transcript

Patti: 0:16

Welcome to the Ignite your Teaching video podcast, where we help elementary teachers to make good teaching easy again. I'm your host, Patti Firth, mom of 3, wife, and experienced classroom teacher; who has made it my mission to help other teachers establish efficient routines, find effective solutions and deliver engaging lessons over at MadlyLearning. com. So are you ready to Ignite your Teaching? Welcome to the Ignite your Teaching video podcast, a podcast dedicated to innovative teaching strategies to engage and empower you and your students. I'm Patty and I'm your guide on this journey to elevate your teaching.

Patti: 0:52

So one of the problems that I see many students struggle with in junior is writing paragraphs and transitioning into multiple paragraphs on one topic. So today I want to delve into a vital skill that will benefit students across all grades and subjects writing nonfiction reports. So let's dig in and help our students become more effective nonfiction writers. Now, before we begin, I want to preface this entire conversation in the theory of spiraled instruction in literacy. I need you to disconnect the idea that teaching writing comes before actually doing the skill of writing. Writing is a complex skill and it's something that is best developed by doing, and there's lots of different things that we're practicing when we write. Writing is something that students will get better at when they are writing consistently every single day, just like shooting a basketball. You're going to become a better basketball player by shooting more. We can learn the theory of how to shoot basketball all day long, but until you actually are in a gym shooting a basketball over and over and over again and practice what that looks like, it's not going to get better. Just as a writer needs to be practicing more by writing every single day, we cannot simply teach students all of the skills that they're going to need to write first before we let them try and then be surprised when they don't get it. They don't get the ball immediately. Like, are you meaning to tell me that a student who learns the theory of shooting a basketball goes down to the gym, shoots a ball and they don't immediately get it into the net? Well, of course not, because they don't have the skills and they haven't been practicing. So we need to teach them the initial skill, then have them practice and then they get better over time through feedback, corrections and refined instruction.

Patti: 2:36

So while I may not have taught all of the steps of writing a nonfiction report, it doesn't mean that students can't begin to write and follow all of the steps of a nonfiction report. So there's going to be five steps of writing a nonfiction report, but I don't need them to know all five before they actually write their first nonfiction report. In fact, by the time I finished the fifth step of writing a nonfiction report, I hope they've written about five different reports and they've written all of them and we may have gone through step one. We might list all the things, but they don't really have the knowledge or the skills to do steps two through four, two through five. Maybe they've heard it a little bit before and that's okay. As we're spiraling, we're going to teach them one small thing and have them apply it to the whole thing. They're going to teach them one small thing and they're going to even get better the next time and they're going to have that skill behind them when it comes to writing. We are building the ship as we are sailing it.

Patti: 3:34

I do not need to teach my students how to write a report from beginning to end before I ever ask them to try writing a report, a full report. It does not mean that I shouldn't evaluate them on their ability to write a full, complete report before that, but it does mean that they can write it. So I'm not going to evaluate their ability to write a report after one small mini lesson. I'm going to wait until I've taught all of the mini lessons before I evaluate it, but in the meantime they're going to be practicing what that looks like. So in my classroom, my students write every single day for at least 15 minutes in any form and any style they're interested in. Now, while I give them various suggestions, most students simply choose between one of two options they write a story or they write a report. Now, while they may not have all of the information to write a perfect report on day one, they're building the skill and they have skills that are background knowledge skills. They have been to school before. They have written paragraphs before they get to me, because I teach junior grades. So students grade five and six have written a paragraph before, at least I really hope they have. They are learning how to write better paragraphs and we're using the writing experiences that they've had in the past and now to continually refine and write better pieces of writing. So, while I'm teaching lesson on jot notes, if they see that they have missed that step in their own previous attempts to write a report. This is going to highlight for them very, very clearly what step they missed and what they need to do next time so I can better build their knowledge, because they have examples and experiences that they can draw upon to improve it. So it feels far more relevant.

Patti: 5:08

So what do I expect from junior students in writing? So for grade three students, I expect about one paragraph. It's going to be formulaic in nature, perhaps engaged in a little bit of research, but mostly it's going to be personal experiences and personal knowledge. In grade four, I want one paragraph, one well-developed paragraph that does include some research included on that. In grade five, I want about three paragraphs that are central and have a central topic, so they have a central topic with subtopics. And in grade six I want, by the end of the year, to get to a five paragraph report that has introduction and conclusion statement paragraphs inside that report.

Patti: 5:48

So understanding the strategy. So there's going to be five steps in helping students understand the process of writing a nonfiction research report. Step one, and our five step strategy, is about choosing and narrowing down a topic. It's all about finding that sweet spot A topic that's not too broad yet has enough depth to actually research. So, in your classroom, start by modeling this as a process. Use a mind map on the whiteboard to brainstorm and then demonstrate how to narrow the focus. So if they said sea creatures, well, sea creatures is a good topic, but it's also very broad. So how are we going to narrow that down? We might want to pick a specific body of water, maybe one specific type of animal. So we're going to model how to take sea creatures, a very broad and open ended topic, and we're going to want to narrow that down for students. Other time students might pick the 2006 Chevy Camaro. Well, that might be a little too narrow and we'll only know that by looking at our topics.

Patti: 6:47

So gather your students, ask them to think of topics, shoot them at you and then decide whether they're too broad, too narrow. Do I need to go back so I can get more information and open it up to all the narrows, or do I need to get more narrow and decide well, which ocean and what kinds of animal life do I wanna focus on? When I'm talking about sea creatures, remember that your students are gonna follow your lead, so make this modeling really count and be really explicit about your thoughts and thinking patterns when it comes to this Now, it's not just about showing them, it's also about doing it. So break your class into small groups and then let them practice this skills. I'll have them select a topic, refine it together. It's gonna be a powerful way to foster collaboration and critical thinking. Then bring it back and have the whole class each group share their chosen topic and guiding questions and offer some constructive feedback. This communal learning environment is going to be where a lot of the really good thinking happens when it comes to choosing a topic.

Patti: 7:48

So we wanna choose a topic and then start brainstorming guiding questions to decide whether or not we're gonna have enough information in that topic to create sub-paragraphs. If we're gonna have too much information to create too many sub-paragraphs, if your sub-paragraphs are like 27, then you probably are too broad and you're gonna have to narrow it down. So, really getting them to think of okay, if I'm gonna do C-creatures, what are sub-topics gonna be? What are the things you're gonna look for? What are some guiding questions that you want them to look for? They come up with well, there's 27 possible guiding questions. They're gonna have to narrow that down. If they look at the Camaro and the 2006 Camaro and they're like well, what are gonna be the sub-topics? Is there enough information there? Do I need to back it out? And just look at all Camaros. So it's really gonna help when you're getting students to think through that process with you and then with each other in a guided or in a shared learning environment.

Patti: 8:42

Now the next step is gonna be research. We're moving on to step two research and source evaluation. Now here you're gonna teach them not just how to find information, but how to judge its value and worth. Model how to dig for sources, how to check for credibility on websites and, most importantly, how to take the gold and leave the dirt. So you want to have them extract the fact and leave all the extraneous information there. You want to bring those research skills to life in your class by having students evaluate sources in real time. So use a topic you selected together in step one and actually look for research. Now you're gonna model how to research.

Patti: 9:20

Google is a big, broad, vast universe and students often don't really know how to research. They know how to look things up, but they don't know how to research. And so many times they'll research by using Google image search instead of actually clicking on a website where they'll just read the website snippet, which is what you see when you Google and all of the search results. There's a little text that's there. You'll read the snippet and not much else. So you really want to model for students how to read the snippet, to evaluate whether this is something you might want to click on, and then actually click on the website and then read through it Once again.

Patti: 9:55

You're going to transition from this modeling where you're going to model for them and evaluate okay, this is a good website. How do I know? Things like there's not a lot of ads on the website. It looks like it's from aorg. That's a reputable website because it's got the ending oforg. It looks like it's very informed. It looks like a professionally created website. You can show them how to find the about us section at the bottom of the website to decide whether or not it's a reputable website, and then you're actually going to show them how to extract information. So you're going to read a paragraph and then extract a fact, and read a paragraph and extract a fact.

Patti: 10:35

Now, once you have done this modeling, then it's time to transition into group practice. This is where these group dynamics are going to really pay off, as students discuss and weigh the value of different sources. So encourage them to defend their choices and why they think it's a good website and it's a way to solidify their understanding. So while you have looked at a website and done it with them, then you're going to assign them a website where they're going to look for information and extract some facts for research as a group. So you're going to first show them how to do it and then you want them to practice collaboratively with others and then share it back to that whole group experience.

Patti: 11:13

The next is going to be jot notes and really teaching students how to use jot notes. So many students want to skip this step and it's a really hard one to encourage students to do. In fact, I often will find myself teaching jot notes and then going through the whole process and then returning back to jot notes throughout the year as we have to continually go back to this concept of jot notes and jot note taking. We do this again in social studies and in science because this jot note taking piece is going to be a really hard one for junior students but a really essential one. So we're going to tackle this making jot notes. It's often overlooked, but it is critical. So show them how to extract the key point and write it down in a fact, in their own words. And it does require some higher order thinking skills, which is probably why it's so difficult for students, because it requires them to synthesize the information that they're learning, make it sense to them and then move forward.

Patti: 12:10

So we really want to show them how to keep their notes organized and let them practice this in their groups with the research that they've gathered. So you want to show them read it and then how do you make jot notes? How do you actually go through and make jot notes? What does it look like? What form do you need? You don't need a fancy graphic organizer for jot notes. You need a lined piece of paper and a notebook and you need to make a t-shirt. I always like showing them there is a t-shirt and on the one side you put source and then on the larger side, that's where you're going to put the fact. So I want them to tell me what website they're getting it from, and then they're going to write the facts that they find on that website and then they're going to go to a new website, write the website in the left hand column and then they're going to write the fact in the right hand column. Now, I don't actually expect my students to create bibliography so closer to the end of grade six, but this is a good practice to have them identify where the source is coming from, where the facts are coming from, so that when it comes to independent practice, this is really where you'll see who's really grasped this concept. So walk around, offer some tips and see how their jot notes evolved.

Patti: 13:17

And again, this skill and this step is probably when you're going to have to keep revisiting, because it does take probably some of the most higher order thinking skills here and students will often skip it because they can. They will skip the go straight from research to paragraph writing and you really do want to see that jot note and focus on the organizational steps. So again, model this for students, have them do it as part of a group and then monitor and refine throughout their writing process as they keep coming back to this piece. So step four is still part of the jot notes here and this is where, once we have all of our research, we have to actually organize it into subtopics. And again, this is going to be a skill that they're going to have to practice over and over again, because there's an evaluation of the quality of the research that we found and having them to sort through it going okay, well, what paragraph would this be? How does it fit? How can I organize the information that I found into different sub paragraphs? What goes where? So there is some evaluation that is happening, so that higher order thinking skill here is happening, which is why you're probably going to have to revisit this over and over again throughout the year, which is why it's so important that you are spiraling that instruction, that you're teaching them the steps, but that doesn't mean you're done just because you've taught it once, because it's such higher order skills that you're asking them to engage in. When it comes to this organizing and jot note taking, where you're asking them to synthesize information, put it in their own words, and then evaluate it to organize their information, it's important that they try it and they do it in a baby way, like kind of beginner way, and then they try it again later and they do it a little bit better, and then they try it again later and they do it a bit better. It's definitely going to be a skill that needs to be consistently refined over time, which is why a spiraling approach here really is effective at teaching these skills.

Patti: 15:07

So when you're modeling, create the outline that makes sense for your notes. So you're going to look at all your research notes and then show students how do I group them. You're going to model that and do it together. You're going to teach them how to identify what the most important parts are, what is extraneous you don't need how you can form the shape of their report and what facts go into, what subcategories and what groups they go with. So have them tackle this together. Have them do this as groups, do it together, model it for them, but then also do it together as a class so that they can continually practice this. Then each student can take this skill and apply it and they want to be applying this to their own work. And again, as you're monitoring, as they're conferencing with you, as they're showing you the things that they're writing and practicing this skill on, it's something you can guide them with, because you can reference back to that lesson, ask them to try it, review what they have done when they come back to conference with you again, and continually help them refine that skill over time as they're continually practicing it. And once they have these structured outlines, then it's time to move into paragraph construction.

Patti: 16:15

Now this step five is writing a simple paragraph. Now it sounds like it's simple and it's where that research meets communication. So we want to model what a strong paragraph or topic sentence looks like. We want to give them a model and a framework. I love using the hamburger model as a framework for supporting paragraph writing. We want them to include supporting details and concluding sentences. We want to let them practice because, again, this is again going to be something that we're going to tell them and then they need to practice. And then we're going to give them feedback and they're going to need to practice some more. And then we're going to give them feedback and then they're going to need to practice some more.

Patti: 16:51

We're going to have to keep coming back to this idea of writing a paragraph, because it is something that gets refined and improved over time across grade levels as they move through writing these paragraphs. So have your students you're going to model it for them have them work in small groups. Have them do it together with your support. Do this in guided reading and guided writing. Look at other paragraphs and structures of texts you're reading highlight the structure of a paragraph they're finding, and you really want students to learn to critique and improve their work constructively and continually practice getting better and better at this paragraph writing. You want them to be writing multiple paragraphs instead of building this report, and this is going to be iterative learning.

Patti: 17:35

Each paragraph is going to get stronger, clearer and more concise by offering our feedback, prompt revisions to foster this resilience. They're writing a baby paragraph. Their skills are going to be not where they need to be at the beginning, and that's okay. But they've tried. And then what do they need to do differently? And it's baby steps to progression, to getting better. It's not going to be just one and done here. It's something we have to continually work on. So remember the teaching nonfiction reports is not just about imparting the skill and it's really about nurturing this process of writing, from choosing a topic to writing a coherent paragraph. Each step is going to build on the last and we're probably going to need to go back over them and refine and deepen the understanding of these skills over time, allowing for group practice before moving on to independent work, creating the scaffolded learning experience that reinforces and refines our students abilities, and that's all for today's episode.

Patti: 18:30

So thank you so much for joining me. I want you to implement these strategies in your classroom and watch your students become adept at nonfiction writing. If you've enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and share it with your fellow teachers. And until next time, I want you to remember to keep writing and ignite the path for future thinkers and leaders. For any information and resources mentioned in today's episode, please check the show notes on whatever device or app you're watching. Thanks so much. Bye for now. Teaching can certainly have its moments, so thank you for spending these last few moments listening to another episode of the Ignite your Teaching video podcast. Check out our show notes or swing by wwwmadleylearningcom to dive deeper into today's topic. Now, if you ever feel like you're shuffling through the same old worksheets or just tired of the DIY marital round, we get it, and that's why, at Madly Learning, we have a range of high quality resources just for you. You can explore them over on our TPT store or check out wwwmadlylearningcom. Forward slash shop.