Informational Text and Multigenre Text Sets

August 26, 2010Jessica Fries-Gaither

Beyond Penguins is funded by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0733024.

A – Classroom TeacherB – LibrarianC – AdministratorD – Higher EducationE – Other

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What grade(s) do you teach?

A – Grades K-2B – Grades 3-5C – Grades 6-8D – Grades 9-12E – Other

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Informational Text and Multigenre Text Sets

Download these slides at:http://slidesha.re/InformationalText

Today’s presenterJessica Fries-GaitherEducation Resource Specialist

The Ohio State UniversityCollege of Education and Human EcologySchool of Teaching and Learning

fries-gaither.1@osu.edu

About Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears

•Online magazine•Professional and instructional resources•Science and literacy integration•Aligned to national standards•Multimedia

http://beyondpenguins.nsdl.org

Today’s Agenda• Characteristics of nonfiction and informational

text• Including informational text in the classroom• Multigenre text sets: an overview• Creating and using multigenre text sets in

science instruction

Answer using the poll buttons underneath the participant window!

How often do you use nonfiction text in your

classroom?A – Hardly everB – When we’re doing research projectsC – A couple of times a month/quarterD – At least once a weekE – Daily

Research findings: 1st grade classrooms

• Students spent an average of 3.6 minutes a day interacting with informational text

• Informational text constituted less than 10% of classroom libraries

• Informational text represented less than 3% of material on walls and other surfaces

Duke, N. K. (2000). 3.6 minutes per day: The scarcity of informational texts in first grade. Reading Research Quarterly, 35, 202-224.

Are the terms “nonfiction text” and “informational text” interchangeable?

YES NO NOT SURE

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Nonfiction vs. Informational TextWhat’s the difference, anyway?

Nonf

Informational Text

Nonfiction Text

Characteristics of Informational Text

• Primary purpose is to convey information about natural and social world

• Addresses whole classes of things in a timeless way

• Comes in many different formats (books, magazines, handouts, brochures, CD-ROMs, the web)

Duke, N. and Bennett-Armistead, V. S. (2003). Reading & Writing Informational Text in the Primary Grades. New York: Scholastic.

Genre CharacteristicsNarrative Genres Informational

GenresOther Genres

Primary Purpose To entertain or convey an experience

To convey information about the natural or social word

Varies by genre

Examples Fairy tales, mysteries, fables, true stories, personal narratives, historical fiction

All-about-books, question-and-answer books, most reference books

Poetry, biography, menus, instructions, rules

Typical Organization

Temporally Topically Varies by genre

Some Other Key Features

Includes characters, is goal-based

Timeless verbs, generic nouns

Varies by genre

How They’re Typically Read

Linearly, as a whole Linearly or nonlinearly

Varies by genreDuke, N. and Bennett-Armistead, V. S. (2003). Reading & Writing Informational Text in the Primary Grades. New York: Scholastic.

Why use more informational text?

• Prepare students for future schooling• Prepare students for “real world” reading and

writing• Some students prefer this genre• Addresses students’ interests and questions• Builds knowledge of natural and social world• May help develop vocabulary and other kinds

of literacy knowledge

Balancing genres in the classroom*

*As recommended by Nell Duke and V. Susan Bennett-Armistead inReading & Writing Informational Text in the Primary Grades. 2003. Scholastic.

Let’s pause for questions from the audience….

How familiar are you with multigenre text sets?

I can explain what it is to someone else.

I’ve heard or seen the term.

I have no idea!

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whiteboard!

“Nonfiction actually contains a variety of textual genres that reflect the different processes within scientific inquiry.”

Ebbers, M. (2002). Science text sets: Using various genres to promote literacy and inquiry. Language Arts 80(1), 40-50.

Multigenre nonfiction text

Genres of Nonfiction Text

Explanation

Reference

Field Guides

Biography

How-To

Narrative Expository

Nonfiction Text

Journal

Informational Text

ReferenceProvides an account of phenomena based on

current understanding

“The moon is Earth’s closest neighbor in space. It is about one quarter of a million miles away. In space that is very close.

The moon travels around Earth. It is Earth’s only natural satellite. A satellite is an object that travels around another object. The moon takes about twenty seven days and eight hours to go around the Earth once.”

The Moonby Seymour Simon

Reference

Boy, Were We Wrong About Dinosaurs!by Kathleen Kudlinski

“Long, long ago, before people knew anything about dinosaurs, giant bones were found in China. Wise men who saw the bones tried to guess what sort of enormous animal they could have come from…

…Now we think that many of our own past guesses about dinosaurs were just as wrong as those of ancient China.”

ExplanationExplains how something happens or why it

occurs“Throw a ball up into the air. Watch what happens. It goes up for a short time, then falls down…

Know what makes things fall? It’s a force called gravity. As long as you are on earth, you can’t get away from it. Gravity is always pulling things. Know which way? Down. Down. Down.”

I Fall Downby Vicki Cobb

Field GuidesLabel and classify objects

FossilsBy Chris and Helen Pellant

How-ToProvide procedural steps for conducting

investigations or completing a task

Light and ColorBy Tom Jackson

How-To

A Parade of Plantsby Melissa Stewart

Narrative Expository

Nonfiction information told through story

“But as the years went by, something strange happened. The dinosaur’s bones began to turn into stone…

…Millions of years went by. Up above, things changed. The river dried up and disappeared, and all the dinosaurs died. Grass and trees grew where the river had been, and different kinds of animals wandered around.”

Monster Bones: The Story of a Dinosaur

Fossilby Jacqui Bailey

BiographyTells the life story of an individual

“At night, Benjamin lay on his bed and looked out the window. Stars sparkled in the inky-black sky. Some were brighter than others, and Benjamin wondered why. Some groups of starts looked like animals or shapes. Sometimes a star seemed to shoot across the sky. Benjamin wondered why.”

Benjamin Banneker: Pioneering Scientistby Ginger Wadsworth

JournalProcedural information told through narrative

expository text

“20 December

Today we attach radio transmitters to fifteen penguins. Each transmitter is tuned to a unique frequency. This will allow us to track individual penguins when they go out to sea to feed…The adult penguins with chicks can be extremely defensive, which makes them difficult to catch without getting painful bruises.”

My Season with Penguinsby Sophie Webb

Let’s pause for questions from the audience….

Creating a multigenre text set

•Organized around a theme•Purposeful selection of books

•Consider how each book will be used•Consider how each book relates to the set as a whole

•Not every genre must be represented

Text in an inquiry learning cycleEngage students and spark questions

Build or activate prior knowledge

Guide students in designing investigations

Develop understandings gained in inquiry

Mentor texts for representing data and communicating results

Expand on knowledge gained

How will you incorporate a multigenre text set into your

practice?

Answer using the text box tool to the left of the whiteboard! Or, type in the chat window.

For More Information

• Ebbers, M. (2002). Science text sets: Using various genres to promote literacy and inquiry. Language Arts 80(1), 40-50.

• Duke, N. & Bennett-Armistead, V. S. (2003). Reading & writing informational text in the primary grades. New York: Scholastic.

• Duke, N. K. (2000). 3.6 minutes per day: The scarcity of informational texts in first grade. Reading Research Quarterly, 35, 202-224.

Coming Soon!

Thursday, September 9, 2010: Inquiry, Literacy, and the Learning Cycle

We will explore the many faces of inquiry-based instruction and how a learning cycle framework can help you seamlessly integrate inquiry and reading, writing, and discussion.

Presenters: Jessica Fries-Gaither and Terry Shiverdecker

http://wiki.nsdl.org/index.php/BeyondPenguins/Seminars

Thank you!

Jessica Fries-Gaitherfries-gaither.1@osu.eduToday’s slides available at:http://slidesha.re/InformationalTextArchived recording at: http://wiki.nsdl.org/index.php/BeyondPenguins/Seminars