Bibliography Information

Remember: You must have a Bibliography for your informational book if you want to receive credit for it.  You should have at least three different sources.

Here is the format your bibliography should look like:

This is what mine looks like:

You can use www.citationmachine.net to create your bibliography.  Click MLA and fill in your information.

Text Features

Today, we discussed what text features we will use in our books.  We justified why we were choosing each one.


TEXT FEATURES WE BRAINSTORMED IN CLASS:

TABLE OF CONTENTS, HEADING, SUBHEADING, GLOSSARY, INDEX, PHOTOS/ILLUSTRATIONS, CHARTS/GRAPHS/DIAGRAMS, VOCAB. BOX, QUIZES, SIDEBARS, DID YOU KNOW, FYI, FUN FACTS, CHAPTER SUMMARIES . . . .

Where do your post-its lie?

Look at your post-its for central idea.  Where would you put them on our chart?

Context Clues

Remember:

When reading Fiction and Nonfiction we want to keep track of new words we are learning.

Don't skip unknown words.  Use the context clues to figure it out!

(then write the word and clues in your vocab. chart)

Organizing our Books

Think about how you want to plan your book.

I made a box for each section of my book.

I drew in each box what I wanted my book to look like.

Then, I went through my draft and pulled out the central idea and supporting details for each section.

Here's what it looked like.  . .

You don't have to do yours this way.  Just make sure you have an idea of how you want your book organized and that each section has a central idea.

Sequence Structure

When working with the Sequence structure of nonfiction we can write our notes in time-line form.
Our writing might look like this . . .

Writing with Compare/Contrast

Creating double bubbles and double t-charts are a great way to compare and contrast.

We also want to practice writing in this structure. . .

Compare and Contrast

Today, we studied the Compare/Contrast Structure of nonfiction.

To introduce ourselves to the structure, we first begain by brainstorming and taking notes in compare contrast format.


Notice how I used the DOUBLE BUBBLE to compare Hamsters, Rabbits, and Fish.

This example takes the Double Bubble even further.

I thought it was a fastastic example of how our thoughts change when we are researching.

Notice, when you create notes with your post-its, you can easily move them around to fit into different ideas!

Here, we will find two additional examples of what a compare and contrast chart might look like.

Think about the Central Idea

Good readers determine the central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details.

When we are reading we want to do the following to find the Central Idea.

1.  Read the Section
------It helps to make a post-it at the end of each paragraph, or section.  This small summary will help you in understanding what's going on.

2.  Figure out what the topic of the section is.  What is the author talking about?

3.  Look at the Pictures and Text Features

4.  Reread the first and the last sentence in each paragraph

5. Ask yourself, "What is the author trying to teach me?  What does the author want me to learn about this topic?"


The cool thing is, you don't have to do these in order, or even do all of them.  Do what works best for you!

When you think you know what the Central Idea is.  Go back through the text and find KEY DETAILS to support your statement:

Now . . .  What if you're having trouble finding the central idea?  What can we do?

1.  Take note of your paragraph summaries
                  
                    and

2. Gather details throughout the section

Can you combine these details to make one large statement?


It goes both ways!  You decide what works best for you.  You can either make your statement first, then add the details, or find the details first to make the statement.

Note Taking

Good readers take notes while they are reading to help keep track of their thinking . . .

Nonfiction Ideas

So far in our Nonfiction Unit we have  . . .

Generated Ideas

Organized our Thoughts

And we tried out the CATEGORY STRUCTURE of Nonfiction

Remember:
We want to pick a NONFICTION topic.
Something we feel we are an EXPERT on.
Something we can teach to others.

We must be able to find research on this topic, and we must be able to WRITE LONG on the topic.
When we can do that, we can continue brainstorming, organizing, and trying out different structures.

Text Features

Before we start our nonfiction unit, it's important to understand text features.

In class, we reviewed the Text Features of Nonfiction.  We discussed the different features that are used throughout nonfiction texts and WHY the author decides to use each particular feature.

When you're reading (a quick review)

Think about the skills good readers practice

These will help you while you are making your Post-it's.

Remember, your post-it's should reflect DEEPER THINKING

You always want to support your thinking with evidence from the text!

Maybe, you'll decide to track character traits . . .

Or track Character Motivation . . .

If you're ready, you can search for the theme . . .

But make sure you understand where you are in the story.

Just remember, as good readers . . .

Welcome!!

Here is how this blog will work . . .

I will post the charts in our room, examples from my lessons and from your classmates, homework, projects, and helpful links.

This will be your place for when you have questions.  If you are ever unsure of what to do for your homework, this is where you will find examples of how to do it.