Online Resources for Nonfiction Reading with English Learners

Image credit: http://discovernonfiction.weebly.com/

One of my absolute favorite things is working with students on nonfiction reading and writing.......

It is so awesome to see how excited they get about learning new things....when the topics are interesting to them and the resources are at their reading level.

When I use nonfiction reading resources with students, I follow an inquiry model to help set a purpose for our interactions with the text:

• questioning
• researching
• discussing
• creating
• reflecting

Image credit: http://www.uvm.edu/~jmorris/preview/
Inquiryprocess.jpg

I also do a lot of modeling the steps in the inquiry process:

• How do I write a question?
• What should my questions be about?
• How do I read a nonfiction text?
• How do I take notes from nonfiction text?
• What do I do if I don't understand a word in a text?
• What was the most important thing I just read (summarizing)?
• Does this relate back to my inquiry question?
• What do I want to share about my topic?
• What would be the best way to share what I've learned?
• Who do I want to share my learning with?
• How do I write a paragraph?
• Now that I'm done, what did I like about this project? What would I do differently next time?

Over the past two years, I have discovered some quality online resources for nonfiction texts -- unfortunately not all of them are free...but those that have a cost associated with them at least offer free trials.

Here's a quick rundown of my go-to sites for leveled or Engligh learner-friendly nonfiction texts:

• National Geographic Explorer Magazine - identical content and photos at different reading levels
• Pioneer Edition (2nd-3rd grade reading level) - click on Projectable Edition for the free version of the edition
• Pathfinder Edition (4th-6th grade reading level) - click on Projectable Edition for the free version of the edition
• Readworks.org - a wealth of leveled nonfiction passages, complete with lesson ideas and assessments (all available for free!)
• Education World: News for Kids - a site with several high interest articles for kids (with a 'words to know' section) - complete with teaching resources and ideas for each article (free!)
• Washington Post: KidPost - current events in kid-friendly language
• Reading A-Z - leveled, printable / projectable books on various topics; includes lesson plans, student handouts and comprehension quizzes (free 7-day trial, then requires a subscription)
• Science A-Z - leveled, printable / projectable texts on various science topics; includes lesson plans, student handouts and comprehension quizzes (free 7-day trial, then requires a subscription)
• Tumblebooks - online collection of animated, talking picture books - includes a growing number of nonfiction books on various topics (free 30-day trial, then requires a subscription)

One amazing site that facilitates student interactions with nonfiction text (or any kind of text) is:

image credit: http://www.readwritethink.org/
files/resources/interactives/storymap/

• ReadWriteThink.org - collection of common core literacy lesson plans and online student activities and resources for interacting with text in meaningful ways

  

Those a just a few of the many excellent sites and resources out there for teaching students to love nonfiction reading...  

I'd love to hear about other sites and resources you use for nonfiction text with English learners -- feel free to comment below!

Happy reading!

"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you'll go."

— Dr. Seuss, "I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!"

Blogging with English Learners

With the first few days of school behind us, I know many students (and teachers) are ready and anxious to really get started with this year's learning. The milestones that everyone talks about stick out like neon signs to students in the fall...I am so glad I'm finally in 3rd grade so I can learn cursive, multiplication and division! Isn't 6th grade when we get to engineer robots? My brother told me all about the states research project in 4th grade and I want to choose Minnesota.

I love hearing students express their excitement about upcoming topics of study, and am always interested in ways to channel and extend their enthusiasm throughout the year. I also want students to be able to archive their work so that they can share their learning with others and look back in a year or two (or ten) and reflect on the all that they've done.

The 3rd grade teachers in my building began having students blog about their experiences during the school year, sort of like an online journal. The kids loved it because it gave them an authentic purpose for writing (they had an audience who could..and did... comment on their posts!), because they could add their own photos, audio clips and videos to supplement their blog posts, and because they could easily go back and make changes (from school, home, or anywhere) if they discovered mistakes or wanted to revise what they'd written. After hearing about the success of blogging from my colleagues (and their students), I knew I wanted to try it out with my English learners.

I decided to have my 5th grade ELs try out blogging as a part of our fiction and nonfiction literature circles (which we called book club). In class, we chose literature circle roles for the week, and each group decided on the number of pages they wanted to read. Then, usually on Thursdays, we spent our time together blogging about what we read: everyone wrote a summary as a part of their post, and then they recorded their lit circle role for the pages read. On Fridays, we discussed our literature circle role responses together and then had time to read and respond to each others' blog posts. My students really loved reading the responses to their posts and answering their classmates' questions -- both on their blogs and in person.

Blogging was a great motivator, and we eventually discovered that we wanted to delve deeper into many of the topics we were reading about...by the end of the year last year, our literature circles had morphed into very motivated inquiry circles. I can't wait to use blogging again this year with students!

Blogging platform used: kidblog.org

Here are a few snapshots of our blogs:

My initial blog post:

And here are a few examples of student blogs: