Nonfiction Reading and Writing with Lucy Calkins

Non-Fiction Reading and Writing with Lucy Calkins

10/24 CRA-Joy of Literacy Conference

Riverside, CA

The Common Core standards state that 50% of a student’s school day should be spent on Non-Fiction Texts.  Current reality is that kids are now spending up to 50% of their day with Nonfiction texts in hand, yet not understanding them.  Knowing this now implies that the role of the teacher has entirely changed. Instead of being the “Giver of Information” the teacher now has to teach his/her students how to access the information in their texts.  This includes specifically teaching students to synthesize, compare and contrast, and evaluate the information they are reading. Lucky for me I listened to the ever so insightful Lucy Calkins give her advice on how to best support this current scenario in so many of our schools.

Lucy addresses what she thinks are some flaws with teaching strategies in the classroom.  One problem she shared is that kids are reading with a pen in hand. If students are constantly asked to annotate what they’re reading, they are not reading very much text, therefore, they are not acquiring very much information. If they can read without the expectation of annotating, they can read approximately a page per minute.  Students need to “get the text” before commenting. So, put the pen down once in awhile and read.

Another flaw is students are not being allowed choice with what they are reading. The purpose of reading nonfiction texts is to become an “expert” on a topic. If a student is allowed to read about a topic he/she is interested in, there will be natural motivation to read “up” to acquire information about said topic.  “Reading Up” is a term I first heard from Lucy. It literally means students start with books easy enough for them to read on a topic they are interested in and then they continue their learning by reading on-topic  texts with increasing complexity, therefore; they are learning about a topic as they are increasing reading capacity with their independent level.

In addition, another flaw is, that while there are standards and assessments in place for reading informational texts, there are not necessarily classroom libraries which have a variety of good nonfiction books. Lucy reiterates that since we are not bound to purchase particular curriculum programs and our students are expected to understand nonfiction texts, then by all means, we should purchase nonfiction books! Makes sense to me.

Lucy continues by explaining that in order for students to be able to understand a nonfiction book they must first orient themselves to how it is structured. As previously explained by Lori Ozckus, nonfiction texts can be structured in 4 ways:  main idea followed by details, cause and effect, problem and solution, or in a particular sequence. Our students need to be able to recognize the text’s structure, then taught to take notes in that same way.

So, now that we have taught our students how to read an informational text, it is time to teach them to write informational texts. In the planning stages of a book, students are encouraged to use their fingers. Their fingers are described by Lucy as the greatest graphic organizer we have.  Students  can plan the logical sequence of their books just by telling across their fingers.  Planning books requires further planning of the specific chapters. Potentially, each chapter can be a different genre. After having so much experience reading and working with informational texts, students will be able to move their writing forward by going back and adding skills as they’re taught. Some examples of how this could be done after a mini lesson would be that students could revise their writing by simply going back and adding domain specific vocabulary or adding deliberate articles or video clips to advance the main idea they are striving to develop.

Being familiar with the Units of Writing by Lucy Calkins, I wasn’t surprised when she explained that she has a learning progression for reading just like she does for writing.  This is exciting news. Why not use the learning progression to advance students from where they are in reading to the next developmental stage appropriate? Suddenly, the light bulb went on for me here...Simply put, before a student can write about a topic, they MUST read about it!

Lastly, one needs to acknowledge the elephant in the room: Teachers need support to be able to embrace the work needed to be done. We are being asked to teach in ways we’ve never actually been taught to do. Success doesn’t happen without a support system.  Lucy’s final request is a plea to support the educators trying to help our students achieve success. She suggests districts and schools become a place of learning.  I feel fortunate to be working in a district which supports teachers with the challenges ahead. Being part of a literacy coaching team, we are able to work with grade level teams to help implement the Units of Writing. We have also been hosting after school Writer’s Workshop trainings in which we work with teachers to develop their capacity in teaching literacy. A recent focus on mentor texts has allowed us to focus on supporting teachers on being intentional with their instruction when using a favorite mentor text. After seeing Lucy at CRA, I hope to share her passion and skill at teaching literacy by focusing on the features of nonfiction texts. I hope to “forget the pen” a bit more often and build schema for teachers and students alike.

~Melissa @melissawest75