Nonfiction Texts

We've been working hard this past month. Students have been learning about nonfiction text features (e.g., headings, pictures, captions, sidebars, etc.) and how they help us while reading. We're also learning how to summarize nonfiction texts.  The success criteria is similar to that of a fiction summary (e.g., brief, only includes important details, written in your own words, etc.).  The challenge can lie in determining which facts are important and which are minor.

The text "How They Were Built," broadly speaking, is about the pyramids and Stonehenge, but the author is trying to explain the ingenuity and careful planning behind these two particular structures.  Therefore, when we summarized, we focused on how these two early societies could build such extraordinary structures without modern machinery and technology.

We will continue developing this skill for a few more weeks. Students will be working in small groups and gradually become independent and summarize nonfiction on their own.