Reading guides

Groups will develop a Reading Guide for each non-fiction resource book for units in science, social studies, and other curriculum areas. Students will identify useful features each book and where the important information will be found. Reviewing non-fiction features of print resources will familiarize the class with material on reserve for the unit. Overviewing and identifying text features will help students determine how to approach the various formats of text relevant to the topic.

A lesson plan for grades 6–8 English Language Arts and Information Skills

By Elizabeth Hubbe

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Related topics

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Learning outcomes

Students will:

• preview available resources and identify their features.
• predict the usefulness of the book based on the kind of information the book is likely to contain.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

3 hours

Materials/resources

• Books collected for use in research. These may be books in the classroom, books pulled in the Media Center for this assignment. You may need to supplement the school’s collection with books from the public library.
• Photocopies of Reading Guide form, one per book.
• An overhead transparency of the Reading Guide document
• Photocopies of the Features List for each student or group of students.

Technology resources

overhead or data projector

Pre-activities

• Students will draw on prior knowledge of non-fiction features. Ask students to recall the ways they have “attacked” various non-fiction texts they have used before. Briefly brainstorm/shout out a list of non-fiction features.
• If students need prompting, mention the use of dictionaries (guide words, alphabetical), encyclopedias (alphabetical, index, tables, annual yearbook updates), textbooks (table of contents, chapter headings, subheadings, chapter summaries, glossaries), Non-fiction books (prefaces, epilogues, chapter notes, introduction, appendix, illustrations and photographs) to get a more complete list.

Activities

1. Depending on the size of the class and the number of books, divide the class into groups or pairs; reserve one or two books for teacher modeling. Some books will be feature-rich and others will not. If you want students to experience the range of possibilities you may combine the students into larger groups and give each group two or three books to examine.
2. Provide one Reading Guide form for each assigned book. Provide one Features List per student.
3. Model the completion of a Reading Guide using one or two books reserved for this purpose. Project a blank Reading Guide transparency and use a “think aloud” strategy to help students see how you locate and identify the features of a text. Direct the student’s attention to the Features List as you look for the features present in the example. See the attached completed sample Reading Guide for using the book G. W. Vanderbilt’s Biltmore Estate: The Most Distinguished Private Place (Bryan 1994).
4. Roles may be designated or may be group choice… these roles may include a scribe for each Reading Guide, or a speaker to introduce the book to the class. Direct students to examine the book(s) assigned to their group and discuss the features. Students complete the sheet by recording the bibliographic information, then identifying the features, and finally, by writing an overview. The overview is based upon the features, and encourages students to predict the kind of information in the book and the scope of the book’s usefulness.
5. The designated speaker for each book will introduce the book to the class, mentioning the key features indicated on the Reading Guide and providing ideas for how the book can be used. This presentation should be brief.
6. Students will use these books throughout the unit of study. As they use these books, they should refer to the Reading Guides and add comments, corrections and additions as necessary. In this way, they are peer-reviewing the work of their classmates and making the Reading Guide even more useful to the class. They are also attending to the features and the structure of the book. The teacher may model this by adding comments to the Reading Guide modeled on the overhead earlier in the lesson.

Assessment

• Complete Reading Guides will be attached to each book. Guides may be assessed for completeness, neatness, and usability.
• Oral presentations may be assessed for brevity, clarity as well as other standard oral presentation techniques. The presentation should also show that the group has reached a clear understanding of the relevant information in the book and how to best locate it.
• Extending the activity: As the books are used for research, students will add comments on the helpfulness of the guides and make any necessary revisions. Students may gain points for adding their comments, corrections and additions to the Reading Guide as they use each book. Students may also look back at the Reading Guide they authored to see what the other students have added.

Supplemental information

Comments

This reading strategy lesson was developed for use with a Biltmore unit for EDUC 126, but would be useful as a pre-reading activity in any discipline or unit.