Reading Like A Writer: Informational Texts

For many teachers, it's a challenge to help students go beyond the ordinary, featureless writing and vast amounts of copying that can come with informational texts. In reality, informational texts are engaging and masterfully crafted to guide the reader through the rich array of features incorporated into these texts. So, to be inspired by these features, to understand how they work, how to read them (improving comprehension!!) their purpose and how to recreate them, we begin the journey to reading like a writer.Sharon first explored this notion through the use of many of ERA publications' big books. These big books provided the perfect platform for reading like a writer as a class, to explore the features of these texts and the way the information was presented. Doing this shifted students away from low level (frequently copied) text only texts, to far more sophisticated informational texts loaded with features. The most significant outcome was students transforming what they had learned into an array of text features, rather than just slabs of text only. Copying text virtually became redundant.In this episode, Sharon talks about:Why? It improves the readership.It improves transformation of knowledge learned into sophisticated presentations of new understandingsIt improves comprehension of all overall text when the purpose of text features is apparentInformational texts are potentially rich resources for learning about the worldPhil and Sharon talk about this, as well as:What informational text features areTeaching with informational text activitiesWhat aspects of informational texts to teach, and whenAnd much more!Resources mentioned in this episode:ERA PUBLICATIONSEra Publications: Picture BooksTEACHIFIC Tally Charts: Non-Fiction Text FeaturesInfo Sheet: Features of Non-Fiction Texts - ExplanationsInfo Sheets: Writing TemplatesWriting Templates: Explanation TextsWriting Templates: Timeline 1Writing Templates - variousReading Like a Writer: BeginningsBOOKTOPIAA Seed is Sleepy by Dianna AstonDK Eyewitness Books: Ancient China by DK PublishingThe Street Beneath My Feet by Charlotte GullianAMAZON‘Reading the Whole Page: Teaching and Assessing Text Features to Meet K-5 Common Core Standards’ by Nicki Clausen Grace and Michelle KelleyCAPSTONELEAP: Little Books With Attitude non fiction for 5,6 year olds by Sharon Callen (12 Big Books and 36 matching little books)TEACHER’S TOOLKIT  FACEBOOK GROUPDo you have informational texts that have worked in your classroom to share? Please join our group and share here.Connect with us!Join our community on Facebook for exclusive resources, Q and A, discussions, insights and more: https://www.facebook.com/groups/teacherstoolkitforliteracyGot any questions? Feedback? Thoughts? Email [email protected] Teacher’s Tool Kit For Literacy is the free podcast for motivated teachers and school leaders who want the latest tips, tricks and tools to inspire their students and school community in literacy learning. Hear from literacy expert and founder of Cue Learning, Sharon Callen, and special guests.At Cue Learning, our literacy specialists draw on over 30 years of teaching and international consulting experience to deliver world-class learning solutions. We equip, empower and support teachers to become their authentic selves. To find out about upcoming events, and about how Cue can help you and your school, visit the Cue Learning website http://www.cuelearning.com.au/ and sign up to our newsletter https://cuelearning.com.au/contact/And you can get even more amazing teaching resources, right now, at Teachific https://www.teachific.com.au/.To make sure you don’t miss any literacy learning tips and insights, please subscribe to our show on your favourite podcast player.Produced by Apiro Media https://apiropodcasts.com