For years I struggled to find nonfiction texts for my middle school ELA students that didn’t:
- Insult their intelligence by feeling like they were written for younger students
- Take literally the whole class period just to get through (never enough time!)
- Feel like re-teaching or pre-teaching something new each week (again, no time!)
- End with tons of multiple choice questions that we had to ‘get through’ each week
- Constantly change in format, topic, or question styles because I needed something I could also use as an apples-to-apples assessment piece over a regular, consistent time all year long
What I wanted but couldn’t find (until now since I created it) were nonfiction texts that:
- Visually looked the same in style so we could just jump right into the reading week after week
- Were short, like a page or less to read in class on a regular basis (they had to be accessible to struggling readers while interesting and valid for all students)
- Contained interesting information about actual, real people instead of random topics like spiders or caves (so random, like seriously)
- Provided authentic opportunities for discussion and writing right there in class
- Came in a set, like something I could assign in class once a week all year long
Finally, because I love research, writing, and all things related to making my own life easier in the classroom, I sat down one summer and created my 32 Nonfiction Article Collection.
Inside the collection is this:
- 32 separate, nonfiction articles where each one is about an amazing person from the past or the present who has made a significant contribution to life here in the United States (Musicians, inventors, doctors, writers, artists, scientists, etc.)
- A set of four standards-based open-ended discussion questions for each article that students can first respond to in writing, and then discuss in small groups for continued exploration of the topic (words in context, making inferences, main idea and details, author’s purpose, text structure, etc.)
- A set of answer keys for the teacher to use a guide in facilitating discussions all year long!
If you can’t find what you need, you’ve got to create it yourself!
So now, here’s how I teach nonfiction reading skills week-by-week, all year long in my classroom without it ever feeling like a random or off-topic assignment:
Assign one article on Monday and have it due by Friday.
Monday:
* Read together / aloud / record yourself reading it on Monday.
* Annotate for important ideas (i.e. unfamiliar terms, “a-ha” moments, struggles or challenges that have been overcome, interesting bits of information, main idea, purpose of certain details).
Tuesday – Friday:
* Students respond to one question per day, or perhaps they simply have until Friday to submit their responses.
Another idea not based on a Monday – Friday setup:
Read & Respond on the same day, together.
Students can submit responses on a shared document to promote both writing / typing AND discussion. This could be a shared Google doc, or a Padlet form, or any other tool to bring students’ responses together for a more engaging discussion.
Search YouTube for a brief video highlighting the person of the week from the article. Compare the information from the video to the information in the article and discuss new insights or types of information presented in both forms. You can do this as the teacher, or challenge your students to do this on their own to extend the learning and discussion.
Refer to your grade level standards to look for additional teachable moments or to see where to differentiate higher or lower depending on your students’ needs.
Remember that when it comes to engaging your students, they can listen to an audio recording of you reading the article (outside of class), or they can read it on their own. Or, you could read it aloud with them in real time.
Is a 32 article collection enough for each week of the school year?
Technically speaking, there are more than 32 weeks of school, for sure. But when you factor in the first week of school, the last week of school, and the various holidays that shorten our weeks, it really isn’t any more than 32.
Here’s how I organize the 32 weeks of nonfiction articles:
4 articles for September
4 articles for October
4 articles for November / December combined
4 articles for January
4 articles for February
4 articles for March
4 articles for April
4 articles for May/June
Grab 4 weeks of my nonfiction article collection completely free! If you assign one per week on Mondays, then that’s a whole month’s worth of Mondays you don’t have to plan for!
- 4 simple one-page articles even your reluctant readers can access
- Easy-to-follow lesson plan page that already includes the standards
- Standards-based discussion questions so you know it’s all high-level
- Teacher answer keys so you always feel confident leading discussions
- The freedom of knowing that one day a week, your lesson is done!
Exactly WHO ARE the 32 Incredible People in the Articles?
- Dr. Patricia Bath, Ophthalmologist
- Gordon Parks, Photographer
- Maya Lin, Architect
- Floyd Norman, Disney Legend
- George Washington Carver, Inventor
- Lonnie Johnson, Engineer
- Ann Cole Lowe, Fashion Designer
- Althea Gibson, Tennis Player
- Edna Lewis, Chef & Writer
- Dolores Huerta, Activitst
- Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte, Doctor
- John Steptoe, Author/Illustrator
- Jason Reynolds, Author
- Pharrell Williams, Musician
- Lin-Manuel Miranda, Writer
- Dalip Singh Saund, Politician
- Wilma Mankiller, Activist
- Rita Moreno, Actress
- Cesar Chavez, Union Organizer
- Jackie Robinson, Baseball
- Daymond John, Entrepreneur
- Ella Ochoa, Astronaut
- Gwendolyn Brooks, Poet
- Sonia Sotomayor, Supreme Court Justice
- Bessie Coleman, Pilot
- Oprah Winfrey, TV Host/Actress
- James Weldon Johnson, Poet
- Vera Wang, Fashion Designer
- Mona Hanna-Attisha, Doctor
- Allan Say, Author/Illustrator
- Maria Tallchief, Ballet Dancer
- John Herrington, Astronaut
Grab 4 weeks of my nonfiction article collection completely free! If you assign one per week on Mondays, then that’s a whole month’s worth of Mondays you don’t have to plan for!
