Nonfiction Teacher Resources
Find Nonfiction lesson plans and worksheets
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Polk Bros Foundation
How to Summarize a Non-Fiction Passage
After reading a text, one way to find out how much your class comprehended is to ask your pupils to summarize. This worksheet helps class members prepare for writing a summary of a nonfiction text. They note down the topic, up to eight...
Curated OER
Nonfiction
As scholars begin using informational texts, it's important they understand their uses and features. This visual worksheet has readers match three text titles to corresponding pictures. Next, they examine a book cover with the...
Curated OER
Using a Magazine/Non-Fiction Texts
Working with magazine articles and other informational texts, students identify the parts of a non-fiction work. The learners use SMART board files to guide instruction, as well as a transition to writing their own non-fiction article in...
Curated OER
Nonfiction Books: Table of Contents and Index
How do you find what you're looking for when reading a nonfiction book? Even first graders can learn how to use a table of contents and an index. They use the provided images of each to locate information and answer nine questions.
Curated OER
Watch the Road Signs
What makes a good speaker? Upper elementary learners practice oral fluency by working with a partner to read nonfiction books. While reading, they practice using correct tone of voice, making eye contact, and speaking clearly.
Read Works
Signal Words in Expository Text
Signal words are one way that authors make the relationships between their ideas clear. Allow your learners the chance to investigate cause and effect in texts by identifying signal words. They locate and analyze cause-and-effect...
Curated OER
The Learning Network: Alligators Everywhere Fill-In
Meant to be used with the article, "In Florida, the Natives Are Restless" (included here), this is a great source of high-interest, nonfiction reading. A fill in the blank vocabulary activity and an activity focusing on reading...
Curated OER
Student Opinion: Should Couples Live Together Before Marriage?
Bring nonfiction into the classroom with this high-interest op-ed piece from the New York Times about love, marriage, and relationships in the 21st century. Pupils read a short article on the topic of cohabitation and offer their own...
Curated OER
Student Opinion: Do You Spend Too Much Time on Smart Phones Playing 'Stupid Games'?
This versatile resource from The New York Times website provides a short opinion piece on smart phones and the amount of time we spend playing games on them as well as several possible writing prompts pupils could consider in response to...
Curated OER
Student Opinion: How Impulsive Are You?
Sure to spark lively discussion in any Language Arts classroom, this article from The York Times asks the question, 'How much self-control do you have?'. Pupils begin by reading a short passage about a study on delayed gratification and...
Curated OER
The Learning Network: Poetry Pairing July, 21, 2011
Although not a complete lesson plan, this set of emotionally powerful texts could be used in a variety of lessons. From The New York Times' Learning Network site, the resource includes a poem, an excerpt from a New York Times article and...
Curated OER
Reading Questions: Alex Haley's "My Furthest Back Person: The African"
Based on Alex Haley's moving essay "My Furthest Back Person: The African," these 11 questions support comprehension and prepare readers for discussion of the text. Use this tool, and the essay, as a nonfiction addition to units on...
Curated OER
Reading Connected Text Accuracy (Passage)
Use some of these 80-word passages to practice reading fluency with your beginners. Project the text so all learners can see it, pointing to each word as scholars recite them one at a time. Warn readers of irregularly spelled words by...
Curated OER
Introduce Vocabulary: Clouds (Bauer)
What type of cloud is that? Explore meteorological vocabulary using Marion Bauer's book, Clouds (although these strategies could be used for any fiction or nonfiction text). Pre-teach the new words before reading the story...
Curated OER
Introduce Vocabulary: Cross a Bridge (Hunter)
What does suspension mean? Learn this and other bridge-related vocabulary as scholars listen to Ryan Ann Hunter's nonfiction book, Cross a Bridge. This strategy can be applied to any book. Before reading, acquaint pupils...
Curated OER
Introduce Vocabulary: Firefighters (Mitten)
Your budding readers know what it's like to get to a word and think, "What does that mean?" Expand their vocabulary in context using Christopher Mitten's nonfiction picture book Firefighters. Get them ready by pre-teaching the new...
Curated OER
Genre Lesson: Autobiography
Start kids thinking about point of view and autobiographies by telling them a short story about your morning (first person), and then asking a volunteer to re-tell the story to you (second person). There are tips to help you tie this...
Curated OER
Using Details from Nonfiction Text to Organize Sequence of Events
Is it important to do things in a certain order? Yes, especially when making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Or so your class will learn in a lesson on sequencing. After guided practice, class members generate their own “how-to”...
Curated OER
Prepare to Read Nonfiction
Students get an introduction to using KWL Charts as tools for reading nonfiction. They study unfamiliar words and share what they already know about the topic of the non-fiction selection and use this knowledge to help prepare to read.
Scholastic
Mixed Bags: Fiction and Nonfiction
Using a bag with one fiction and non-fiction book of similar topics, partners work together to find the differences and similarities of each story. They record their obervances in a T-chart.
Pennsylvania Department of Education
Comparing Key Ideas and Details in Fiction and Nonfiction
Students recognize the differences between fiction and nonfiction texts. In this genre study instructional activity, students discuss what nonfiction means and write the definition. Students listen to a read aloud and vote whether the...
Curriculum Corner
I See a School
Enthusiastic readers report on a book detailing what it's about and their favorite part with a picture-based writing template. A nonfiction version takes a step further to highlight what the pupil learned, and a fiction version showcases...
Curated OER
Fiction vs. Nonfiction
Students explore fiction and nonfiction writing. They identify the elements of fiction in a short story and identify the criteria necessary in a nonfiction piece. Students distinguish the author's purpose in an expository text,...
Curated OER
Navigating Nonfiction
Third graders explore the arrangement of nonfiction. In this library skills lesson, 3rd graders examine Dewey Decimal classification as they collaborate to locate nonfiction materials in the library/media center.
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