Better Than Basal Nonfiction: Informational Text Graphic Organizers and Writing Prompts for 10 Read Alouds, Grades 3-5

Description

Want informational text graphic organizers for the nonfiction books you already read aloud? Better Than Basal Nonfiction gives 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students two reading comprehension graphic organizers for each of 10 nonfiction picture books, a writing prompt for every book, and blank organizers you can use with any informational text.

The books are not included. I chose favorites that most school libraries already have.

How each book’s set works:

• A teaching page that lists the reading and writing skills that fit the book, with ideas for each one
• Two reading comprehension graphic organizers written for that book, each one practicing a skill that fits it, with answer keys
• A writing prompt tied to the book’s topic

The organizers change from book to book. Each one is built around its own book, so students practice the skills that book teaches best.

What’s included:

• Over 20 reading comprehension graphic organizers, two written for each of the 10 books, with answer keys
• Ten blank organizers that work with any informational text
• 10 writing prompts, one for each book
• Links to Google Slides versions for digital practice

Reading skills covered:

• Using evidence to describe, infer, and draw conclusions
• Summarizing
• Main idea and details
• Describing events in order
• Using context clues to define words
• Text structure and the key words that signal it
• Comparing primary and secondary sources
• Text features and what they teach
• Combining information from two texts

Books used in this unit:

• Can It Rain Cats and Dogs? Questions and Answers About Weather by Melvin and Gilda Berger
• Water Dance by Thomas Locker
• You Wouldn’t Want to Sail With Christopher Columbus! by Fiona Macdonald
• Postcards From Pluto by Loreen Leedy
• Animals Nobody Loves by Seymour Simon
• Owls by Gail Gibbons
• If You Traveled on the Underground Railroad by Ellen Levine
• Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin
• My Brother Martin by Christine King Farris
• A River Ran Wild by Lynne Cherry

Why I call it Better Than Basal:

A basal manual hands you one skill to teach with each story. A good picture book can carry many more than that. With these sets, you decide the order of the books and which skills to practice with each one, so the reading work can follow what your students need. The blank organizers let students use the same thinking with the next nonfiction book they pick up.

Want to read more about how I use picture books?

• The Ultimate Guide to Mentor Texts for Teachers
• Teaching Text Structure With Picture Books
• Picture Books Are for Everyone

Use the same books all year:

These are the same 10 books as my Volume 2, Unit 4 nonfiction mentor sentences and Volume 2, Unit 4 vocabulary companion, so students can study a sentence from each book for grammar, its words for vocabulary, and the book itself for reading and writing.

Want the fiction books from Volume 2 too? Better Than Basal Volume 2 covers the other 30 books. For a full year of grades 3-5 books, take a look at Volume 1 and Volume 3.

This purchase is for one teacher. Please don’t share the files with other teachers. Thank you!

Copyright © 2014 Ideas By Jivey, LLC
All rights reserved by author, Jessica Ivey.
Permission to copy for single classroom use only.
Electronic distribution limited to single classroom use only.
Not for public display.