The Big, Bad Wolf...Is This a Fact?

Overview

From Theory to Practice

OVERVIEW

Reading teachers find themselves at a disadvantage when competing with a barrage of glitzy media. Teachers armed with a piece of chalk, a blackboard, and a textbook are "swimming upstream" against an onslaught of music videos, movies, computer games, video games, and the all-pervasive Internet. Even high-functioning students in fourth and fifth grade will volunteer that they don't like to read because it's "boring." Middle grade students echo this sentiment. This lesson combines the nonfiction works of Seymour Simon with teacher modeling, discussion groups, and student-created multimedia presentations to increase comprehension, vocabulary, and research skills, and boost students' willingness to read.

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FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

Moss, B. & Hendershot, J. (2002). Exploring sixth graders' selection of nonfiction trade books. The Reading Teacher, 56, 6–17.

• Many American adolescents are aliterate; they choose not to read.
  
  
• When students are given the opportunity to select nonfiction books that interest them, their attitude toward reading improves.
  
  
• Nonfiction books make up 50 to 85% of the circulation in juvenile libraries, and yet these books are seldom found in middle-grade classrooms.
  
  
• Giving students the opportunity to share and discuss books with their peers is a highly motivating activity.

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