The Start of Informational Texts

This summer I had the opportunity to work with teachers in two different workshops.

One was a book study about Comprehension & Collaboration by Stephanie Harvey and Harvey Daniels.

The other was a workshop about using Informational Texts as a part of our daily instruction.

Of course, as I began to plan for these workshops, I realized how woefully unprepared I was to talk about informational texts. They were just not my ‘thing’. My interactions with informational texts have been limited to books about immigration (4^th grade research) and polar animals (1^st grade research). I realized that these texts were probably not going to cut it in a room full of educated individuals.

And then, I discovered The Family Romanov by Candace Fleming. This book was unbelievable! For the first time, I actually cared (and understood!) what was going on in history.  The family, time period, and country were coming alive through Fleming’s words. I had not experienced informational texts like this before. I knew I needed to search out other texts like this.

As I began searching at the library for great books, more and more texts kept popping out at me. I knew I needed to narrow my workshop focus if I was going to fit everything in three hours.

I defined my purpose for using informational texts in the classroom:

- When we read aloud informational texts to students we demonstrate that we value informational texts as much as narratives. We must be sure to read aloud or ‘bless’ a wide range of texts and genres.

- Informational texts inspire curiosity and wonder.

- Informational texts can build background knowledge and give us more information about a topic we read in a narrative.

- Informational texts are fantastic mentor texts for writing.

Fortunately, a good friend and colleague captured many of the books I talked about here. I was so grateful to have someone capturing my ideas as I talked about them.