Exploring Informational Texts: From Theory to Practice

Grades K-8

 

Informational texts comprise the majority of printed material adults read. Yet children are underprepared for meeting the challenges posed by such texts. Linda Hoyt, Margaret Mooney, and Brenda Parkes offer some solutions.

Exploring Informational Texts brings together numerous educators who provide a theoretically sound rationale and the practical wherewithal for using guided reading and writing as a primary strategy for navigating nonfiction. By assembling a wealth of material by many voices from many places, editors Hoyt, Mooney, and Parkes create a montage of ideas and suggestions. These practices and strategies for using informational texts get young readers and writers off to a good start and keep them going from kindergarten through middle school.

Teachers will be intrigued by specific lesson ideas and questions, including:

• What do children need to know about informational texts?
• Which features of informational texts are most critical to teach?
• How might guided reading facilitate lessons in math or other subjects?
• What does a reader do when a book has no table of contents?
• What might a guided writing session with informational texts look like?
• How can teachers link guided reading and guided writing lessons?
• What is the role of oral reading in informational texts?

Get an inside view of real teaching moments through vignettes and classroom examples. Find tools to empower your students tomorrow. Start using or extend your efforts with informational texts. Explore the possibilities in this book.

When Linda Hoyt is asked what people should know about her professional career, she is often heard to say, "I'm a teacher. That will always be the heart of my professional work." Though she spent many years as a classroom teacher, reading specialist, curriculum developer, staff developer, and Title I District Coordinator, Linda's passion will always center around vigorous and engaging classrooms where teachers and children learn together. This passion for vigorous and engaged learning has led Linda to create twenty-four professional books and video programs, plus numerous instructional resources for children. A few titles from her multidimensional list of Heinemann publications include Revisit, Reflect, Retell; Make It Real; Interactive Read-Alouds; Solutions for Reading Comprehension; and her newest resources, Explorations in Nonfiction Writing and Crafting Nonfiction. Three of her popular Heinemann video programs include Nonfiction Writing (one for primary and one for intermediate) and Navigating Informational Texts. Linda is a full-time author, consultant, and highly requested speaker at conferences throughout the United States, in Canada, and in Australia. Linda and her husband, Steve, live in the mountains of central Oregon where they enjoy outdoor activities and the high-desert climate. Read more from Linda's most recent blogs here: - Just Do It! Informational Writing in the Primary Grades - Guided Writing, Part 1 - Guided Writing, Part 2 - Reading For Life by Laura Robb - Strategies for Teaching Nonfiction Writing (Grades K - 2 3 - 5) Listen to an interview with Linda Hoyt on Education Talk Radio - 11/09/2011 (35:58) Writing - Explorations in Nonfiction Writing - Crafting Nonfiction - Primary and Intermediate - Nonfiction writing DVDs, K-2, 3-5 - "plus pack" at each grade level Reading - Interactive Read Alouds - K-1, 2-3, 4-5 Professional Books: - Make it Real - Revisit, Reflect, Retell Professional Development Services - Online PD: Strategies for Teaching Nonfiction Writing, grades K-2 and 3-5 - Onsite PD: Making Sense of Informational Texts - Onsite PD: Explorations in Nonfiction Writing - Onsite PD: Time-Tested Strategies for Teaching Comprehension - DVD: Nonfiction Study Staff Development Bundle - DVD: Literacy Mini-lessons staff development bundle Margaret Mooney has written many books for young readers and resource books for teachers. An elementary teacher and administrator for twenty years in New Zealand, she has also worked with the New Zealand Department of Education and at the university level. In 1988, she received the Order of New Zealand Merit for her work in literacy. Brenda Parkes has written many books for children as well as a professional book for teachers about shared reading. She has taught in New Zealand and Australia and spent twenty years as a teacher educator at Griffith University, Queensland.