Non Fiction Stories

Do you use Scholastic News, Time for Kids, or Weekly Reader in your classroom?  If you do, these are great non-fiction readers for your students. But what do you do with those old flyers? Here is an idea that you can use to implement more non-fiction reading in your classroom.

I keep an eye out for the fun and interesting articles. Then I cut and glue them to colored construction paper. Then I laminate them. I store them in a Ziplock bag and save them for the following year. After a few years of doing this, I have a ton of non-fiction articles that are ready to use.  
 
Once you have some articles, place them at a reading center along with a graphic organizer. The students read the article and fill out the graphic organizer.  Sometimes I write up a set of questions about a certain article and have the students answer them individually or with teams. I only have to do this one time for that article and I can use the set of questions over and over again. Also, most graphic organizers will fit any article. Depending on the grade level you teach and how difficult the article is, the students should be able to do this independently.

 

I try to stay away from stories or articles that are for a particular year. For example, there was an article about the food students eat for 2015 or an article about the groundhog seeing his shadow in 2014. I try to stick with articles that do not matter about time of year or about certain dates. I try to stick to articles that I can use year after year.

If you do not use these weekly readers in your classroom, see if another teacher at your school does. Ask them if they can save the articles for you. Sometimes I have used old magazines that the library discards too. I try to find fun and interesting articles to use so I can add them to my collection. Make sure to stick to the current grade level you are teaching. You do not want to use a 3rd grade Time for Kids when you are teaching 1st grade.

We all know that non-fiction stories are extremely hard for students to read and comprehend. These little articles are a great way to incorporate more non-fiction reading in your classroom.

I have a free graphic organizer you can use with these articles or for any non-fiction reading. Just click the picture on the left and you will be able to download this graphic organizer freebie!


Happy Non-Fiction Reading!