Adventure/ Action

About the Genre

Classroom Use

How to Select a Quality Text 

Texts that I Recommend

Autobiography/ Biography

About the Genre

An autobiography is a story of a person's life that is written by that person. A biography is a story of a person's life written by a different person. 

Classroom Use

How to Select a Quality Text 

Texts that I Recommend

an autobiography of the author who wrote the magic school bus books. Relatable and interesting—kids read those books all the time.

Procedural

About the Genre

A procedural text tells us how to do something. This type of book is usually written in sequential order or in the order that things happen. Procedural texts often explain step-by-step the steps you should take to complete a task. The steps may or may not be numbered. You may have seen your parents read a procedural text when putting together a piece of furniture or a new toy for you. 

Classroom Use

Reading Activity

Use a variety of short procedural texts that you found or wrote yourself. Make sure some of the texts are good examples (steps are clear and easy to follow) and some are bad examples (steps are confusing and hard to follow). Have students read the text and perform the directions exactly as they are explained in the text. This may require the use of manipulatives or extra materials depending on what texts you use. 

Writing Activity

Use a procedural text to model what procedural writing looks like. Then have students select an activity that they enjoy doing such as riding a bike, baking a cake, etc. Then have them create a procedural text of their own explaining how to do the activity. Bring attention to the importance of using transition words (first, second, next, finally) in their writing. 

Math Activity

How to Select a Quality Text 

Texts that I Recommend

Newspaper

About the Genre

A newspaper is a publication that is issued daily or weekly. It can be found in print or online. In print, a newspaper looks like a bunch of pieces of paper that aren't stapled together, it stays together by the way it is folded. You may have seen your parents reading a newspaper in the morning. A newspaper has information about what's happening in your town, in the country, or around the whole world. A newspaper contains different types of articles or stories. These may be news articles, feature articles, editorials, or advertisements. 

Classroom Use

Reading Lesson

Teach the structure of a newspaper and the type of information you can find in a newspaper.

 CLICK HERE for more information about newspapers.

Writing Lesson

Cut out headings and subheadings from a newspaper. Hand them out to students. Have students do a five minute free write about what they think the article is about. Then have students read the article and see how close their prediction was. 

Social Studies Lesson

Have students select an article regarding an international issue. Have them locate the country using a map. Have them research more about the country, such as the country's capital, language, currency, etc. 

Art Lesson

Let your students have some fun and get their hands dirty by making a papier-mache project.

Texts that I Recommend

The Great Moon Hoax by Stephen Krensky. 

Subscribe to at least one newspaper. I like the New York Times. It provides a different perspective from outside of our small state of Iowa.