Examining Ways to Organize Questions and Answers Within a Text

Goal: To engage students in sharing new information they learn. To enable students to understand the genre of nonfiction as writers. To provide students with an opportunity to learn about structure and organization as writers

Objective: At the end of the lesson students will identify the question and answer structure of nonfiction texts. They will begin to structure their nonfiction writing applying the question and answer format.

Materials Needed: Question and answer books. Chart paper.

Procedure:

1. Seated at the carpet inform the students that for our particular nonfiction writing piece we will be utilizing a question and answer format.
2. Review how some great nonfiction writers are experts who want to share information while others are curious about topics that they are interested in. They have questions that they want to investigate.
3. Investigate books. Walk through Animal Quizbook pausing to reflect how this author used multiple questions on each page to format his book. Walk through Where Do They Go noting how the author used questions in his table of contents as well. Walk through My First Book About Space a Question and Answer Book. These are all questions that the author might wonder or what they believed others might wonder. “Questions People May Have”
4. Inform the students that today they will be formatting some questions on their natural disaster topic with a partner.
5. Introduce an “I Wonder” sheet.
6. Inform the students that you have often wondered what’s inside a volcano, or how can we be safe during a tornado. Have they ever wondered things like that? Does it seem like something that would be interesting or important to know?
7. Have the students turn and talk about something that they might have wondered about their topic.
8. Working with their partners, have the students generate a series of questions about their topic.
9. Conference with groups. While you are conferencing with groups ask if they think these questions would lead them to interesting or important information.
10. Share.

Assessment and Evaluation: Students performance of task. Student’s ability to share their questions either in written form or orally.

Assignments/Follow up: Continue to use the question and answer format to generate their nonfiction piece.