Most of what we read in our daily lives is information literature--newspaper & magazine articles, emails, blogs, how to manuals, recipes etc. Yet the majority of reading we ask our students to do is fiction. Are we doing our students a disservice by focusing on fiction?
Educator & author Linda Hoyt, in her book Make It Real: Strategies for Success with Informational Texts, reports that when she incorporated information texts into her daily instruction, she saw many shifts:
--the information texts hooked her students' natural curiosity about the world
--students were enthused and fully engaged in learning
--students began bringing artifacts related to their readings
--the curriculum load lightened--the science topic became the focus of the read aloud, shared book experience, and interactive writing.
"I saw science and social studies texts with new eyes. They were no longer just vehicles for content, they were now tools for reading instruction as well" (Hoyt, 7)
So, how do we, as teachers, make this change in our instruction?
How do we incorporate information texts into our instruction?
Take a peek at Linda Hoyt's site: http://www.lindahoyt.com/
