The Everything Guide to Informational Texts, K-2: Best Texts, Best Practices(Corwin Literacy)

"Do monarch butterflies have a nose?" a kindergartener inquires. "Does it rain on the moon?" a first-grader wonders. "Does a white shark really produce 30 million teeth?"asks a second grader. These incisive, critical quests for additional knowledge about the world are precisely what children do when the Common Core State Standards for informational texts go right in K-2. And with The Everything Guide to Informational Texts, the Common Core will go right in K-2. Authors Kathy Barclay and Laura Stewart have written the book that teachers like you have been pleading for—a resource that delivers the "what I need to know Monday through Friday" to engage kids in a significant amount of informational text reading experiences.  No filler, no lofty ideals about college and career readiness, but instead, the information on how to find lesson-worthy texts and create developmentally appropriate instructional plans that truly help young readers comprehend grade-level texts. What you’ll love most: The how-to’s on selecting stellar informational texts High-impact comprehension strategies for nonfiction Suggestions on providing sufficient challenge in guided reading, read alouds, and other practices Model text lessons and lesson plan templates across each grade An annotated list of 449 informational texts for read alouds, guided reading, and independent reading It’s time to bring in to our classrooms all the high-quality informational texts that are available. It’s time to demonstrate to students how to read them, and to allow the authors of these children’s texts to take readers into rich, complex ideas they can handle with our support. If ever there were a book to quell our concern about how Common Core expectations will play out in grades K-2, this is it.

Table of Contents:
Foreword by Timothy Shanahan Acknowledgments Publisher′s Acknowledgments Chapter 1. New Standards, Timeless Goals: How Informational Texts Can Help Make Every Child a Reader A Crash Course on the Common Core The College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Reading Naming the Skills Involved in Reading Nonfiction and Fiction Where Do We Go From Here? Chapter 2. Bringing Informational Texts Into Your Teaching Goal 1: Expose Children to More Complex Texts Goal 2: Pay More Attention to Oral Language Goal 3: Be More Intentional Goal 4: Differentiate Instruction Goal 5: Explicitly Teach From the Text Chapter 3. The How-To′s of Selecting Stellar Texts The New Nonfiction Evaluating Format and Visual Appeal Evaluating Accuracy and Authenticity Evaluating Writing Style and Appropriateness for Young Children Evaluating Potential Content and Curricular Connections Chapter 4. The Top Ten: Focus on These High-Impact Comprehension Strategies Teaching High-Impact Skills and Strategies for Comprehending Informational Text Chapter 5. Demystifying What Makes Lessons Effective: The Lesson Plan Template The Overarching Goal of Informational Text Lessons: Rigorous Text Experiences for All Students The Four Lesson Steps Chapter 6. Informational Text Read-Aloud Lessons in Kindergarten The Common Core Standards for Informational Text Read-Alouds Using the Lesson Plan Template for the Read-Aloud Miss Webb′s Kindergarten Class: A Sample Informational Text Read-Aloud Lesson Chapter 7. Informational Text Lessons in First Grade What′s Different About First Grade? Mrs. Stocker′s First Graders: A Sample Informational Text Guided Reading Lesson Chapter 8. Informational Text Lessons in Second Grade What About Students Who Are Not Reading With Grade-Level Proficiency? Mr. Morris′s Second Graders: A Model Informational Text Guided Reading Lesson Chapter 9. Embedding Informational Texts in Units of Study An Interdisciplinary Focus Planning Units of Study: Who Does What? Selecting High-Quality Informational Literature for Units of Study Concluding Thoughts Appendix A. Checklist for Evaluating Informational Literature Appendix B. Common Core State Standards (CCSS) Checklists Kindergarten CCSS Checklist First Grade CCSS Checklist Second Grade CCSS Checklist Appendix C. Lesson Plan Template Appendix D. Topical List of Informational Literature Appendix E. Annotated Bibliography of Children′s Books References Index

About the Author :
Dr. Kathy H. Barclay has her Ed.D degree with a major in Reading and minor in Learning Disabilities from Northwestern State University, Natchitoches, LA. Her areas of specialization are emergent literacy, reading, language arts, parent/community involvement and early childhood education. Active in her profession, Dr. Barclay is a frequent presenter at state, national and international education conferences and has served as an Editorial Advisor for the Reading Teacher, the foremost publication in the field of elementary reading. She is editor of the Illinois Reading Journal and serves as a member of the Publications Committee for the International Reading Association. Dr. Barclay has authored over seventy professional publications, including three textbooks. Laura Stewart is currently Vice President of Professional Development at the Rowland Reading Foundation in Middleton, WI. She has been in education for more than 25 years, working as a classroom teacher, building and district administrator, adjunct professor, and director of numerous professional development initiatives. In addition to directing the professional development for Reading First in the state of Wisconsin, Laura directed long-term projects in Los Angeles, New Orleans, Milwaukee, and El Paso on topics from pre-K literacy to differentiated instruction. She has completed extensive postgraduate coursework in literacy education and has presented on the topic of literacy throughout the United States and internationally. Laura is the author of 12 children′s books, numerous teacher′s guides, and dozens of training workshops.

Review :
"There was a time when a book like this would have set out to try to persuade teachers. But, that’s not the issue anymore. . . . Teachers everywhere are asking themselves, ‘How do I teach with informational texts?’ Kathy Barclay and Laura Stewart provide a rich collection of practical answers to that question. Their book can--through its practical lessons, advice, and guidance--show teachers how to make informational text a joyful reality in the lives of our youngest scholars." "Kathy Barclay and Laura Stewart have done a marvelous job of providing teachers with specific suggestions for making the most of informational texts--from choosing the right texts for students, to practical and effective instructional strategies that will help students engage in close reading of these important texts, to an actual lesson format for teaching informational texts. Teaching informational texts can be a challenge for primary grade teachers. The Everything Guide to Informational Texts will help teachers and students meet that challenge!" "The book is well written, well organized, and teacher friendly. It addresses a topic--the use of informational text with younger students--that has not been sufficiently addressed in guidelines associated with the CCSS.  It contains valuable lists of children’s nonfiction texts, annotated and organized by grade level. The suggested lesson format is illustrated concretely with sample lesson plans based on high-quality informational texts." "For K-2 teachers eager to select and teach from ‘informational texts of substance,’ Barclay and Stewart offer much guidance. With keen insight, they also direct our pedagogical attention to the oft-overlooked, but tremendously powerful, text complexity essentials--oral language development, read aloud, and shared reading."