|
Dear Educator:
Many primary teachers have asked me why there is so much emphasis on informational text in the Common Core State Standards. Young readers have a hard enough time learning to read as it is-the thinking goes-without having to read challenging informational texts.
It is true that nonfiction tends to be more challenging than fiction for primary students. Being able to read these texts relies on more advanced decoding skills, a richer vocabulary, and often much wider life experiences. A book about the night sky, for example, might include words such as constellation, lunar, and telescope.
Contrast that with Dick and Jane books, in which all the characters have easily decodable names and do easily decodable things (stop, run, jump) in easily decodeable places (on the rug, in the shop, at the zoo). Everything is understandable because it is part of each child's everyday experience. No real thinking is required.
But reading is not just decoding. Reading should take you to places you haven't been and introduce you to ideas you haven't had. Reading should be interesting, too, not just a skill to be achieved by third grade. Most important, reading takes understanding and thinking. If young students get in the habit of reading without thinking, it is harder for them to read challenging texts later on.
This is why the Common Core State Standards places an equal emphasis on literature and informational texts, even at the primary grades.
What all of this means is that primary teachers need to provide a balance of fiction and nonfiction in their classroom libraries. If you are like many primary classrooms, you have far too few nonfiction readers. To help you put together a balanced classroom library, we are offering a discount on Nonfiction reader sets this month. See Product Spotlight for more details.
Whether you are looking to balance your classroom library offerings or you are starting from scratch to create a balanced library, you'll want to check out our new Leveled Reader catalog (see Breaking News). With more than 50 collections of high quality books to choose from, you're sure to find just the right sets to match the readers in your classroom.
And, please let us know what you think and what you are doing to address the issues raised by the Common Core State Standards in your classroom. We'd love to hear from you.
Best wishes,
Joan Westley, Newsletter Editor
editor@primaryconcepts.com
| 
