On Thursdays, our Grade 2 reading group is beginning to work with non-fiction texts. There is much to teach about how to interact with non-fiction text so that students best understand all of the text features. But generating excitement and the thrill of wondering and discovering new facts is an essential piece of our learning as well. Over the last few weeks we have been picture walking books and sharing all of the things we wonder.

These Pebble Plus books published by Capstone are fantastic for this picture walking exercise as they feature full colour photographs of animals in their habitats along with simple text to share together. I have the African Animals series and the Animals and Their Homes series and found both through Scholastic.

The great thing about Thursdays is that my partner teacher, Ms. Hibbert is in the room for the morning in a Resource Teacher role so we are able to work with small groups and can encourage lots of sharing and discussion.

Day 1: On the first day, we split our group into two groups and had them picture walk a book with us and generate questions about the photographs. We used a book about bears and a book about rabbits as key texts. As the students asked questions, we charted them and pointed out when one question led to another or was an extension of another question so that students could think about how to extend their thinking and how their questions connected to someone else’s questions. After 15 minutes, we switched groups and the second group’s task was to look at the questions that had already been charted and as they looked through the text, to try and extend questions or wonder about things that had yet to be asked.

We then looked at both charts as a whole group and highlighted key question words (Who? Why? Could? Do? Is? etc.). We also talked about what questions were on both lists. A popular one? “How can you tell if it is a boy or a girl?” (although one group used the terms male and female so we helped each other extend the vocabulary being used :-))

Day 2: After reviewing and charting question words, we put the students into partners and had each group choose a book about an African animal. Students then studied the photographs in the books and charted their own questions. We circulated and challenged students to extend their thinking wherever possible.

Working with a partner allowed for a lot of great discussion. Often the partners stopped and shared what they thought an answer might be. There were disagreements, connections to background knowledge and lots of encouragement. (And charting on big chart paper with felts was pretty cool!)

We then had students display their books and charts and partners “travelled along” the display looking at the questions that other groups asked.

Day 3: On this day, students chose their own books and worked independently creating a wonder web. We reminded students to tap into their curiousity and study the pictures carefully. If they finished early, they went back and read the text and/or shared their questions with a peer. One little voice carried book and paper to a table muttering, “Just me  . . . I wonder how many questions I will wonder?”

Here is Heman‘s wonder web about bees:

Sam asked some great questions about giraffes.

We have a long road down the non-fiction path ahead of us this year. But students are pretty excited that non-fiction titles can help us with all of those unanswered questions and even inspire more!

How do you generate excitement over non-fiction titles in your primary classroom? Please share!