Teaching the Key Traits of Expository Nonfiction With Children's Books

Abstract

To craft engaging nonfiction prose, young writers should focus on a specific idea or concept of interest and use acclaimed children's books as mentor texts to help them understand options for developing their ideas. In this article, the authors provide examples of high‐quality children's nonfiction for exploring various formats and text structures and for developing effective expressive voice and rich language—all craft techniques associated with excellent expository informational writing and consistent with the Common Core State Standards. Specific discussion questions and activities are included.

Tips for Planning a Successful Author Visit

“…A major part of making the workshop meaningful and interactive was to have enough nonfiction books for the teacher candidates to explore to gain a better understanding of the possibilities associated with what Ms. Newman was teaching them. This required us to pull books from our personal and public libraries and to coordinate with one another to ensure we had nonfiction books that fell into the specific categories Ms. Newman would be referencing when presenting to the teacher candidates (see Stewart & Correia, 2021, for details about the five categories of nonfiction).…”

Math and Picture Books: Story, Math Anxiety, and Building Joy

“…Biographies about famous mathematicians render an easy story option detailing real people who spent time solving problems, playing games, having fun, and also struggling with math. As the call to read aloud more nonfiction in our classroom reverberates (Stewart & Young, 2022), here are a few samples of high‐quality picture books that inspire math conversations in classrooms and provide hope for learners who may feel math anxiety (Figure 1).…”

Engaging Students with Expository Books through Interactive Read‐Alouds

“…There are two distinct writing styles of nonfiction—narrative and expository (Stewart & Correia, 2021). Both are carefully researched and documented.…”

“…3–4). Despite these recommendations, many teachers struggle knowing how to effectively incorporate expository texts in their classrooms (Stewart & Correia, 2021).…”

“…It is not necessary to read aloud entire books—even picture books—when reading expository texts (Stewart & Correia, 2021). Below are examples of read‐aloud lesson ideas, each with a different focus, to support teachers as they consider expository texts for interactive read‐alouds.…”