Students describe the overall structure of a story, including describing how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action.
Informational Text
K Students identify the front cover, back cover, and title page of a book.
1 Students know and use various text features (e.g., headings, tables of contents, glossaries, electronic menus, icons) to locate key facts or information in a text.
2 Students know and use various text features (e.g., captions, bold print, subheadings, glossaries, indexes, electronic menus, icons) to locate key facts or information in a text efficiently.
Grades K–2 Common Core Reading Standard 5: What the Student Does
Literature
K Gist: Students name the type of text they are reading or discussing (e.g., story, poem).
They consider:
Am I reading a story, poem, or drama?
How do I know?
1 Gist: Students explain the difference between a story and informational text.
They consider:
What are books that tell stories like?
What are informational texts like?
Why do authors write stories?
Why do they write informational texts?
What are some differences between the two?
2 Gist: When describing how stories are organized, students include how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes it.
They consider:
What happens at the beginning of a story? (Characters are introduced and described, the setting is made clear, and the problem the main character will face is alluded to.)
What happens in the middle of the story? (Most of the story occurs here. The main character faces a problem or dilemma, and either the character takes action or events occur to resolve the problem.)
What happens at the end of the story? (The problem is resolved or the main character learns a lesson, and the story draws to a close.)
Informational Text
K Gist: Students refer to the front and back covers and the title page when reading or speaking about a text.
They consider:
What information do the front and back covers contain?
What’s on the title page?
1 Gist: Students use informational text features to locate key facts and information.
They consider:
How do headings help me get information?
What does a table of contents do?
What is a glossary used for?
How do I use electronic menus and icons to get information?
2 Gist: Students use informational text features to locate key facts and information.
They consider:
What are captions? How do they help me understand the pictures and words on this page?
How do words in bold (which highlight key ideas and concepts) relate to the illustrations, the text, and the glossary?
How does reading all the headings help me understand this text?
What is a glossary used for?
How do indexes help me get information?
How do I use electronic menus and icons to get information?
Note: Although the questions listed above are too difficult for most young students to internalize and apply on their own, we share them to give teachers a detailed sense of what their students should be striving toward as learners. K–2 students may not be able to ask these questions of themselves independently, but teachers can use them as a jumping-off point for lesson content and as prompts and reminders to share with students. Over time and with instruction, students will be able to pose these questions on their own.
Grades K–2 Common Core Reading Standard 5: What the Teacher Does
To have students recognize common types of literary texts:
Read aloud a variety of literary texts, making sure to include various subgenres, such as folktales, realistic fiction, poetry, and drama. As you read and compare texts from two subgenres (e.g., folktales and realistic fiction), chart the subgenres’ distinguishing features so that students can refer to the chart as they read and write.
Set up book boxes labeled “New Stories,” “New Poetry,” and “New Dramas.” As you bring books into the classroom, read them aloud and have students help decide in which box each belongs.
Provide spaces on students’ daily reading logs for them to indicate, often by color coding, whether their books are fiction, informational, or poetry. Note that we include three of the four primary genre categories, since these represent the range of texts students are likely to read throughout the week. We do not include drama because most students’ independent reading does not include that category. When grade 2 students are engaged in a specific genre study (e.g., informational texts), their logs may reflect whether the book they read on a particular day is an expository, biographical, procedural, or other subgenre of informational text (see samples of student logs in the online resources at resources.corwin.com/literacycompanionk-2).
To have students recognize the difference between stories and books that give information:
Compare a literary (fiction) text and an informational (nonfiction) text that on the surface appear to be about the same topic. At first glance, for example, both may seem to be about wolves, but upon closer examination the nonfiction (expository) text describes what wolves are like, the nature of their packs, how they are related to dogs, and so on. The literary text, on the other hand, is actually about a wolf named Willy who runs away from his pack because he doesn’t feel appreciated.
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