A Highly-Effective Learning Resource
Wonderopolis® Wonder of the Day® has changed the way I view nonfiction text and has drastically changed my teaching style when instructing my fifth graders on nonfiction comprehension strategies. The National Center for Families Learning (NCFL) is a nonprofit organization recognized as a worldwide leader in family learning. Educators, policy-makers, and philanthropists throughout the country rely on NCFL to mobilize family literacy efforts, increase meaningful parent engagement, and develop new, effective educational tools and strategies. NCFL’s initiatives impact homes, communities, and schools and deliver engag-ing intergenerational learning opportunities to families everywhere—opportunities that lead to economic and educational success. What is Wonderopolis®? The Wonderopolis® website was created by the NCFL through funding by the Verizon Foundation. Wonderopolis® Wonders of the Day® engages and inspires students to find learning moments in every day life.
The Wonderopolis® journey began with two questions that were asked at the beginning of the 2011-2012 school year by the fifth-grade teachers during a data-drilling session of the fifth-grade students’ baseline 4-Sight Reading assessment (SFA, 2008) data. After analyzing the student data, the conclusion was made that the nonfiction scores were below the percent-age for mastery. The fifth-grade teachers asked themselves these questions: (1) Why do our students struggle with nonfiction text? and (2)What changes in our curriculum design and classroom strategies are needed to improve student achievement in nonfiction content? Keeping these questions in mind, I set off to search for new nonfiction resources and strategies that would bring nonfiction text to life for my students while igniting the curiosity within each of them to want to learn more. As only Steven Layne (2009) could say, “Nothing’s more dangerous than a teacher with a good idea: Igniting a Passion” (p. 101).
A month later, the answer to the questions presented itself when the Morgan County R-II (MCR-II) fifth grade was chosen to be a field test site for a NCFL (2012) and Dollar General Initiative--A Day at Dollar General: Learn While Shopping. NCFL and the Dollar General Literacy Foundation partnered to develop this educational curriculum with free, online, interactive literacy modules that support and teach parents and children early financial literacy skills and responsibility. While com-pleting the initial requirements of a field test site, through conversations, and further research about NCFL—Wonderopolis.org and the Wonder of the Day® were brought to our attention. I had an AHA! moment, the voice in my head said, “This is the nonfiction resource that you are searching for to excite, engage, and immerse your students in nonfiction text while awakening their natural curiosity,” and a partnership was formed between Wonder of the Day® and the fifth grade with the purpose of improving student learning and reading achievement in nonfiction content. The
The Wonderopolis Way to Improve Student Learning and Achievement in Nonfiction Text
by Laura Caisse
Resourceful Research
Tapping into a Child's Natural Curiosity:
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