6. Throw Your Tooth on the Roof: Tooth Traditions from Around the World by Selby Beeler: This CCSS informational text exemplar for grades 2-3 introduces students to all of the various ways children from around the world treat their lost teeth. For example, a child in Sweden puts a lost tooth in a glass of water before going to bed, hoping it gets replaced with a coin by morning, and a child in Chile will have it made into a charm and will wear it as a necklace or earring. This text, while focused on the custom of lost teeth, exposes students to the various differences among cultures. Prior to reading the informational text, reading Little Rabbit’s Loose Tooth by Lucy Bate introduces students to a young rabbit who loses her tooth while eating ice cream and the discussion that follows regarding what to do with the tooth and the custom of leaving it for the Tooth Fairy. Reading this fictional story can prompt discussion among the students about the customs regarding lost teeth. Then, the informational text can be read and the various customs around the world can be discussed.
7. What the World Eats by Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio: This CCSS informational text for grades 2-3 introduces students to the food eaten by families from various parts of the world. Not only does this text describe cultural differences in food, but also geographical and economical impacts on the type and amount of food consumed. Before reading this text to students, Why the Sky is Far Away by Mary-Joan Gerson retells the Nigerian folktale of when the sky provided food to people and how that luxury disappeared. Not only does this folktale introduce students to a different culture, it also can spark discussion about the amount of food (perhaps too much, in some cases) eaten by people. This discussion can lead into the reading of the non-fiction text that describes what people around the world eat, how much they eat, how much it costs, and what factors influence their food choices, among other topics.
Using informational texts recommended by the CCSS and pairing them with fictional texts can introduce students to both social studies concepts and non-fiction text structures. Research has indicated that reading fiction and non-fiction texts on the same topic provide rich ground for developing students’ higher order comprehension abilities (Soalt, 2005). Therefore, the use of twin texts can enhance students’ learning of social studies concepts, develop their skills for reading informational texts, and improve their overall comprehension skills.
References
Furtado, L., & Johnson, L. (2010). Enhancing
summarization skills using twin texts:
Instruction in narrative and expository text
structures. The Reading Matrix, 10(2),
271-281.
National Governors Association Center for Best
Practices (NGACBP), Council of Chief State
School Officers. (2010). Common core state
standards. Retrieved from http:/
/www.corestandards.org/the-standards.
Read, S. (2005). First and second graders
writing informational text. The Reading
Teacher, 59, 36-44.
Soalt, J. (2005). Bringing together fictional and
informational texts to improve compre-
hension. The Reading Teacher, 58, 680-683.
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