Non-Fiction Reindeer Text Talk

Have you heard about text talks?  Basically, it is using the ideas from Questioning the Author QtA and having the students lead their own thoughts and ideas about text.  It is interesting and we are working on it a lot in my district. 

So I did a non-fiction text talk using this book:

Notice the sticky, that is my questions about the book that I ask as I read.

We first made a schema chart getting to know what they already know about reindeer.

Of course, they said things like: Reindeer fly, reindeer help Santa, reindeer have black noses except Rudolf.

This is a two day lesson so we are going to continue it tomorrow.  The BIG IDEA of this book is that reindeer are real life animals that do more than help Santa.  So tomorrow my plan is to finish discussing reindeer and going back to my schema chart and saying, "did this author mention this in the book?"  This way they learn that not all authors or books give the same facts or the same information.

The idea that kids can learn that we have to go BACK to text to find answers will only help them in the future.  Plus, sometimes we need to put our schema aside and gain new knowledge about topics.  I am hoping that that is a success.

If you are interested in doing a reindeer text talk and you just happen to have this book, email me and I will send you my lesson!