NonFiction Media for Remote Learners

Need MORE nonfiction content for your remote learning classroom? Several online providers of nonfiction have made content available for K-12 education. In this session, we’ll explore a few high-effect size instructional strategies and nonfiction media sources.

Site: https://tinyurl.com/yf2krs2c

What’s the structure of nonfiction content? If you haven’t asked yourself that question, you may be missing out on a key insight. Readers who understand the schema of a piece of writing are halfway to comprehending it. When you know the underlying structure of text, that assists your understanding.

Knowing structure focuses student attention on key elements of the genre. It makes it easier for learners to expect what’s next.

And, most important, track their own comprehension as they process media (source).

Nonfiction content structures make learning predictable. Once you know how nonfiction content is structured, you can better comprehend it.

Read the TCEA TechNotes blog? If yes, you know of our ongoing focus on the work of John Hattie.

• Hattie conducted meta-analyses of research on instructional strategies. Some strategies fall above what he characterized as the “hinge point,” or an effect size of .40. Strategies that speed up student growth in one year fall above the hinge point.

For example, consider these strategies:

• The Modality Effect (.55) suggests text with audio and visuals can be easier to understand. Add audio, video, infographics, graphs to improve learning. Explore it.

• Reciprocal Teaching(.74) strategy fosters deeper reading comprehension. Learn more. Here’s a guide you can use.

• Outlining and Summarizing (.66) has students identify the main ideas. Then, students put those ideas into their own words. The essential skill involves differentiating between main and supporting ideas.Read more.

• Concept Mapping (.64) has students doing the heavy lifting. That’s because students learn best when they organize new information. They are the ones who have to make the connection between old and new information. Learn more.

In an April, 2020, announcement, Netflix says you can now screen documenaries. While intended for classroom viewing, they have made a new option available.

This option allows a select number of documentaries available via Netflix US YouTube channel.

You can find a complete list online. Here are three that caught my eye:

• Babies: A series that explores the first full year of life.

• Chasing Coral: Follows marine biologists as they invent the first time-lapse camera. The purpose is to record bleaching events in real time.

• Our Planet:Explores the natural world. It comes from the creators of the award-winning series Planet Earth.

Need access to over two-hundred and fifty documentaries? Look no further than Open Culture’s collection.

They have a rich list of content you will need to review as an educator.

• Conversations with Myself – Free – Alan Watts walks in the mountains. Talks about the limitations of technology and the problem of trying to keep track of an infinite universe. (1971)

• Creative Process: Norman McLaren – Free – Explores Norman McLaren’s process of artistic creation. (1990)

• Future Shock – Free – A short documentary based on a book written by futurist Alvin Toffler in 1970. It’s narrated by Orson Welles. (1972)

A mind-boggling collection of documentary films are available online. Top Documentary Films offers a searchable index of websites.

My quick picks:

• The Great Leap Forward: Addresses questions relevant to artificial intelligence.

• Space Shuttle: The Human Time Bomb: This film presents a probing investigation. It seeks to “identify the true culprits behind the disaster.”

• Coronavirus: A Global Emergency: From ABC News’, this documentary series tries to explain the COVID-19 crisis.