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Book Cover for: Text Structures from Nonfiction Picture Books: Lessons to Ease Students Into Text Analysis, Reading Response, and Writing with Craft, Kayla Briseño

Text Structures from Nonfiction Picture Books: Lessons to Ease Students Into Text Analysis, Reading Response, and Writing with Craft

Kayla Briseño

Using Nonfiction Picture Books for Lively, High-Impact Lessons That Inspire Student Reading, Writing, and Response

Want to make an unbelievable story utterly irresistible to young readers?

Make sure the story's true. Nonfiction, like poetry, can have a bad reputation for being boring, but in the hands of able picture book authors, it's anything but. In Text Structures From Nonfiction Picture Books, elementary and middle grade teachers can channel the curiosity piqued from amazing true tales to help students further their reading comprehension and writing skills.

With the bite-sized format of nonfiction picture books as a starting point, this practical book shares over 40 low-prep, quick-access lessons to get students reading, writing, and responding to nonfiction texts with ease. The book provides a wealth of instruction, including:

  • Step-by-step lessons with multiple ways to use each picture book to prompt students' writing and analysis of the text
  • An extensive list of nonfiction picture book titles organized by "books about people," "books about places," "books about things," and "books about animals"
  • Topics, text structures, and writer's craft moves provided for each book
  • Lessons that introduce kernel essays, truisms, and reading response
  • Embedded terms, examples, and assignments to teach the vocabulary of writer's craft including refrain, polysyndeton, antithesis, and more!

Based on master writing teacher Gretchen Bernabei's instructional model, the lessons offer a lively, high-impact mix of reading aloud, discussion, modeling, student writing, and peer share. Plus, readers have access to a complete companion website full of text structure reproducibles, reading response prompts, additional lessons and extensions, student samples, and links to demo videos.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Corwin Publishers
  • Publish Date: May 13rd, 2025
  • Pages: 376
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 0.00in - 0.00in - 0.00in - 0.00lb
  • EAN: 9781071963487
  • Categories: Bibliographies & IndexesTeaching - Subjects - Language Arts

About the Author

Briseño, Kayla: - Kayla Briseño has taught English all over the world and nearly every age, from elementary through adults. She has conducted professional development workshops with Gretchen Bernabei for over a decade, sharing and generating impactful writing instruction, while being a long time contributor to Trail of Breadcrumbs publications. Text Structures from Picture Books is her debut book. She and her husband, Stephen, are both self-declared book nerds, coffee aficionados, and national park fanatics. When she's not teaching or helping teachers, you can find her creating art with her daughter, Zinnia, reading a good book, or enjoying a stroll along the San Antonio Riverwalk, where she lives with her family. Follow her on Twitter at @kayla_briseno.
Bernabei, Gretchen: - A popular workshop presenter and winner of NCTE's James Moffett Award in 2010, Gretchen Bernabei has been teaching kids to write in middle school and high school classrooms for more than thirty years. In addition to four other professional books and numerous articles for NCTE journals, she is the author of National Geographic School Publications' The Good Writer's Kit, as well as Lightning in a Bottle, a CD of visual writing prompts.

Praise for this book

In Text Structures from Nonfiction Picture Books, Kayla Briseño and Gretchen Bernabei unlock one of the secrets to teaching students to write well: make text structures visible, and invite students to try them. This practical book is jampacked with lively, high-engagement lessons that use beautiful and powerful picture books as a launchpad for excellent, well-crafted writing.

--Carl Anderson

Text Structures from Nonfiction Picture Books is an enlightening professional text that awakens wonder and curiosity for teachers and students. This easy-to-navigate (and implement!) resource invites classrooms to playfully explore high-quality texts while simultaneously scaffolding high-impact experiences where students deeply analyze texts. Kayla Briseño and Gretchen Bernabei share countless ideas for delving into the content of reading and writing, while weaving in just-as-essential "heart work" and human connection. I look forward to recommending this resource to all the wonderful teachers in my life!

--Pam Koutrakos

Finally!! Teachers finally have more tools at their fingertips to tackle nonfiction. Text Structures from Nonfiction Picture Books is a must-have resource for teachers. The book's approach seamlessly integrates reading and writing instruction into a cohesive framework and should be a staple in teachers' lessons.

--Lesley Sallee

Bernabei and Briseño eschew the sage-on-the-page approach and invite educators of all grade levels to choose our own adventure in this compendium of non-fiction picture books and strategies. They provide structure and then encourage us to change their lessons to meet classroom needs. By empowering educators to take ownership of lessons, Bernabei and Briseño remind us to empower students to take ownership of their writing.

--Kathrine Sullivan

A good professional book should feel fresh and inspiring --this one is both! I learned about an array of nonfiction picture books, snappy approaches to jump starting essays, and clear, organized lessons to help students grow. Right from the first page the book gave me a good check-in with the principles of excellent literacy instruction at any level.

--Brett Vogelsinger

Not only does this book introduce its readers to powerful nonfiction picture books, it offers practical and engaging strategies to help our students better understand the abundant craft opportunities available in the world of nonfiction. This book invites us all to engage more deeply and intentionally with nonfiction picture books so that we can better understand our world and add our own stories to the rich tapestry of experience that nonfiction helps us weave.

--Erin Vogler

Teach nonfiction like never before! Kayla Briseño and Gretchen Bernabei have packed Text Structures from Nonfiction Picture Books with innovative techniques that transform picture books into springboards for quick writes, kernel essays, and theme exploration--all while uncovering the craft and structure of informational texts. With this resource in hand, your students will be inspired to write alongside talented creators while deepening their understanding and sparking curiosity about the world around them.

--Maria Walther, Ed. D.

My ninth graders had so much fun working with these texts. Bringing picture books into my secondary classroom allows us to examine craft moves and the organization of less complex texts as a way to prepare students to do more complex tasks. Using these lessons allows me to see who gets it and who needs more support before we move on. The Craft Moves prompted them to write insightfully and the Kernel Essays guided them to write structured yet personal pieces. What a powerful tool for high schoolers!

--Amy Watkins