Nonfiction for Middle School

Discipline: Professional Resources, Literacy

Copyright: 2016

Grade(s): 6 - 8

Delivery Method: Print

Imprint: Heinemann

Author(s): Don Killgallon, Jenny Killgallon

Nonfiction for Middle School: A Sentence-Composing Approach

Don and Jenny Killgallon's sentence-composing approach helps students all across America develop into more proficient and sophisticated writers. Now in this powerful worktext, the Killgallons use their highly effective method to help students become better readers and writers of nonfiction.

Nonfiction for Middle School: A Sentence Composing Approach offers varied practice in building better sentences and paragraphs by modeling the sentence structures of well-known authors, including Diane Ackerman, David McCullough, Gary Paulsen, John Krakauer, Tracy Kidder, Erik Larson, Anna Quindlen, Laura Hillenbrand, Phillip Hoose, Rebecca Skloot, and many others.

Using the activities in the worktext, students—

  • learn the meanings of words in the context of nonfiction selections, promoting deep reading skills
  • learn and apply valuable tools for writing—the identifier, the describer and the elaborator—for variety in sentence structure
  • imitate the sentence and paragraph structure of mentor authors from a wide variety of short nonfiction pieces.

The Killgallons provide the scaffolding students need to build strong sentences and paragraphs, as well as to interpret challenging nonfiction texts.  With recognizable nonfiction authors as their mentors, students learn skills and build confidence as their reading and writing become more meaningful and masterful.