Narrative Nonfiction Genre Study Book Report Project for Middle School

Ignite your students interest in narrative nonfiction, a genre many of them might not appreciate. The 47-page comprehensive standards-aligned genre study: Narrative Nonfiction Genre Study Book Report Project for Middle School provides you with everything you need to teach an engaging unit on creative nonfiction, including Objectives and Learning Targets.

Well-written narrative nonfiction or creative nonfiction is not only just as enjoyable as fiction, but many students discover that they enjoy narrative nonfiction more than fiction.  For students for whom reading is not a go-to activity, reading creative nonfiction might just be the answer for them. Fortunately, there are many excellent narrative nonfiction books available for our students at all grade levels.  They run the gamut of science, history, adventure, crime, travel, space, the ocean, rainforests, climate change.  Many fiction readers groan when I first introduce this project, but once they find the book that pulls them in, they develop a whole new appreciation for this genre. 

This 4-5 week unit (including reading a narrative nonfiction book) offers a number of opportunities for students to work alone, in partners, and in small groups as they learn how to complete the writing tasks for this project.  The project includes 3 required writing tasks: a book review, a text-to-world connection, and a newspaper article.  They then can choose 4 of the remaining 7 tasks to complete. (You can easily modify this to meet your students’ needs and depending on the time you would like to spend on this project.) I have provided 5 lesson plans for this project, 14 handouts, including graphic organizers, a self-evaluation, grading guidelines, and 5 rubrics. The genre study can be easily adapted to upper elementary and high school.

This resource downloads as a pdf but includes a google doc force copy link on the Table of Contents page.

Resources Include

5 Lesson Plans

• Narrative Nonfiction Text Structure Analysis: pages 5-6

• Book Browse: pages 9-10

• Writing a Book Review: pages 25

• Writing a Response to a Quote: pages 29-30

• Writing a News Article: page 35
  

16 Handouts for Students

• Narrative Nonfiction Text Structure Analysis: page 7

• Book Browse handout: page 11

• Narrative Nonfiction Book Report Directions: page 12-16

• Self-Evaluation of Narrative Nonfiction Book Report: page 17-18

• Narrative Nonfiction Book Report Check Off and Grading Sheet: page 19

• Note-taking Guide Graphic Organizer: page 20

• Narrative Nonfiction Book Review Directions: page 26

• Template for Narrative Nonfiction Book Review: page 27

• Response Ideas Bookmark: page 31

• Seven Active Reading Strategies: page 32

• News Article Structure: page 36

• The Inverted Pyramid: page 37

• 5 Ws and H Chart for Writing a Newspaper Article: page 38

• Graphic Organizer for Newspaper Article: page 39

• Directions and Template for Writing a Letter: pages 42-43 

• Guidelines for Grading Other Tasks: pages 45-47
  

5 Rubrics 

• Narrative Nonfiction Book Review: page 28

• Narrative Nonfiction Reading Response: page p. 33

• Narrative Nonfiction Text-to-World Connection: page 34

• Original Newspaper Article: pages 40-41

• Narrative Nonfiction Letter: page 44

Check out other Book Reports and Genre Study Projects in my Store: https://teachsimple.com/contributor/intentional-teaching-and-learning

• Autobiography / Biography Genre Study Book Report and Speech

• Book into Movie Project: Compare and Contrast Book Report and Essay

• Book Jacket Book Report

• Character Analysis Essay, Gift for a Character Book Report, and Oral Presentation

• Dystopian, Science Fiction, and Fantasy Genre Study and Board Game Project

• Historical Fiction Genre Study Book Report

• Historical Fiction Genre Study Literature Circle Project

• Mini-Reviews Book Report

• Mystery, Thriller, Horror, and Suspense Genre Study Book Report

• Narrative Nonfiction Genre Study Book Report and Project

• Poetry Book Report

Contact me at gruenwaldy1@gmail.com if you have any questions.