In the summer of 2019, I took the course Education 743: Literacy in the Secondary School. During this course, I prepared a document that reflects my exploration and analysis of possible reading materials to be used to help my students explore and deepen comprehension in a reading unit we complete in the classroom.. This exploration is a bibliography of sample materials, a consideration of appropriateness of materials and a discussion of your thoughts related to plans for using materials. 

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My Instructional Material Analysis is an unit of study is a genre study on biography that was designed for fourth grade students. This unit is generally taught during the third quarter of the school year. Within this unit,  students will develop an understanding of characteristics that are always present in biographies and which characteristics are often biographies.  A study of nonfiction text features are infused to support readers in drawing information from the text.  Throughout this unit of study, students will practice finding main ideas and details and infer why an author would write about a particular person.  Students will infer the message of the book and think about how it applies to their own lives.  Students will also grow in their ability to make inferences in nonfiction reading. Shortly after starting the Biography Unit of Study in reading, students participate in an inquiry project about a Wisconsin person (generally facilitated through writing workshop). At home, students work on creating a biography bottle doll of the person they are completing their inquiry project about. This unit is one that our fourth graders truly enjoy and remember for years to come because of the engaging activities and choices that are involved in this unit. 

This document has instructional materials that can be used within this unit to enhance student learning through daily lessons, a variety of texts, websites, interactive online activities, videos, writing, and projects.