Go Facts Middle Primary: Natural Environments integrates natural science, reading and writing. These downloadable PDF resources are ideal for use as part of a literacy program, or during a unit about one of the four topics in the set: Deserts, Grasslands, Forests and Mountains.

This teaching guide includes teaching notes and student work sheets on reading and writing nonfiction for each title in Go Facts Middle Primary: Natural Environments. To teach the reading and writing of information reports systematically, work through the lessons in the order in which they are presented in each resource of the set.

Reading the Nonfiction Text

The reading lessons in this guide are suitable for the whole class or a small group. They explicitly teach effective reading strategies for processing information reports. The teacher introduces the text and selects the teaching points, then students read the text independently. 

Using the Writing Nonfiction Lesson Notes

By following up each reading lesson with one in writing nonfiction, students learn to use in their own writing the structures and strategies modelled in the Go Facts resources. If the writing lessons are taught in sequence, by the end of the series students will have worked on information reports at all stages of the writing process.

Assessment

Teachers can use the Assessment Checklist to record a student’s progress in writing information reports by entering dates and/or comments. The work sheets provide opportunities for informal assessment throughout the lessons.