📚 Stories, Poems, and Information Books

What you’ll learn

1. Three kinds on one shelfDistinguish stories, poems, and information books by the job each one is built to do.Year 1 lists poems, stories and non-fiction together. The Early Years framework names stories, non-fiction, and rhymes and poems. A story wants a someone, a poem wants a sound, an information book wants a fact. You will hear books your eyes cannot yet carry.
2. A someone, a somewhere, a somethingRetell a traditional tale in the correct sequence.Goldilocks is a someone in a somewhere about to do a something. Beginning, middle and end are the spine. Once upon a time is a door you already know. Point at the sentence and ask who is speaking.
3. Words that want a soundUse line breaks, rhyme, and intonation to hear and recite a short poem.Humpty is four lines, not a kitchen and a next page. The empty paper is a breath. Year 1 and Year 2 ask you to learn poems by heart so a book can live in your mouth.
4. Books that tell you true thingsUse contents pages, headings, and glossaries to locate a fact in an information book.An information book wants a fact you could check. You do not start at page one. The picture may label a wing instead of showing a moment. Close the book and say what the whole job was.
5. The right book for the jobChoose the kind of book that best matches the question you have.One whale can live in three books. Ask the question first. Tonight take three real books off a shelf and find out what they are actually doing.

Questions this course answers

Grounded in trusted sources

• Department for Education, National curriculum in England: English programmes of study (updated 16 July 2014) — Year 1 reading comprehension: listening to and discussing a wide range of poems, stories and non-fiction at a level beyond that at which they can read independently; becoming very familiar with key stories, fairy stories and traditional tales, retelling them and considering their particular characteristics; recognising and joining in with predictable phrases; learning to appreciate rhymes and poems, and to recite some by heart; discussing the significance of the title and events. Year 1 non-statutory note: by listening frequently to stories, poems and non-fiction that they cannot yet read for themselves, pupils begin to understand how written language can be structured, for example to build surprise in narratives or to present facts in non-fiction; listening to and discussing information books establishes the foundations for learning in other subjects; pupils should be shown some of the processes for finding out information. Year 2 reading comprehension: listening to, discussing and expressing views about a wide range of contemporary and classic poetry, stories and non-fiction; discussing the sequence of events in books and how items of information are related; becoming increasingly familiar with and retelling a wider range of stories, fairy stories and traditional tales; being introduced to non-fiction books that are structured in different ways; recognising simple recurring literary language in stories and poetry; continuing to build up a repertoire of poems learnt by heart, appreciating these and reciting some, with appropriate intonation to make the meaning clear. Years 3 and 4 non-statutory note: in using non-fiction, pupils should know what information they need to look for before they begin; they should be shown how to use contents pages and indexes to locate information. Overarching aim: develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-english-programmes-of-study/national-curriculum-in-england-english-programmes-of-study
• Common Core State Standards Initiative, English Language Arts — RL.K.5 Recognise common types of texts (e.g., storybooks, poems); RL.1.3 Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details; RL.1.5 Explain major differences between books that tell stories and books that give information, drawing on a wide reading of a range of text types; RL.1.6 Identify who is telling the story at various points in a text; RL.1.7 Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events; RI.K.5 Identify the front cover, back cover, and title page of a book; RI.1.2 Identify the main topic and retell key details of a text; RI.1.5 Know and use various text features (e.g., headings, tables of contents, glossaries, electronic menus, icons) to locate key facts or information in a text; RI.1.6 Distinguish between information provided by pictures or other illustrations and information provided by the words in a text; RI.1.7 Use the illustrations and details in a text to describe its key ideas. https://www.thecorestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RL/K/ https://www.thecorestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RL/1/ https://www.thecorestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RI/K/ https://www.thecorestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RI/1/
• Department for Education, The reading framework (July 2023, page updated 22 September 2023) — Section 2, Language comprehension in Reception and key stage 1: Developing talk; Poetry and rhymes in Reception and year 1 (through enjoying rhymes, poems and songs, and reciting poems or parts of longer poems together as a class); Story times in Reception, year 1 and year 2. Listening to and talking about stories and non-fiction develops children’s vocabulary, because they meet words they would rarely hear or use in everyday speech. The framework also considers the role of poetry, rhymes and songs in attuning young children to the sounds of language. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-reading-framework-teaching-the-foundations-of-literacy https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/664f600c05e5fe28788fc437/The_reading_framework_.pdf
• Department for Education, Early years foundation stage statutory framework for group and school-based providers — Literacy educational programme: it is crucial for children to develop a life-long love of reading; language comprehension starts from birth and only develops when adults talk with children about the world around them and the books (stories and non-fiction) they read with them, and enjoy rhymes, poems and songs together; reading frequently to children, and engaging them actively in stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems, then providing extensive opportunities to use and embed new words; listening to a broad selection of stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems will foster their understanding of our culturally, socially, technologically and ecologically diverse world. ELG Comprehension: use and understand recently introduced vocabulary during discussions about stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-foundation-stage-framework--2
• Ofsted, Best start in life part 3: the 4 specific areas of learning (8 October 2024) — Literacy: stories, rhymes and songs help with children’s language and vocabulary development and also develop children’s emotional understanding; the language of high-quality picture books is significantly more complex than everyday adult speech to young children; fostering a love of books means choosing carefully for the quality of the language and for a range of stories, poems, songs and non-fiction texts; shared-reading interventions can have a significant, substantial and positive impact on young children’s oral language skills and print knowledge (National Early Literacy Panel, cited). Understanding the world educational programme highlights listening to a broad selection of stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/best-start-in-life-a-research-review-for-early-years/best-start-in-life-part-3-the-4-specific-areas-of-learning
• Ofsted, Research review series: English (15 July 2022) — Language comprehension and composition can be developed through a literature-rich environment, for example through interactions between adults and children and by listening to, talking about and learning by heart stories, poems, rhymes and songs. During story time, the books that teachers and parents read to children develop their language knowledge. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/curriculum-research-review-series-english/curriculum-research-review-series-english

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