participate fully in the task. Theory/Research Practice: (Why are the learning tasks of this lesson appropriate for • your students?): According to the findings of Lev Vygotsky, social contact is imperative for intellectual development. Therefore, students will be given opportunities to work together in whole class and small groups to discuss their findings and their observations, and socially interact with their peers throughout the learning experience. John Dewey also believed that social interaction is an imperative part of the learning process as well as the utilization of hands-on learning. Through this task, students are able to interact with the books, and experience the learning for themselves as opposed to simply being told about the different features of a non-fiction text. Link to Prior Knowledge: Students have been exposed to many types of texts • throughout their lives, but as they are emergent readers there has been more of a deliberate and explicit teaching of the different types of texts. Primarily, students are exposed to fiction texts, and are asked many clarifying and comprehension-based questions about whether or not they feel the story they are reading is real or fake. This introduction to fiction and non-fiction texts will serve to be helpful in the learning experience. Essential Questions: • In what ways can we use books to help us find information? o Does every book provide us with true information about a topic? o What is the difference between fiction and non-fiction? o Instructional Strategies & Learning Tasks: • Step 1: To begin the activity, students will participate in a whole group activity o where they will be asked the essential questions about books, their purposes, how they can help us to find information, and the difference between a fiction and non-fiction text. Step 2: Through a Smartboard presentation, students will be presented with o nine features found in non-fiction texts: Title Page, Table of Contents, Captions, Photographs, Labeled Diagrams, Glossary, Index, More Information, and Bolded Words. Step 3: Students will break up into three, teacher-led groups where they will o explore non-fiction texts on different topics and find parts that each text has in common. Step 4: Students will use the new terms presented on the Smartboard o presentation about the nine features of a non-fiction text to go on a scavenger hunt. Each student will be given a non-fiction book, a pencil and post-it notes. Students must label the post-it notes and place them appropriately throughout their books to label the different parts. Students with special needs, or who require more support will be given the opportunity to work in a small group with a teacher or they will be able to complete the task with a partner. While students are engaged in their scavenger hunt, the teacher will walk around to make sure each student is labeling appropriately, and using the Smartboard as a resource to guide them through finding the different features of the text. Step 5: Students will return to a whole-group meeting with their labeled books o to discuss their findings, and to see the similarities between non-fiction texts. The teacher will explicitly explain that even though there are many different