Best-Selling Nonfiction Books to Inspire Lesson Planning
Having a diverse selection of nonfiction books in your classroom library is a great way for students to build a wealth of knowledge during independent reading. But these same books are also a wonderful resource for teachers to tap when they want to develop lessons that will empower and engage their students throughout the school year. By drawing inspiration from nonfiction books, you’ll find that introducing key concepts in your lessons will feel more natural and that your lessons will resonate with students more deeply.
If you’re looking for the perfect nonfiction book to kick off a science, math, or social studies lesson, or even a writing workshop focused on memoirs, check out these 10 popular titles teachers just like you choose for their classroom library.
If you’re introducing students to the life cycle of a butterfly, this book for young readers is filled with informative facts they should know. Pair it with a butterfly life cycle craft to give kids a chance to show off what they’ve learned.
This book gives your students a glimpse into the wild world of tigers as it discusses their physical characteristics, behavior, habitat, life cycle, endangered status, and other incredible facts students can use to hone their research skills.
Your students can investigate all the features of a nonfiction book—title page, table of contents, index, and picture glossary—as they learn fun facts about dolphins.
This book for beginning readers helps build skills through sight words and picture icons. It’s also a wonderful way to begin teaching your students about the rainforest and its inhabitants.
Practicing counting skills in your classroom? This National Geographic book helps students in grades PreK-2 sharpen their number recognition skills through observational learning.
If you’re teaching a unit on the Civil War and Reconstruction, or looking for an engaging way to discuss primary and secondary research, this thrilling account of the pursuit and capture of John Wilkes Booth incorporates research from rare archival material, obscure trial manuscripts, and interviews with relatives of the conspirators and the manhunters.
This book, lovingly written by Jackie Robinson’s daughter, gives students, especially those who are fans of baseball, a closer look at a dedicated civil rights activist through personal letters and photos from the Robinson family archives.
Feeling inspired? Now it’s time to translate and organize all your ideas into a structured lesson plan that meets your curriculum requirements. This in-depth sample lesson plan on mythology, adapted from The New Teacher's Complete Sourcebook: Middle School by Paula Naegle, outlines everything you need to know to create an effective lesson for your students.