Nonfiction Conventions: Braille and Large Print

I am the mother of a sweet and busy third grade boy named Liam. He is deafblind and a braille reader. I have been wanting to create a book for awhile now where the objective was to focus on the conventions of a nonfiction book. I wanted the conventions to be accessible to him and at his level. The “conventions” would include things that such as: Table of Contents, Glossary, page numbers, title, photographs/pictures, diagrams and labels. The books I created are simple and can be used as great first examples of those features. I was given the opportunity to create such a book when I volunteered to make a braille and large print book; both books would be about beavers (this was my first attempt at a large print book since my son is a braille reader). The books will be used for a “very cool” community project/activity for our local children with vision impairments that my son will be attending.

Objective One:
- The child will be able to locate and describe the following features of a nonfiction text: Table of Contents, Glossary, page numbers, title, photographs/pictures, diagrams and labels.
Objective Two:
- The child will be able to describe features, habitat and basic needs of a beaver.

Glossary:

Have a discussion about where the Glossary can be found and its purpose. In the braille book I added tactile ‘bullets’ to mark each new word, I also added a ‘bullet’ on the tab of the side of the book for easy identification of the glossary.

a glossary page in large print format — *Glossary in large print*

Page Number:

Locate all of the page numbers. Note how they are in the same location on every page.

a large print page with a page number on the lower right corner — *A page in large print featuring a page number in the lower right corner*

Title:

Locate the title of the book.

cover a book with a picture of a beaver and the title Beavers — *Cover a book with a drawing of a beaver and the title “Beavers*“

Photographs:

Have a discussion about photographs and pictures. Explore the tactile graphics in the braille book (or explore the enlarged pictures in the large print book).

a bunch of twigs arranged in the shape of a beaver dam with a braille and print text above it — *Tactile illustration of beaver dam made from twigs*

a black and white picture of a a beaver dam with large print text above it — *A black and white picture of a a beaver dam with large print text above it*

Labels:

Describe the purpose for labels. Explore the labels on the picture of the beaver. Trail the tactile lines to find the labels and what they are ‘pointing’ to.

a plush beaver tail with parts labeled in braille — *Tactile illustration of the beaver with braille labels*

a black and white drawing of a beaver with large print labels — *A black and white drawing of a beaver with large print labels*

A family friend who is a taxidermist generously donated some small animals and hides for me to use with my books for Liam. One of those animals happens to be a beaver!

a small beaver — *A small stuffed beaver*

Additional examples of conventions you could add to your nonfiction book or discussion:

captions
diagram
author
index
graphs
charts
bold print

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Nonfiction Conventions: Braille and Large Print

Tips to introduce nonfiction conventions, such as Table of Contents, Glossary, etc.