Reading and writing about interesting topics is engaging to students and their curiosity about a topic makes them more persistent, active, and engaged. Here are some ideas that promote students to become confident readers and writers of nonfiction (Duke, 2013; Pilonieta, 2011).
Research
Creating confident readers, writers and evaluators of non-fiction is a primary goal in the Virginia English Standards of Learning. As noted by Duke (2013), at all grade levels the standards require teachers to teach all students to read fluently and to comprehend a variety of fiction and nonfiction selections. That focus demands high expectations and the research supports the ability of students to meet these expectations.
Application
Reading and writing about interesting topics is engaging to students and their curiosity about a topic makes them more persistent, active, and engaged. Here are some ideas that promote students to become confident readers and writers of nonfiction (Duke, 2013; Pilonieta, 2011).
Encourage readers to select nonfiction during independent reading.
- Provide lots of nonfiction books!!! About half the books in the classroom collection should be made up of expository text, including biographies. Keep in mind that the majority of reading instruction is currently conducted with narrative selections in basal readers. Consequently, classroom libraries should include lots of high quality expository text. And, students are more likely to choose nonfiction books if they are displayed at or below eye-level. Include sets of texts about a topic including fiction/nonfiction text pairs.
- Read and recommend!!! Books that teachers read aloud or recommend to students are chosen more often by students for their self-selected reading. Provide high quality choices. Visit the website of the National Council of Teachers of English who sponsor the Orbis Pictus Award for outstanding nonfiction and also supplies lists of outstanding books along with lesson plans for teaching nonfiction.
Teach students to read nonfiction explicitly. Teach students that nonfiction is read differently than fiction.
- Talk about text! The most common text types are description, sequence, compare and contrast, and cause/effect. Teach students the key words associated with these text types (i.e., Compare/ Contrast: alike, both, however, but, etc.).
- Use the right graphic organizer! Match the graphic organizer to the text. Use the chart found here to develop an organizer; create organizers using the SmartArt feature on your MSword processing program.
Writing Assignments. Assign writing assignments that require students to include text features (table of contents, captions, glossary, index). Provide signal word banks and graphic organizers.
Resources
- The Text Project website provides a variety of strategies and tools along with downloadable text sets.
- Crafting Nonfiction: Lessons on Writing Process, Traits, and Craft by Linda Hoyt, available in the TTAC ODU Lending Library.
Reference
Duke, N. K. (2013). Starting out practices to use in k-3. Educational Leadership, 71(3), 40.
Pilonieta, P. (2011). The expository text primer: A teacher’s resource guide for using expository text. New England Reading Association Journal, 46(2), 45-51.
Footer
