Christine A. Elmore
To help students gain familiarity with the features of nonfiction texts, we will begin with the shared reading of nonfiction 'big books'. In a shared reading experience it is the teacher who takes the lead in talking about reading strategies one uses when reading the text, in leading the class in a whole group read-aloud of particular pages, in pointing out vocabulary that warrants further clarification, and in modeling a think-aloud where she as the reader thinks out loud as she attempts to make meaning from the text. It is also a time to demonstrate how to use various nonfiction features in the book like the table of contents, the index or the use of captions. As students gain more confidence, individuals can be called up to demonstrate how to use a particular feature to get information. Nancy Boyles in her book,
Constructing Meaning
maintains that there are strategies that one can teach students to use to improve their comprehension of informational texts. They include connecting, picturing, wondering, figuring out and noticing. Along with these strategies come specific questions to elicit each strategy. Questions like:
What will I learn from this text?
What do I already know about this subject?
What are some questions this text will answer?
What are some clues (i.e., subheadings, bold print, side bars) that might help me?
What details do I notice in the diagrams, charts or pictures provided?
Will this text be easy or hard to read? (Boyles 2004)
Providing students with such strategy support before, during and after their reading can significantly improve their comprehension of the content. The goal is to teach the students to become active and engaged readers. Lesson Plan Two, using a big book, will show this procedure in greater detail. The bibliography also includes additional nonfiction big books ideal for this purpose.
Reading nonfiction requires a much different approach than reading fiction. Boyles warns that "readers who simply 'dive in' to informational text without a plan, without conscious consideration of what the task involves, are likely to have trouble comprehending the material" (Boyles 2004, p. 87). It is important to point out to the students that when reading informational texts, you don't read a book from cover to cover as you would a fiction text. Rather, you skim and search for sections of information relevant to your research. Using both the table of contents and the index aid this process. After laying the foundation for reading nonfiction texts, we will move on to the writing of informational texts or as Calkins and Pessah refer to them, 'all-about' books.