Blog 9: Non-fiction in the classroom

An example of a non-fiction graphic organizer

I never realized what went into teaching how to read and write in the informational genre. After doing a lot of research for my genre expert project, I realized that there is a lot that teachers have to do in order to make sure that their students are able to read and understand all the information that is being presented in non-fiction books. I know for me, when I first started thinking about the genre, I thought it was about being able to pull facts out about the topic. In fact, in elementary school we used to read non-fiction books and then fill out a graphic organizer with all the facts that we learned while reading. We were taught to read the book like it was like every other genre we have been reading.

One activity that I do remember is an activity that Tompkins (2019) mentions within the informational chapter of her book. This activity has the students comparing how nonfiction books are similar/ different than fiction books.  We would use this activity as an intro into the unit since it helped us to understand that fiction was a story and nonfiction was facts. I now know that is not true! Non-fiction books can still have a setting, characters and tell a story while still giving you facts about a topic.  

(Tompkins, 2019, p. 235)

I feel like teachers don’t spend enough time teaching students how text features help them read and understand the text. Tompkins says that non-fiction books tend to have unique text features in them such as table of contents, headings, subheadings, margin notes, photos, and charts.  She says that “their purpose is to make the text easier to read and understand” (Tompkins, 2019, p. 223). I will be the first to admit that when I was reading a non-fiction book, I would skim over the page and not read half the text that was there. I never learned how important it was to look at all the features as you are reading.  I didn’t take the time to read the heading, sub headings and margin noted to know what the page was going to be about instead I just read the text that was on the page.

There can be a lot of information within these books that it is hard to know where to start. While researching the non-fiction genre, I found an article that gives teachers strategies on how they can teach their students to read this genre.  Courtney Shimek (2019) gives us 5 different strategies to help teach students to read and understand non-fiction picture books. They are; “ 

• Strategy 1:Read the Pictures
• Strategy 2: Track the Words
• Strategy 3: Focus on the Medium
• Strategy 4: Analyze the Back Matter and Peritextual features
•  Strategy 5: Highlight the Text in Visual Elements                                          “(Shimek, 2019, p. 520-521).

By reading the same book 5 different times, you are paying attention to a different detail each time. This helps for the students to see why it is so important for them to stop and read the headings and subheadings before they read the actual text on the page.  Depending on the age of the students in the class, you might want to split the strategies up so that you are modeling a different one each day.

In elementary school and even now days, I will choose to read a fiction book before choosing a nonfiction book. I feel like there is a stigma around non-fiction books that keeps students from not wanting to read them. Students tend to think that they are only supposed to read non-fiction when they are in the classroom and when they are doing research. They feel like they should be taking notes on every page rather than just enjoying just reading the book. When I look in a classroom library, I tend to see more fiction books on display for the students to see while the small selection of non-fiction books are tucked in a basket in the back. It is time that we change how we teach and use non-fiction books. Students need to see that they can read a non-fiction book whenever they want to and that there is no assignment that goes along with it. When I have my classroom, I’m going to make sure that I am displaying and reading both fiction and non-fiction books. I want to see students being excited to read non-fiction stories.

Shimek, C. (2019).  Sites of synergy: Strategies for readers navigating nonfiction picture books. The Reading Teacher, 72(4), 519-522.

Tompkins, G. E.  (2019). Teaching writing:  Balancing process and product (7^th ed.).  Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Merrill.