Why Teach Nonfiction Reading Strategies
Why Teach Nonfiction? Some solid reasons to teach kids to read nonfiction include the following:
1. Nonfiction is the key to success in school. Beginning in primary grades, students need exposure to nonfiction texts to help them succeed in both reading and writing.
2. As adults they will read mostly nonfiction.
3. Kids like nonfiction. You can greatly affect the attitudes of your students toward reading by including exciting nonfiction in your classroom library and by teaching specific lessons on nonfiction.
4. Nonfiction appeals to students’ interests. Allow students to read about nonfiction topics they are interested in to increase their motivation and reasons for reading!
5. Informational text builds background and vocabulary. When students read about a wide variety of topics, they build their background knowledge about the world around them. Nonfiction reading also strengthens vocabulary knowledge.
To increase comprehension of non-fiction expository text, teachers need to provide:
1. Nonfiction is the key to success in school. Beginning in primary grades, students need exposure to nonfiction texts to help them succeed in both reading and writing.
2. As adults they will read mostly nonfiction.
3. Kids like nonfiction. You can greatly affect the attitudes of your students toward reading by including exciting nonfiction in your classroom library and by teaching specific lessons on nonfiction.
4. Nonfiction appeals to students’ interests. Allow students to read about nonfiction topics they are interested in to increase their motivation and reasons for reading!
5. Informational text builds background and vocabulary. When students read about a wide variety of topics, they build their background knowledge about the world around them. Nonfiction reading also strengthens vocabulary knowledge.
To increase comprehension of non-fiction expository text, teachers need to provide:
- explicit instruction on how expository text is structured.
- models of "what good readers do" to get information from expository text.
- opportunities for practice so that ELLs can identify and interact with the text
- opportunities for peer interaction with the content of the text in order to increase comprehension.
- Check out this link for more information. http://www.readingrockets.org/article/increasing-ell-student-reading-comprehension-non-fiction-text