Nonfiction strategies

Our class loves author Nic Bishop! We have been noticing his "fingerprints" that interest, entertain, and fascinate readers. His books have been great anchor texts for exploring how to save important information and to think more deeply about nonfiction. One of my students decided he doesn't use headings because he wants readers to really think about the main ideas on each page without just giving them away:) His photography has our class hooked. 

Below are some strategies our readers have been focusing on to comprehend nonfiction (copied from our class news...)

Zoom in: Readers preview non fiction by zooming in on text features such as a title, table of contents, captions, headings, charts, photographs, etc

Activate schema: Readers think about what they already know about a topic before they read. This will help them understand the information

Read in chunks: Readers can read small chunks of non fiction to get information about a topic or a question they have. Nonfiction can be read out of order depending on what specific information the learner is looking for.

Turn headings into questions: Readers can turn a heading into a question to focus their thinking to find specific information about a topic.

Pause to SAVE: Readers pause as they read to SAVE important information. They can use boxes to locate main ideas and jot bullets underneath to write down important information.

Pause to THINK: Readers pause to think about what they have just read. They ask questions, make predictions, infer meaning to unknown words or ideas, connect to what they already know, etc

Determine important vs interesting information: Readers have to read and think about what is important to know vs what is interesting to know. We learned that many authors put interesting or fascinating facts in a book to make it entertaining for the reader.

Think about text structure: Text structure is the way a book is organized, the bones of the text. Think about text structure helps readers organize how they jot notes about a book, or determine important information. Some commons types of text structure are description, sequential, cause and effect, problem and solution, compare and contrast. Many books include more than one text structure for readers to notice.

Tune in to key words: Readers notice key words that are important about a topic they are reading.

Our next goal is to start sharing what we are learning from nonfiction with each other through our class blog and conversations with peers and family at home. We think readers need to share the exciting things they are learning with one another to help our important thinking grow!