MW Substack 034: Nonfiction & difficult text
Many of today's students struggle with in-school assignments that require them to read “hard” nonfiction text. Here are some things we can do.
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►NONFICTION & DIFFICULT TEXT
Students will always have a need to read challenging content.
In this era of texting, Shorts and Reels, do your students sometimes struggle with in-school assignments that require them to read “hard” nonfiction text, full of academic words and concepts you expect them to learn?
“Reading nonfiction well is an important skill,” writes principal and former school librarian Rita Platt in her MiddleWeb article, “How We Get Kids to Read Hard Nonfiction.” “No matter what the future brings to our students, one thing is for sure: it will bring nonfiction text. In school, career, and general daily life, there will always be a need to read nonfiction proficiently.”
Would nonfiction text be less hard if we expected students read more of it?
In the MiddleWeb post “Five Kinds of Nonfiction: A New Way of Thinking,” children’s author Melissa Stewart targets a common practice in K-8 reading – the heavy emphasis on narrative fiction and nonfiction. This reduces opportunities for students to grapple with fact-focused, expository content, says Stewart, including books that “help students recognize patterns, think by analogy, and engage in big picture thinking.”
The authors featured in this week’s MiddleWeb Substack examine nonfiction reading in a variety of ways, across the content areas. The topics we’ve selected include strengthening academic vocabulary; choosing engaging nonfiction that supplements and supports academic texts; and applying innovative scaffolding strategies that help students extract key ideas and information.
Browse the brief descriptions below and click on the titles you’d like to explore further!
3 Questions We Can Ask about Informational Texts
Asking three basic questions can help middle grades readers connect with informational texts and make sense of their meaning. Literacy consultant Sunday Cummins describes several classroom-tested steps that can aid students in identifying and analyzing new information in nonfiction material.
Helping Long-Term ELs Master Academic Texts
To help long-term English learners meet reading comprehension challenges, language specialist Tan Huynh shares strategies to use before reading, during reading, and after reading so that multilinguals have the scaffolding they need to read grade-level texts with understanding.
Teach Your Students to ‘Explode’ Complex Text
Literacy specialist Sunday Cummins shares her “explode to explain” technique, using a Newsela story about shark-spotting aerial drones along the beaches of Australia. It’s one more tool to help students develop a skill set for understanding and retaining informational text.
Try Nonfiction Graphic Novels to Engage Kids
Be ready to share nonfiction graphic novels with your students this fall. ELA teacher Kasey Short outlines reasons such books expand kids’ knowledge and appreciation of reading. She also provides questions to ask as kids approach the novels and includes suggested titles.
A Tool to Help Students Read a (Resource) Book
How can history students use resource books more effectively in their research papers? Taking a cue from a staff meeting, Sarah Cooper devised a handout to help 8th graders quickly scope out a nonfiction book and find stories and quotes to enliven their papers. It worked!
Use THIEVES to Grab Nonfiction Readers
When students get beyond their initial engagement in high-interest topics this fall, they will need strategies to empower their reading experience. Literacy coach Sunday Cummins suggests a mnemonic tool to help nonfiction readers make informed predictions: T.H.I.E.V.E.S!
6 Ways to Help Students Soak Up Difficult Texts
To make sure social studies content reading is accessible to all of her students, no matter their level of reading when they arrive, Megan Kelly has added strategies to her literacy toolbox to create entry points for everyone. See the six activities she’s developed so far.
A Tool to Help Students Navigate Difficult Text
Students who struggle with academic reading can benefit from “a compass of sorts” to help them navigate texts. To accomplish this, educator Ron Klemp developed a four-step quickwrite protocol that’s been “extremely effective” in boosting their engagement and understanding.
Tips to Finding Engaging Cross-Curricular Texts
Whatever classes you teach, it can be a tremendous challenge to find engaging texts that help students develop key literacy skills. Teacher educator Curtis Chandler offers resources to find nonfiction texts online and, if needed, ready them for students with assists from AI.
25 Words That Trigger Student Understanding
Brain and learning expert Marilee Sprenger highlights 25 high-frequency academic words often found in nonfiction books and articles. “I call these words ‘essential’ because knowing and using them can boost academic success and lifelong learning.” Are they on your vocab list?
How to Nurture a Passion for Reading Nonfiction
What can we do to encourage kids to choose nonfiction more frequently for personal enjoyment? Cate Gerard and Sunday Cummins share what Cate discovered when interviewing middle graders about their reading habits and recommend class and virtual strategies and resources.
“Anne Jolly’s STEM by Design is an accessible and worthwhile read you’ll want to keep handy throughout the year. It’s clearly written and full of actionable advice…a practical guide to designing effective STEM experiences in the middle school classroom.” – Read science teacher Heidi Braden’s complete review.
►ELSEWHERE
We are naturally inclined to find information fascinating.
“Outside of the classroom, one of the most common motives for seeking out an informational text is the desire to solve a problem. Too often, though, students are simply answering text-dependent questions that do little more than test comprehension. What if we started informational reading with student inquiry?” This 10-year old Edutopia article, 8 Strategies to Keep Informational Reading Fun by John Spencer, still has a lot to offer on the subject of motivation and nonfiction text.
►OUR BOOK REVIEW
Reading, talking, and writing about content-area text.
Sunday Cummins’ book Nurturing Informed Thinking is filled with practical and inspiring ideas to help students integrate multiple texts about a nonfiction topic. Both content area and ELA teachers will find this book a valuable resource, writes middle school reading specialist and social studies teacher Mary K. Marsh. Read the complete review.
The contrast between Shorts/Reels and dense nonfiction is stark. Students are trained to proces information in 30 second bursts, then we ask them to sustain focus through complex arguments with unfamiliar vocabulary. The five minute format for this Substack is smart, it meets educators where they actualy have time to read. Do you find that teachers are more receptive to shorter curated content versus longer pedagogical pieces?