Making Sense of Nonfiction

Strategies for Understanding Non-Fiction

• Turning Headings into Questions

• Previewing Texts• Paired Reading• Reader’s Theater• Marking and Thinking

• Making Inferences• It Says…I Say…and So…• Summarizing

– GIST– Magnet Summaries– Somebody Wanted But

So…

Making Sense of Nonfiction

• “Teachers must give students the tools to make meaning from text. Teachers cannot take it for granted that students come to school equipped with good comprehension skills. Therefore, it is imperative that teachers model thinking aloud and give students multiple opportunities to develop and use comprehension skills.”– Sara Shoob and Cynthia Stout, Teaching Social Studies

Today

Turning Headings Into Questions

• Gives students a purpose for reading.• Pre-reading strategy• Draws on interests and makes students

active participants in their own learning.

Turning Headings into Questions

• Third Grade Teacher• Non-fiction trade book on ancient

Greece…• One chapter – “Athena’s City”

Athena’s City

• Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How…– Who was Athena?– What city was named after her? – Why would a city be called Athena’s City?

Your Turn

• Welcome to Kaya’s World• The Oregon Trail• Wake Up, World!• In the Promised Land

Previewing Texts

• Textbooks are often overwhelming.• Text supports to help students comprehend –

– Headings– Subheadings– Visuals and Pictures– Timelines– Focus Questions– Introductions– Keywords in bold, italics, or color

Previewing the Textbook

• Blank template of the introductory page of a textbook chapter

• Empty boxes or drawings of main features

• Might include a sidebar for vocabulary, timeline, etc.

Previewing Text

• Video Clip– Anita Archer

Paired Reading

• NO ROUND ROBIN!!!• Paired Reading

– One partner reads– One partner summarizes– Switch roles

Paired Reading

• Reading Triads– One partner reads– One partner summarizes– One partner asks questions– Switch roles

Paired Reading

• Video Clip

Reader’s Theater

• Builds fluency• Build confidence for reading while

learning social studies content• Students write their own scripts and

perform them for the class.

Readers Theater

• Historical documents or text are provided to read and interpret

• Provide reading materials that present two viewpoints for comparison and contrast

• Provide students with guiding questions and a clear format to follow…

Readers Theater

• Click, Clack, Moo…

Marking and Thinking

• Textbooks and expository text include a great amount of information…

• Very challenging for students to choose what is important and what is supporting information…– Important to constantly revisit this skill…

Marking and Thinking

• Interactive way of having students make connections, determine important information, look for interesting information, and ask questions…

Marking and Thinking

• Code – –+ This reminds me of…

–* Important information

–! Wow! Interesting information

–? I don’t understand

Making Inferences

• Textbooks and expository text require students to use skills of analysis and to make inferences

• “Inferential thinking occurs when text clues merge with the reader’s prior knowledge and questions to point toward a conclusion about the underlying theme or idea in the text.”

Making Inferences

• Important to model making inferences…– “When the light in the lighthouse burned out, the darkness was total.” What

inferences about time can you make? Are there other inferences that can be made?

– “With bellows, a roaring fire, and anvil ready, the apprentice was able to begin the task.” What inferences can be made about occupations or pastimes?

– “In the morning, we noticed that the trees were uprooted and homes were missing their rooftops.” What cause/effect inferences can you make?

– “The side of his face was swollen, and his tooth ached.” What types of problem/solution inferences are possible?

– “While the soldiers marched by, people cheered and had tears in their eyes.” What types of feelings and attitudes can you infer?

It Says…I Say…and So…

• Visual scaffold to teach the skill of making inferences

• Model and revisit this frequently.• Key is good questioning…

Summarizing

• One of the most difficult skills for students to learn – – GIST – Magnet Summaries

GIST

• Look for important information, eliminate unimportant information, remove redundancies, and write a brief summary of 20 words or less.

• Focus on who, what, when, where, how, and why?

Magnet Summaries

• Magnets attract metal objects, so do magnets attract key information

Somebody Wanted But So

• Good for summarizing an event in history

• Determine who the Somebody is and…• What the Somebody wanted…• What happened to keep them from what they wanted

goes in the BUT column…• How it all worked out goes in the So column…