Activating Comprehension:

Non-Fiction in the Classroom

E D U CATO R S P U B L I S H I N G S E R V I C E
by Carol Einstein

C
omprehension is the reason for reading. According the same way about places and events. Get your students
to Put Reading First: The Research Blocks for interested in current events or neighborhood or city issues,
Teaching Children to Read, good readers are and then you will see that historical places and events gain
purposeful and active, but it is often difficult to earn and new significance, a new life.
maintain a student’s interest in a text. One of the best
ways to engage students in reading and learning is through So how can you use nonfiction to develop comprehension
nonfiction. Much research has been done on why and how skills? The vitally important first step is for you to show
students can best comprehend a text, but less has been said and share your enthusiasm not only for the person, place,
about what kinds of texts can best aid the development of or event you’re going to read about, but also for the activity
comprehension skills. Besides the usual trade book, basal of reading itself. Research shows that motivated teachers
reader, or magazine article, there are many other texts on motivate children. Modeling enthusiasm and appreciation
many interesting topics, an endless variety of people, places, for reading is ever important in teaching children to enjoy
and things to read about. Nonfiction can help students learn reading and developing students’ literacy horizons. You need
to read purposefully and actively, to develop strategies, to to be a cheerleader for your subject.
interact directly with a text—while exploring new people
and places, investigating new ideas about the world around The next step is pre-reading. Before your students begin
them. reading a text, introduce any challenging vocabulary in
advance. The National Reading Panel (2000) reports that
Luckily, I had parents who were always telling me the complex process of reading comprehension can not
interesting stories about people, places, and historical events. be understood without “a clear description of the role
Unfortunately, in our hectic world parents don’t always have that vocabulary development and vocabulary instruction
time to tell stories. As teachers, we can make these stories play in the understanding of what has been read.” We all
of positive role models and significant events a dynamic know from our own experience that sometimes one can
part of the curriculum. When I started teaching reading understand the meaning of a word through its context, but
comprehension, many of my students said they wished there often one cannot, especially if it is a content-area word in
were more books about women who had lived long ago. a content area with which one is not familiar. Before your
Then my students told me that they would like some stories class reads a story about women workers of World War II,
about men, too, and about people living right now who had you should pre-read the text and record the challenging
made a difference in the world. words: discrimination, distract, welding, riveter, and foundry.
Write them on the board and pronounce them clearly. Then
When I first started planning my biography series, I thought ask if anyone knows what they mean. If no one does, write
all my subjects would be deceased. After all it’s easier for the the definition. In the Claims to Fame and Einstein’s Who,
author; no one will pop up and question you, and there will What, and Where series, vocabulary words and definitions
be no unpleasant surprises. But after talking to a number of follow the passage. It is helpful to model these words in a
children I decided that half the subjects in my books should sentence or have students create sentences using the new
be living. To a second, third, or even fourth grader, fifty words. The larger the reader’s vocabulary, the easier it is to
years might as well be several hundred. And when asked, fully understand a text (NRP, 2000).
most children will tell you that they much prefer reading
about something that is happening now, not something that In order to help develop automaticity, I like to create
happened long ago. I also found that once students become personal word boxes, small file boxes of word cards, for my
interested in reading about living people, they are more students. Students give the definition of the word on the
willing to read about an important person of the past. I feel card and use the word in a sentence five times in a row. If

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 the student can do this correctly, I put a checkmark on the You can use the K-W-L strategy before, during, and after
card. When the student gets five checkmarks in a row, I say reading. You might want to ask some children to read their
that the word is automatic, and it’s placed at the back of the answers aloud. Demonstrate how you would answer such
file box in an “automatic” section to be reviewed later on. questions and verbalize your thought processes. Once your
My students are very proud of their boxes and many of them students have learned this strategy through modeling and
don’t want to discard their automatic words. They save them practice, you can have them work in small groups, in pairs,
from year to year as they become more and more fluent and or individually, and apply it to all kinds of texts.
better able to comprehend and appreciate what they read.
Remember that text comprehension is both purposeful and
Teachers need to make students active participants in active. With high-interest nonfiction texts and strategies
the learning process right from the beginning. The most such as K-W-L, we give students a purpose for reading
effective way is by personalizing the assignment, and one of and learning. We also must encourage our students to
the most effective methods for achieving this, as reporting in be active readers in order to achieve their purpose, to get
Reading First, is by engaging the students’ prior knowledge. the very most from a text, and we can do this by teaching
The K-W-L model developed by Donna Ogle is an excellent them specific strategies proven to increase comprehension
strategy to use when reading nonfiction texts. This three- (Armbruster et al., 2000; Snow, 2000). The National
step process asks the students: Reading Panel (2000) outlines the most important of these
scientifically-proven strategies, including:
• What do you know?
• comprehension monitoring
• What do you want to know?
• summarizing
• What did you learn?
• question answering
Before students read a story, ask them what they know about
the subject. If you are reading about Jerry Yang, the founder • question generating
of Yahoo!, ask your students what they know about searching
Monitoring one’s own comprehension is a difficult task
the Internet. Next, ask them what they would like to know
because it involves metacognition, or thinking about one’s
about it. After you have read the story, ask them to recall
thought process. This strategy involves all the stages of
what they have just learned. These are crucial exercises to
reading, from thinking about what you already know about
help engage students in the subject matter, and modeling
the subject, to adjusting your reading speed of the text, to
is extremely important in K-W-L. Think aloud so your
“fixing-up” any problems that you encounter as you try to
students can listen to your exact thinking process. Provide
understand what you have read. One monitoring approach
questions for the students to consider. In Claims to Fame
that has worked well with my students is coding. Encourage
and Einstein’s Who, What, and Where, I have provided some
students to mark-up their texts: put a check next to parts
model questions for students to ask themselves before they
they find interesting and a question mark next to something
even begin reading. Before students read the story about
they don’t understand. Students can put a star beside
women during World War II, I ask “What have you done
important ideas and write in the margin about why the ideas
to help your community or your country?” Before students
are important.
read about the transcontinental railroad, I ask “Why is
it important for a country to have a good transportation
Modeling is a very important step in teaching the skill of
system?” Before they read a passage about the battle to
active reading. I suggest you read aloud from a transparency
end segregation, I ask “When you see something unfair
text and think-aloud as your students follow in their books.
happening, what do you do?” Activating prior knowledge of
As you read, model how to monitor your comprehension
the subject not only makes students think about what they
and interact with the text by coding it.
are about to read, but also helps teachers understand and
appreciate what each child brings to the reading experience. Another proven strategy is summarizing. Encourage
students to pause after they are through reading to think
about what they have just read. Ask them to retell the story.

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 If they have trouble recalling what they read, they should and Goudvis, 2000). The task of determining importance
reread the story again, this time more slowly and actively, and finding answers go hand in hand, and can often cause
monitoring their comprehension along the way. If students difficulty for some students. Fortunately, there are several
have difficultly recalling the entire passage, have them strategies students can use to help in the task. Encourage
pause mid-text (or after every paragraph if the student is your students to look carefully at the first and last lines of
still struggling) and have them summarize the text up to each paragraph, which often contain important information.
that point. You might have students write their summaries Train your students to pay attention to and code any
down, as this often helps them retain the information. information that takes them by surprise, as it is probably
Have students share their information with a partner or new or important. Nonfiction texts often contain cues that
the reading group. Some students may have recalled an will signal important information. Encourage your students
important element that another student has missed. to look carefully for the following signals.

One of the most important components of effective • italic or bold print

instruction in reading comprehension is questioning. As
• cue words or phrases such as for example, for instance,
they read, students should be self-monitoring by questioning
most important, therefore, on the other hand, etc.
themselves about the text as well as questioning the author.
Asking questions helps them to focus, understand, and • illustrations and photographs
remember the text. Questioning is also one of the only ways
to assess comprehension, and achievement tests attach very It is also worthwhile to teach the specific expository patterns
high stakes to students’ ability to find answers in a text. that nonfiction forms can take: cause and effect, problem
Even when the specific goal of the test is to assess knowledge and solution, comparison and contrast, etc. Students will be
in the content areas, says a report by Catherine Snow able to find and construct meaning more easily when they
(2000), the tests actually reflect a student’s skills in reading are familiar with the structure and know what to expect of
comprehension. the text, whether it is a trade book or textbook, a newspaper
article or a standardized test passage.
Students are expected to answer questions that require
knowledge of detail, sequence, main idea, and inference. Because nonfiction often follows a specific expository
Teachers should understand the strategies that help students pattern, it can also be used to spark students’ writing
understand how and where to find these answers in a text, skills. If a person, place, or event interests your students,
and then to express their answers in a clear, effective way encourage them to further explore the topic in writing. In
that demonstrates what they have learned. One of the most Einstein’s Who, What, and Where, writing exercises follow the
important purposes for reading nonfiction is to answer passage and comprehension questions. After a passage about
specific questions (Harvey and Goudvis, 2000). the Great Wall of China, I ask students to imagine they are
a reporter working on an article for a travel magazine. After
I always ask my students to write answers that are a passage about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
complete sentences, as it provides context to and helps I ask students to compile a bill of students’ rights, sequence
them remember their answers. I always also stress how them in order of their importance, and write a letter to the
important it is for the students to look back at the passage school board persuading them to accept the bill. After a
for the answer to a particular question, then underline or passage about Gabriel Garcia Marquez, I ask students to
highlight the exact information if it is a detail question, or write a story in which magical things happen in everyday
the information needed to infer an answer. Searching a text life.
for information is a skill that students will use throughout
their lifetimes, not to mention when reading passages for Nonfiction is often an excellent way to introduce and
information on standardized tests. develop language and critical thinking skills, essential
components of good reading comprehension. When my
In order to find answers within a text, it is important students read about Jerry Yang in Claims to Fame Book 2,
to teach students to distinguish between essential and they learn that he used categories to build his search engine.
nonessential information. This strategy of “determining After this passage, the students categorize items as states,
importance” is best introduced with nonfiction (Harvey insects, or jewelry. Your students can do this individually,

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 with partners, or in small groups. You can develop extension incorporated in the classroom, in small cooperative groups,
activities that require students to place items in categories or in remedial situations, where students can explore a text
they create themselves, compose tables and charts in a word and employ these ever important strategies one-on-one with
processing document, or study and map the categories on their instructors.
the Yahoo! pages.
Emily Dickinson once said “There is no frigate like a book
Nonfiction texts can help encourage our students to think to take us lands away.” This is certainly true of fiction, but
about the words they use in their own writing, to be precise it is also true of nonfiction. There is something very special
writers, and to vary their word usage. After all, there are about a real person, place, or event. It happened. It is the
many more interesting and exact adjectives besides good truth. Nonfiction gives children knowledge. And knowledge
or bad. After a passage about Ferdinand Magellan, I ask gives children dreams.
students to provide four adjectives to describe him and three
other important figures in the text. Exercises in important About The Author
language concepts such as synonyms and antonyms, Carol Einstein received her M.A. and M.Ed. from Columbia
homophones, homographs, similes and metaphors, and University and has significant experience as an educator
idioms and proverbs will deepen students’ appreciation of a in both public and private schools. She has taught second
text and help them become better readers and writers. grade, has worked as a reading specialist for grades 1–7, and
is now an educational therapist. Her publications include
Nonfiction studies are inherently cross-curricular, and have Reading for Content; Claims to Fame; Einstein’s Who, What,
a place in almost every aspect of the curriculum, not just in and Where (Educators Publishing Service); and Be Your
reading. A passage about the Silk Road can be read in social Own Reading Specialist: A Guide for Teachers of Grades 1–3
studies class, Marie Sklodowska Curie in science, or Ludwig (Modern Learning Press).
van Beethoven in music. Guided by the careful modeling
of the teacher, nonfiction comprehension can be easily

References

Armbruster, B., Lehr, F., & Osborn, J. (2001). Put Reading First: Ogle, D. (1986). K-W-L: A teaching model that develops active
The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read. Jessup, reading of expository text. Reading Teacher, 39.6., 564-570.
MD: National Institute for Literacy.
Snow, Catherine. (2002). Reading for Understanding: Toward an
Harvey, S., Goudvis, A. (2000). Strategies that work: Teaching R&D Program in Reading Comprehension. Santa Monica, CA:
comprehension to enhance understanding. Portland, ME: Stenhouse RAND Reading Study Group.
Publishers.

National Reading Panel. (2000). Report of the National Reading

Panel: Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the
scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading
instruction. Washington, D.C.: National Institute of Child Health
and Human Development. National Institutes of Health.

This article originally appeared in the April aqq2003 issue of EPS Update, the
electronic newsletter from Educators Publishing Service. For more information, visit
www.epsbooks.com. For more information, call 1.800.225.5750.

© 2003 Educators Publishing Service, a division of Delta Education, LLC. Permission is

granted to reproduce this article.

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