Spring 2008

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The Power of Non-Fiction Text

by Brenda Boreham

Information storybooks are just one aspect of the fastest growing genre in Canadian Children’s Literature for this decade—non-fiction text. A critical piece in any reading program, non-fiction text can be a powerful tool to motivate reluctant readers, to engage students in the inquiry process and to help children develop a sense of curiosity about the world around them. Happily, the list of masterfully written and illustrated Canadian titles just keeps growing. Depending on the teaching strategies used, most are adaptable across the grades.

A young child’s first reading experience usually includes number and alphabet books, fairy tales, poetry and rhymes as well as picture books. The reading experience expands to well-illustrated books with predictable text in the early primary years. By grade two or three, the child has become very familiar with the organization of fiction books. Teachers have taken the time to explicitly teach that works of fiction come from the author’s imagination. The child recognizes that they involve characters who engage in activities that unfold in a particular sequence (beginning, middle and end). Making predictions, connecting to the text, and identifying the main idea or theme in the story are all skills that have now been taught.

By late primary, the child has likely started to differentiate between fiction and non-fiction, and to realize that non-fiction text gives the reader factual information about a topic. Teachers may have taught the use of the table of contents and glossary to access information. It is often assumed that once the child is able to read fairly fluently, s/he can read non-fiction material without further support, but I believe that teaching skills specifically for reading non-fiction text is an important area that is sometimes overlooked.

The first skill that must be mastered is the ability to recognize non-fiction text. The following lessons contain some ideas for helping your students to determine the difference between fiction and non-fiction text. Using a variety of titles, these lessons could be repeated over a number of days or weeks, depending on the needs of the class.

For the purpose of these demonstration lessons, I have chosen Eagle Dreams and Welcome to the World of Eagles. My teaching buddy, Sue Thurmeier, and I have often used these books as part of our Canada Theme. We have compiled a list of other great titles for this theme that could be used in the following lessons. The bibliography is available free, online in pdf format at www.PacificEdgePublishing.com. Go to “Free Downloads,” scroll down to “Social Studies” and click on Canada Theme Bibliography.
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Welcome to the World of Eagles
by Diane Swanson
ISBN 1-55110-706-6
Genre: Non-fiction

Colourful photographs and an engaging writing style make this book an excellent source of information about Bald and Golden Eagles.
Eagle Dreams
by Sheryl McFarlane
ISBN 1-55143-016-9
Genre: Information storybook

This is the story of a young boy who finds an injured Bald Eagle in a field on his family’s farm. His father is reluctant to let the boy assume responsibility for the eagle’s care. Under the supervision of a vet, the recovery does take place and the healthy eagle is eventually returned to the wild. Beautifully illustrated by award winning artist Ron Lightburn, this book contains many details and facts about the majestic Bald Eagle.

Lesson 1
Goal: to identify the features of fiction text

Materials

• one copy of Eagle Dreams
• chart paper

Process

1. Show the cover of Eagle Dreams to the class. Discuss the picture and title with the students.
2. Have the students turn to a partner and talk about any connections that they can make to the picture or the title of the book.
3. Have some of the students report their connections to the class.
4. Repeat this process with a picture from the beginning, the middle and the end of the story.
5. Read the book to the class in small chunks. Stop to look at the pictures, discuss the content and make predictions about what will happen next.
6. Re-read the book, searching for the common features found in fiction text (characters, setting, problem, solution to the problem, story sequence, etc.). Record the findings on chart paper under the title: Fiction
   Reflection: Have you read any other fiction books with similar features?

Lesson 2
Goal: to identify the features of non-fiction text

Materials

• one copy of Welcome to the World of Eagles
• chart paper

Process

1. Show the cover of Welcome to the World of Eagles to the class. Discuss the illustration and title with the students.
2. Have the students turn to a partner and talk about any connections that they can make to the picture or the title of the book.
3. Have some of the students report their connections to the class.
4. Read the book in small chunks. Stop to look at the pictures, discuss the content and make predictions about what will happen next.
5. Re-read the book to identify some of the features of non-fiction text (table of contents, glossary, bold words, captions, labels, etc.). Record the findings on chart paper under the title: Non-fiction.
   Reflection: How was this book organized differently than Eagle Dreams?

Lesson 3
Goal: to find the similarities and differences between fiction and non-fiction text

Materials

• the charts from lessons 1 and 2
• a copy of a blank Venn diagram for each pair of students

Process

1. Review the information on the charts from Lessons 1 and 2.
2. Re-read the two books and add any new information to the charts.
3. Working in pairs, have the students complete a Venn diagram to compare the two books.
4. Have the students report out the information on their Venn diagrams to complete a class Venn on the chalkboard or chart paper.
   Reflection: What is different about fiction and non-fiction text?

Lesson 4
Goal: to distinguish between fiction and non-fiction text

Materials

• a collection of fiction and non-fiction books at a suitable reading level for the class (minimum two books per student)

Process

1. Have each student work with a partner to sort through the books and choose one fiction and one non-fiction book.
2. Have the partners report out to the class. They should show their book choices and explain which genre they belong to.
   Reflection: How do you know which category each book belongs in?

Lesson 5
Goal: to recognize some features of non-fiction text

Materials

• the same collection of fiction and non-fiction books used in Lesson 4
• sticky notes
• the Non-fiction chart compiled by the class in Lesson 2

Process

1. Have each pair of students choose one non-fiction book from the collection.
2. Have the students look through the books to find common features of non-fiction text (captions, diagrams, labels, bold words, headings, cutaways, sidebars, etc.) and mark the pages with sticky notes.
3. Have the students report their findings and add them to the non-fiction chart if necessary.
   Reflection: are there any more features of non-fiction books that we could add to the chart?

Lesson 6
Goal: to identify the features of fiction and non-fiction text

Materials

• the collection of fiction and non-fiction books
• one copy of a blank Venn diagram for each pair of students
• a blank Venn diagram on chart paper or the chalk board with the areas labeled: Fiction, Non-fiction.

Process

1. Have pairs of students choose one fiction and one non-fiction book from the collection.
2. Have the pairs of students look through the books and record features of fiction and non-fiction text on their Venn diagrams.
3. Have the students report out. Record the findings on the Venn diagram on chart paper.
   Reflection: What are some of the things that are the same about fiction and non-fiction text?

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In the next issue of Canadian Teacher Magazine I will outline some activities for teaching students to recognize and understand the use of the features of non-fiction text.