Implementing a Solution

After developing five, research-based solutions to target nonfiction literacy in the ELA classroom, I tried to envision what these solutions would look like when used together. One or two of these solutions cannot target the problem completely, and five may still be lacking. Together, though, these solutions attempt to create a holistic way of teaching our middle grade students how to be successful readers of nonfiction texts. Below is an imagined example of how an ELA teacher might integrate these solutions into the classroom.

There should be a rich assortment of nonfiction texts available in the library and in individual teachers's classroom libraries. This may be a challenge, as funding for books and other resources can be hard to find. There should be an effort, though, to prioritize making well-written, quality nonfiction available to students. Teachers, students, and the media center specialist would be encouraged to talk about what nonfiction books and sources students enjoy, and what would be beneficial to purchase when new books are bought. In the classroom, students should regularly be given time to read silently and independently. Students would be allowed to read materials of their own choosing, as long as they alternate between fiction and nonfiction. This time is meant for students to cultivate a variety of interests and work towards fluency when reading nonfiction.

In addition to reading independently, students would work regularly with nonfiction in the ELA classroom. For example, students who are reading Christopher Curtis’s The Watsons Go to Birmingham -- 1963 would simultaneously work with nonfiction texts related to the civil rights movement. Students would be asked to read and work with a variety of nonfiction genres that are well-written and relevant to the focus of the unit. They may read Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream Speech,” a biography on Rosa Parks, and a newspaper article describing the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham. By pairing these nonfiction works with a fictional novel, students would have a story and characters that help them to place and think about these historic events.

Before reading King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, the teacher would read through and identify vocabulary words to teach. The teacher would select words that are critical to students understanding, that are repeated, or that will be used in subsequent readings or lessons. Some of these words, like “prejudice” and “segregation” may be taught and discussed in-depth before the reading, as they are critical to the work and the unit. Some words could be learned as the reading progresses, and some could be learned after the reading is completed. After the reading, students would be asked to continue to work with these words in various ways, such as including them in essays, adding them to a word wall for the unit, and using them during group discussions.

If a teacher were using Combs’s (2004) model for scaffolding, then this speech would not quite fit the described categories, as it is more of a “medium interest/medium difficulty” text. Because of this, a moderate amount of scaffolding should be used. Vocabulary discussion and perhaps a news clip showing the Lincoln Memorial on the day of King’s speech could be sufficient “prior reading” scaffolding. The actual reading of King’s speech could be done silently to encourage students to focus and understand the text, but students may benefit from hearing it read out loud. Because it is a speech, the “during reading” of this text may be best scaffolded as an interactive read aloud, with multiple opportunities for students to ask questions, make comments, and engage in guided discussion. Even though this text would be read aloud, the teacher can still guide the students through a slow reading of the speech. The teacher can model rereading for comprehension, looking back at previous sections, and pausing to think and question. The “after reading” could be scaffolded as an activity that asks students to tie King’s speech to some of the themes or events being read in their fiction novel, The Watsons Go to Birmingham.

“Nonfiction” is a genre that emcompasses a wide variety of rich resources that middle grade students need to be able to successfully read and understand. The Common Core State Standards set an important goal, and it is up to teachers to think about what their students need to be doing to meet that goal. With wide exposure, explicit instruction, guidance, and integration, nonfiction texts can be read, understood, and appreciated.