​Nonfiction in the ELA Classroom

Reflecting on the process

 

In researching this topic, I realized how widespread the issue of nonfiction literacy truly is. It is not a problem that was unique to the school I worked in, and middle school teachers across the country struggle with teaching nonfiction. The Common Core State Standards require that nonfiction be used, but many students have never been taught to read it. I suspect that many teachers have never been taught to teach it, either.

 

I began this project by thinking about my own assumptions about nonfiction. I read massive amounts of it every day as news articles, editorials, blog posts, memoirs, essays--the list goes on. In fact, much of my daily communication consists of nonfiction written word in the form of emails and texts. “Nonfiction” is everywhere in our daily lives, and yet when I thought about what it means to read nonfiction, my initial reaction was of boredom and vague repulsion. So often, “nonfiction” occupies a narrow definition as just another word for “textbook.”

 

Nonfiction is much more than just textbooks, and in order for our students to successfully navigate their academic and professional lives, they need to understand the genre. A huge step towards changing how we read nonfiction is to change how we think about it. Our students need to see it as a category of written word that can be incredibly interesting and informative. They need to know how to read it, how to analyze it, and how to use its content in their lives.

 

Before beginning this project, I, too, was concerned as to how I would implement nonfiction into my ELA classroom. I knew that just providing more reading materials for my students couldn’t be the answer, but I wasn’t sure what was “the answer.” I originally thought, like many others, that reading nonfiction was just like reading fiction and that “reading is reading.” However, after delving into the research, I began to understand that the two genres require different methods of teaching. With that in mind, it became easier to sympathize with students. It’s not surprising that they struggle to read these texts--no one has taught them how to! This research process revealed to me how important it is to specifically target these reading and interpretation skills, as they are not just things students know how to do.

 

Teaching vocabulary was something that I realized was important, but was not entirely sure how to do. This project revealed to me how critical vocabulary can be to reading comprehension. Many teachers teach vocabulary by providing students with weekly lists and quizzes, but this seemed ineffective to me. Rote memorization does not translate into a rich understanding of how a word is used. Because vocabulary is so key to understanding nonfiction texts, I felt that there had to be a better way. As I researched, it was revealed to me that vocabulary can become an integral part of the ELA class and that students can learn, use, and master content-specific words in ways that are engaging and relevant. By ensuring that vocabulary has a central role and is not just a list that students memorize, teachers can bring nonfiction texts to life.

 

After researching nonfiction literacy strategies, I feel better prepared to use nonfiction in my own classroom. I have a better concept of how to break down teaching a text. I can’t just hand my students an article and expect them to understand it. I will need to teach them important vocabulary, provide adequate scaffolding, allow them to work with their peers, guide them through the text, and connect it to the world around them. I am sure that there will be difficulties along the way, but I have a solid body of research to turn to for help.

 

This project also revealed to me the general importance of researching specific teaching strategies. Too often, teachers are told they need to incorporate something into their classroom with no real instruction on how to do so. Teaching nonfiction is one of many challenges that I, prior to this project, felt underprepared to take on. If nothing else, this project reaffirmed my belief that teachers need to actively be using research to help them to employ best practices in the classroom.