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The focus of my action research is to explore the impact the Lucy Calkins’ Units of Study for Teaching Reading will have on my struggling first grade readers’ knowledge of nonfiction text, as well as their engagement in reading nonfiction.

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Will this specific nonfiction reading curriculum help my struggling students’ gain a knowledge of nonfiction text and increase their desire to read nonfiction text independently?

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I am targeting 6 male students in my first grade classroom that are currently performing below grade level according to recent iReady reading assessment data.

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Is it merely a coincidence that my 6 struggling first graders are male?

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What types of things can impact student learning in my classroom?
Age
Gender
Race
Socioeconomic Status
Home Life
Values
Motivation to Learn
Behavior
Sleep and Nutrition
Learning Style

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As I begin my action research within my first grade classroom, I must consider many ethical guidelines. Protecting my first graders confidentiality could be problematic while I conduct my action research. As the classroom teacher, I clearly know the identity of my students, but must promise not to share their identity with anyone else throughout my action research journey. I must also consider the importance of acquiring accurate data without personal bias. Geoffrey E. Mills (2014) says, “Any attempt to manipulate the data to support a personal position is unethical” (p. 48). I am personally enjoying the new Lucy Calkins Units of Study for Teaching Reading that my district has adopted this school year. However, I am not sure if it is the best program for struggling first grade readers, only time will tell.  Considering confidentiality and ensuring accuracy are commonsense ethical guidelines that I will not ignore while I conduct my action research, regardless of the outcome.

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Mills, G. (2018). Action Research: A Guide for the Teacher Researcher. New York, NY: Pearson.

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Units of Study for Teaching Reading (Grade 1)

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Units of Study for Teaching Reading (Grade 1)

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This is the program for teaching reading that my district has adopted this school year. Sometimes I find Lucy Calkins to be very wordy! Her lessons are meaty and a lot to read through. However, I welcome the structure and the specific trade books she references in each lesson. As a grade level, we were lucky enough to have our PTA purchase the trade books for us. It's nice to have these books readily available, rather than having to track down good mentor texts on my own.

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Units of Study for Teaching Reading, Grade 1 w/ Trade Pack

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In unit 1 of the first-grade units, Lucy and her coauthors invite teachers to establish ability-based partnerships that thrive on the social power of peer-based

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This is a link to Lucy Calkins' author bio from Heinemann.

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Lucy Calkins is the author of the best-selling grade-by-grade Units of Study for Teaching Reading, Grades K-8 and Units of Study in

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Gives information about the workshop framework and The Units of Study for Teaching Reading.

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Lucy Calkins and Colleagues Units of Study

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Units of Study Reading, Writing & Classroom Libraries by Lucy Calkins

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Lucy Calkins Units of Study Series for teaching reading and teaching writing from the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project.

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This is the adaptive assessment that my district uses to assess reading. My students complete this assessment on a computer, over the course of several sessions. In my district, students take this assessment three times (fall, winter and spring). We are currently administering the winter diagnostic test. This assessment doesn't always align with DRA data or my observations in the classroom.

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Assessments that Drive Instruction | Curriculum Associates

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Make better instructional decisions, measure growth, and determine standards mastery with the trusted i-Ready Assessment suite.

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How to reach struggling 1st grade readers

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Beyond Fiction: At a Glance | Center for Public Education

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The Center for Public Education is redesigning its website and enhancing its functionality with your needs in mind. The new site will be fully compatible with mobile devices and it will be easier to find the information you seek. While we're in construction mode, you'll be able to access the Edifier and CPE key reports here at our temporary home.

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Reasons behind why boys struggle in school.

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Role Reversal: Why Our Boys Struggle in School

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Once upon a time it was girls who fell behind academically. Suddenly, it seems, the story has shifted. What we can do to help our sons.

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Article: The Nonfiction Reading Revolution 

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Article: The Nonfiction Reading Revolution 

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¿En español? "Mom will you read to me?"
For a decade and a half I've been responding to this question with stacks of books for each of my three children. My kids grew up alongside Harry and Hermione at Hogwarts, and Laura Ingalls Wilder on the Western plains.

We burned through A Wrinkle in Time, Treasure Island, and the Inkheart series, and - much to my chagrin - scoured every page of those Magic Tree House books. But there's one kind of writing that we rarely read, one that experts now recommend every teacher and parent take special pains to make a part of their children's education.

Call it the nonfiction revolution. Where children's reading and writing has mostly been composed of make believe - fairytales and talking animals and, as teendom approaches, overwrought coming-of-age dystopias. Now educators. impelled by educational standards, are extolling the importance of factual, informational reading.

Why nonfiction? Schools have always taught geography as well as literature, and science along with Shakespeare, but this mix of fiction-focused literacy with a little bit of reading and writing in other subject areas has produced spotty results. Many colleges have discovered that incoming freshman may be able to compute a math problem or analyze a short story but they can't read a complex non-fiction text or write a well-researched essay.

Indeed, a 2006 report found that only half the high school students who took the ACT exam were ready for college-level reading (numbers were even lower for African American, Hispanic, and Native American students, and those from low-income families). To remedy this education gap, experts are recommending focusing on informational texts earlier - including nonfiction books, newspapers, magazines, atlases, and other reference materials - and teaching the building blocks of non-fiction writing earlier as well.

The truth about nonfiction

With so many distractions competing for our children's time it can feel like a victory to get your child to simply open a book - any book. But recent research on education outcomes reveal that what kids read is equally significant. In order to create a foundation for later learning, educators now agree that students should begin reading informational texts in all subjects from the earliest grades.

These conclusions represent a growing awareness of what our education system is failing to provide high school graduates. Some 20 percent of students who go to four year colleges and 40 percent who go to community college have to take remedial courses. This lack of college readiness, in turn, contributes to the high dropout rate among college freshman - a staggering 30 percent, by some estimates.

"The clearest differentiator in reading between students who are college ready and students who are not is the ability to comprehend complex texts," the ACT researchers concluded.

The global economy has also been cited as a reason to emphasize non-fiction. "Research shows that workplace reading has become more complex in recent years," says Lisa Cebelak of the Leadership and Learning Center, a consulting division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. "Jobs that demand low reading and writing skills are being sent overseas, so even entry level workplace jobs now demand higher level reading skills."

Some experts argue that non-fiction reading teaches kids how to develop more complex thinking. In his article " Too Dumb for Complex Texts," Emory University professor Mark Bauerlein explains why this type of reading is so demanding - particularly for kids growing up in an age of distractions: "Complex texts require a slower labor. Readers can't proceed to the next paragraph without grasping the previous one, they can't glide over unfamiliar words and phrases, and they can't forget what they read four pages earlier...Complex texts force readers to acquire the knack of slow linear reading...."

Nonfiction and the Common Core Standards

The importance of nonfiction reading and writing is a theme that runs through education standards that have been adopted 46 out of 50 states (note: the state of Minnesota adopted the English Language Arts but not the math standards).

The Common Core State Standards decry the paucity and poor quality of the current reading curricula: "...students today are asked to read very little expository text - as little as 7 and 15 percent of elementary and middle school instructional reading, for example, is expository...Worse still, [this reading is] too often of the superficial variety that involves skimming and scanning for particular, discrete pieces of information; such reading is unlikely to prepare students for the cognitive demand of true understanding of complex text."

In contrast, the Common Core Standards calls for a shift in the balance of fiction to nonfiction as children advance through school. According to the CCSS guidelines, by the end of 4th grade, students' reading should be half fiction and half informational. By the end of 12th grade, the balance should be 30 percent fiction, 70 percent nonfiction across all subject areas.

Write all about it

The nonfiction revolution isn't limited to reading but extends to writing as well. According to National Assessment of Educational Progress (NEAP)'s 2011 National Report Card, only one-quarter of U.S.12th graders write at a proficient level, and only three percent write at an advanced level. As a result, many kids arrive at college with poor writing skills.

The reason for the writing deficit isn't a mystery: kids simply aren't getting enough writing experience in elementary, middle and high school. NEAP researchers found, for example, that 41 percent of eighth through twelfth graders had less than a page of writing homework a week.

So if your child is accustomed to "What I did over my summer vacation" and "My favorite animal," assignments, the increased writing demands may come as a surprise. The Common Core Standards put emphasis on nonfiction writing, including explanatory and persuasive writing, as well as writing across subject areas - including science, social studies, and math.

"We know that writing helps kids learn," says Carrie Heath Phillips, a program director for the Council of Chief State Officers. "Kids should be doing more writing in all subject areas, including science and social studies. And not just a paragraph here and there, but regular writing in all their classes." (See writing samples for fourth and fifth grades.)

If all this sounds like your child is about to be hit by a ton of encyclopedia-inspired assignments, hold your fire. Though there's plenty of consensus about the importance of nonfiction reading and writing, exactly how and when it will affect your child's classroom remains to be seen. Many schools and districts today have been hit hard by revenue cuts, and will have to balance the new Common Core guidelines with other budget demands.

In the meantime it can't hurt to add some facts to your child's fairytales. After all, nonfiction isn't about limiting their imagination, but opening their minds to the world of learning, wherever it resides.

6 ways to spark your child's nonfiction reading and writing:

Pursue the passion: Get books that encourage your child's interests.

More is more: Offer lots of nonfiction reading material - from books and magazines to newspapers and atlases.

Be the bookworm: Read a broad range of fiction and nonfiction, and talk about what you read.

Reality check: Talk about connections between what your child is reading and events in the news.

Reasons to write: Suggest new writing projects - from letters to grandma, to keeping a diary, to penning a play for the neighborhood kids.

Get the lowdown: Ask your child's teacher if your child's reading list includes any nonfiction texts. If not, why not?

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¿En español? "Mom will you read to me?" For a decade and a half I've been responding to this question with stacks of books for each of my three children. My kids grew up alongside Harry and Hermione at Hogwarts, and Laura Ingalls Wilder on the Western plains.

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Gender differences in first graders.

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Abstract

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the grade level and gender differences in a school-based reading tutoring program. The treatment group included 10 first-grade and 12 second-grade struggling readers, and the control group included 41 first-grade and 63 second-grade nonstruggling readers. The tutors were teacher candidates in an elementary education program at a Midwest university. Each student in the treatment group was given four 30-minute tutoring sessions every week for one semester. Results showed that first-grade struggling readers had a significantly higher reading gain than second-grade struggling readers. In addition, first-grade male struggling readers had significantly higher exit Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) scores than their entry DRA scores, but first-grade female struggling readers did not have significantly higher exit DRA scores than their entry DRA scores.

Recommended Citation

Chang, S. H. (2011). Grade Level and Gender Differences in a School-Based Reading Tutoring Program. Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts, 51 (1). Retrieved from https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/reading_horizons/vol51/iss1/6

DOWNLOADS

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Grade Level and Gender Differences in a School-Based Reading Tutoring Program

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The purpose of the present study is to investigate the grade level and gender differences in a school-based reading tutoring program. The treatment group included 10 first-grade and 12 second-grade struggling readers, and the control group included 41 first-grade and 63 second-grade nonstruggling readers.

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First grade reading instruction

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Well-sequenced phonics instruction early in first grade has been shown to reduce the incidence of reading difficulty even as it accelerates the growth of the class as a whole. Given this, it is probably best to start all children, most especially in high-poverty areas, with explicit phonics instruction.

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As a classroom teacher I always treasured read-aloud time in my classroom. It was a time for my children to fall into exciting new worlds and ignite their imaginations with possibilities. It wasn't until one of my first graders brought in a book from home about lions and asked if I could read it to the class that I realized that nonfiction literature was sadly lacking in my classroom.

As soon as I held up the book and showed the children the cover, the reaction was instantaneous. Every child had some information to contribute or a connection to make. It took me five minutes to settle them down before I could even turn to the first page of the book. Their minds were alight, but in a different way than when I held up the cover of a story. With nonfiction literature they already had prior knowledge to contribute and weren't passively waiting to hear a story unfold.

Sadly some 20 years on I find in most classrooms where I work that nonfiction literature especially in the form of the read-aloud, is still lacking. Duke (2000) found that an alarmingly low amount of nonfiction was being used in classrooms. What concerns me is that now in 2014, nonfiction literature is still in the backseat when it comes to our daily read-alouds.

The research on the powers of read-aloud in facilitating comprehension is extensive. As so aptly stated by Mem Fox (2001):

If anything, daily read-alouds appear to be woven into the fabric of instruction in just about every classroom across the country. If this is the case, then why do children struggle with comprehension of informational texts? After all, if they are being read to, isn't that enough to deepen vocabulary acquisition? The simple answer is yes if the nonfiction read-aloud constitutes part of daily practice.

However, I don't believe this to be the case. When I asked the teachers I work with why nonfiction literature was not an integral part of their daily read-alouds, their answers were unilateral. Although more than 98% acknowledged that they didn't do enough read-alouds with nonfiction, 75% of these teachers didn't have or know how to locate appropriate nonfiction materials to read to their children.

Their second concern was they didn't feel confident in how to read and use informational literacy in an engaging fashion. They were masters of reading fiction. Lastly, most of the teachers acknowledged that apart from getting students to write about what they had learned when hearing informational literature, few were confident in finding alternative and engaging ways to have students actively respond to the informational texts read.

Nonfiction constitutes much of adult reading and writing and is an integral component of the literacies in today's society. Indeed, much of the Common Core State Standards for literacy, social studies, science, and technical subjects highlight the importance of students understanding informational texts for a variety of purposes. To achieve this goal, nonfiction literature needs to be an integral component of daily teacher modeling. To understand and control informational texts, students need to first hear such texts. The daily read-aloud provides the perfect platform to achieve this goal.

What to look for when selecting informational literature to read to students

Consider the beginning of Nicola Davies book, Surprising Sharks: "You're swimming in the warm blue sea. What's the one word that turns your dream into a nightmare? What's the one word that makes you think of a giant man eating killer? Shaaaaarrrkk!"

What Davies has achieved is instantly engaging her readers. She provides a wonderful hook that begs the listener to hear more. As teachers we need to be selective in the nonfiction literature we read to our students. Just like a boring story, a list of dry facts in nonfiction will have our students disengaged from the outset. The challenge for most teachers is finding such material. Consulting the school librarian is one way to infuse powerful nonfiction real-alouds into the classroom. School librarians are a wonderful resource and often have information about latest releases. There are hundreds of wonderful books released each year, and keeping up with what's new can be difficult without the assistance of the school librarian or making a conscious effort to actively seek out rich materials.

I found keeping a log of engaging nonfiction read-aloud texts invaluable. This gave me an ongoing list of materials to use for future read-aloud experiences. Having students help me rate the material proved enlightening. I had to consider that just because I found the texts interesting didn't necessarily mean my students thought the same. I would ask them for their input and disregard materials they found dull or uninteresting.

Sharing logs with other teachers helped extend my repertoire of material. A small sample from my own nonfiction read-aloud log with books that I found engaged my students and enriched their world knowledge is included in the Table. ¹ Chapter 8 in Lynne Dorfman and Rose Cappelli's book entitled Nonfiction Mentor Texts gives an extensive and rich selection of wonderfully crafted nonfiction literature that can be used as part of the read-aloud experience. The Good Reads website also lists great selections.

Table 1. Sample of informational literature from Tony Stead's log

Thinking beyond books

When we consider the notion of children's literature, and the read-aloud experience, our usual thoughts are using books. In fact much of informational literature is in the form of magazines, newspaper articles, brochures, and websites. With this realization, the possibilities of locating nonfiction materials to read to our students is massive. In Helen's fourth-grade classroom in the Bronx where I have been working, our major challenge was getting quality nonfiction literature into the classroom. With an outdated school library and little money for books, we found nonbook resources a wonderful tool. We soon built up a collection of interesting articles. We placed these into file folders under specific topics and themes. Sharing these articles with other teachers on the same grade level soon gave us a rich array of quality material to read to our children.

In selecting material from newspapers, magazines, brochures, and websites, we selected only those that were written in an engaging manner and stemmed from our students' interests. Often we would take articles and rewrite them to provide our learners with engaging listening experiences. Initially many of the teachers I worked with found this task challenging, but soon they found themselves experts in writing wonderfully crafted and engaging pieces of nonfiction. As teachers we need to become experts in writing informational pieces to share with our students, especially if we expect the same from them as writers.

Ensuring a variety of text types

Students need exposure to a wide variety of text types across the full spectrum of the curriculum to ensure deep content retention and transferability of writing forms (Harwayne, 2000; Hoyt, 2006; 2009; Stead, 2000; Taberski, 2011).

For the most part, when we do read nonfiction literature to our students, it is in the form of descriptions and explanations that deal with animals, plants, or historical events. Although these text types are important, we need to give consideration to reading texts that argue, persuade, instruct, and respond. This will in turn strengthen students' understandings of the linguistic structure and features of all types of informational texts. This will deepen both comprehension and their ability to independently write for a variety of purposes.

In Natalie's second-grade classroom, we began using persuasive brochures about different places around the world as part of the read-aloud experience. Many of these we had gathered from our local travel agent. It was not long before her students began to actively write their own brochures. The exposure to a different text type had given her students the confidence and skills necessary to craft pieces beyond simple descriptions. Book reviews, letters, procedural pieces, and labeled diagrams all need to be included as part of informational literacy that students see and hear on a regular basis.

Guidelines in reading informational literature to students

My work in classrooms in the New York City Schools and across the country has led to many discussions and experiments with the nonfiction read-aloud to optimize engagement and comprehension retention. Although most of the teachers I work with were masters of reading daily to their children, the use of informational texts was for the most part new. Most acknowledged that the only time they read informational texts to their children was part of social studies and science units and that the material was mostly written in a dry and disengaging manner. It was usually more of a chore than pleasure.

Alarmingly, in many grade 3-5 classrooms, the novel is the only read-aloud that students get to hear during the literacy block. As teachers we need to rewire our thinking and practices when it comes to reading nonfiction to our students. If it is always driven by content studies that are occurring in the classroom, then our students will quickly become disengaged. Taking time to locate well-crafted nonfiction literature about topics that students find compelling and integrating them into the literacy block is the first step.

Another shift in thinking is that not all of an informational text needs to be read in one sitting or for that matter over a series of days. The beauty with nonfiction, especially descriptive texts, is that the information is organized under categories that can be read in a random order. Reading only part of a longer texts or reading shorter pieces allows for more meaningful and focused discussions. I recall the excitement when reading the book Crows in Lisa's third-grade classroom. After only five pages, I stopped the reading to invite discussions. The conversations were rich as the children were able to process a small part of the text. They weren't inundated with massive amounts of information.

The question of academic vocabulary

All to often I have seen students become totally disengaged when hearing an informational piece that is loaded with unfamiliar academic or content-specific vocabulary. Although the introduction of new vocabulary is to be encouraged, the amount presented needs to be considered. Having to stop every two minutes to explain new vocabulary compromises comprehension retention and pleasure for our students. I usually find that nonfiction texts that present more than 10% of unfamiliar vocabulary in one sitting are not suitable for the read-aloud experience.

Apart from the guidelines just discussed, further considerations for reading informational literature are as follows:

Always give children the opportunity to talk to each other about what they are hearing. Stop the reading at different intervals and ask children what they are thinking at that moment.

Put expression into your reading. Be as dramatic as needed to fully engage your children. Demonstrate that you are a lover of informational texts and that they are an important component of your own daily reading.

Make certain all the children can see the text if you are showing them pictures.

All children should be able to hear you clearly.

Revisit favorite nonfiction read-alouds. As with fiction, children enjoy hearing information more than once.

Place favorite nonfiction read-alouds in a basket or tub so that children can refer back to these during independent reading time or at other opportune times.

Responding to informational literature

As with fiction there are many ways students can respond to what they are hearing. What we don't want is students mindlessly recording a list of facts after they have heard every informational piece read. This is a sure way to destroy the joys of informational literature. Most of the time inviting students to talk about what they are hearing and wondering in pairs, groups, or as a class is adequate. As so aptly said by James Britton (1970), "Reading and writing floats on a sea of talk." We need to infuse talk into the read-aloud and give our students time to reflect, wonder, and question.

Using the Reading and Analyzing Nonfiction Strategy (R.A.N.)

One strategy to enrich the nonfiction read-aloud experience and have students respond is the Reading and Analyzing Nonfiction Strategy (R.A.N.). I first devised this strategy when working with teachers at The Manhattan New School in New York. Based on Dona Ogle's K-W-L, the R.A.N. strategy can be used to both deepen content understandings and spark students' talk, natural inquiry, and curiosity during read-aloud encounters. It is also an excellent organizer for students to use when they independently research and write about a given topic. An explanation of each category and implementation procedures follow. You will need to construct a R.A.N. chart with the five categories (see Figure 1). Laminating the chart will enable you to reuse the chart for future read-alouds. Note: Not all read-aloud encounters with informational literature need to involve using the R.A.N. strategy. Be selective when using this strategy, and confine it to topics for which students' may possess background knowledge.

The RAN categories

The first category in the R.A.N. is called "What I Think I Know." This category allows the reader to acknowledge that not all of their background knowledge may be accurate. In essence it allows for approximations of prior knowledge. This is an important consideration when reading informational literacy to students. Most students possess some prior knowledge on certain nonfiction topics, and we need to acknowledge this before the read-aloud.

Before the read-aloud, invite students to tell you what they think they know about the specific topic. Chart their responses using sticky notes or index cards. Alternatively, each student could quickly write some of their information onto a card or sticky note then place it onto the chart. This will ensure all students have their thinking recorded. It is recommended that students limit their information to what they consider to be their best few facts. This will ensure that there is not an overload of information to process.

The second category in the R.A.N. is titled "Confirmed." This category gives learners an opportunity to confirm prior knowledge as they listen to the text. It gives them a sense of success as they hear facts presented by the author that they already knew. Read part of the text to the students and have them see if they can confirm any of their recorded prior knowledge that has been posted under the heading "What We Think We Know."

The third category in the R.A.N. is called "We Don't Think This Anymore" or "We've Changed Our Minds." This category helps students understand that when listening to informational literature, the facts presented by the author may be different from their own prior knowledge. It gives students an opportunity to rethink what they previously thought to be correct. Ask students to listen for any misconceptions they had after hearing part of the text read and move this into the third column.

The fourth category in the R.A.N. is called "Exciting New Information." This category encourages students to think about information that is new learning that they find interesting and gather new literal understandings presented by the author. This helps deepen their content understandings about a topic. Revisit the text again and have students locate new information and record this onto sticky notes or index cards onto the fourth column of the chart.

The final category in the R.A.N. is called "Wonderings." This is the same as the second category in the K-W-L, namely, "What I Want to Know." In the R.A.N. this category is placed after students have heard information and not before. This is because readers tend to raise more centered and appropriate questions during and after they hear an informational piece because their knowledge base has been extended. Chart students' wonderings in the fifth column on the chart. You may want to read other materials on the same topic so that students can look to see if their wonderings can be answered. Alternatively, students can research independently to find answers to their wonderings. This makes for active engagement for student-led inquiry.

The power of raising wondering and inferring

It is the category of "Wondering" in the R.A.N. strategy that I find most exciting. This category takes students beyond simple retention of literal facts and encourages them to question, infer, and actively seek out new information. This alone is a powerful tool to encourage students to respond to informational literature.

My recent work with fourth and fifth graders at P.S. 196 in the Bronx proved a thought-provoking experience. The teachers had been using lots of nonfiction literature as read-aloud experiences with their students. The children had become confident in using the R.A.N. strategy but became stuck when it came to raising wonderings. For the most part they were content to just confirm and negate prior knowledge and gather new information during the read-aloud experience. They were used to answering questions, not raising them. When we did invite them to raise questions, most began with "Why." We began to use other lead words such as "Where, When, Who, How, Where, and Did" to help them raise different types of questions about the information they were hearing. We started by taking one fact from a book on whales, namely "People hunted and killed them for food," and encouraged them to think deeply about questions that the particular fact raised (see Figure 2).

We then encouraged the students to form hypotheses on possible answers to some of the questions raised. This proved an exciting venture. Rachel formed the hypothesis that it was men who hunted whales because back in the early days women stayed home to cook, clean, and look after the children. She further remarked, "I'm so glad times have changed because if it was me I'd want to be out there hunting and having fun. The men need to learn how to cook and clean." This comment brought a universal "yes" by the girls in the classroom.

It wasn't long before the students in the grade 4 and 5 classrooms were not just collecting facts when they heard informational literacy, but raising questions and making connections with what they were hearing. Our next step was to scaffold them into raising higher order thinking questions.

Deepening thought through powerful questioning

Crystal Hyman, a second-grade teacher at P.S. 196 in the Bronx, is a master teacher. My work with her proved that even young children can raise high-level questions from informational texts if they are provided with modeling and repeated experiences. At first, her students found it difficult to raise what I term a level two or level three question. Level one questions are those for which the answers can be found in the body of the text. Many students tend to listen selectively and ask questions that are already answered later in the text. Level two questions are those that have obvious answers such as, Why do lions hunt? Although the answer may not be stated explicitly within the body of the text, the answer is easily inferred. Level three questions are those for which the answers are not within the text nor can be easily inferred. To answer these types of questions, the reader needs to research further.

Crystal and I spent many sessions moving her students from level one questions to level three wonderings. It took time, patience, and repeated think-aloud demonstrations by us as teachers, but soon the children were thinking deeply about what they had heard. The results were amazing. A sample of some of the questions raised by her students on different topics that were read as part of the read-aloud experience follows.

Topic: Snails

Topic: Tornadoes

Topic: Marsupials

The preceding wonderings raised by Crystal's students show that deep comprehension has occurred. To raise such questions, the students needed to reflect on the information they had heard and then consider information not included that they wanted to know more about. This is the heart of what nonfiction literacy needs to ignite: learners who bring a love of and passion for critically thinking about what they are hearing and reading. This can only be accomplished if nonfiction literature is an integral part of daily instruction. No longer should nonfiction literature be included only as a part of content studies. We need to embrace it, love it, and be inspired by it. As so aptly said by Nell Duke (2006):

"What we too often forget when considering the importance of nonfiction reading is the pleasure, the art, the wonder of it. We do not want to develop students who read nonfiction just for function, or for school success, but students who read nonfiction for enjoyment, to be fascinated, to discover" (Foreward, p. ix)

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Nurturing the Inquiring Mind Through the Nonfiction Read-Aloud

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As a classroom teacher I always treasured read-aloud time in my classroom. It was a time for my children to fall into exciting new worlds and ignite their imaginations with possibilities. It wasn't until one of my first graders brought in a book from home about lions and asked if I could read it to the class that I realized that nonfiction literature was sadly lacking in my classroom.

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Article: Nonfiction Reading Promotes Student Success 

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Article: Nonfiction Reading Promotes Student Success 

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December 2012/January 2013 | Volume 70 | Number 4
Common Core: Now What? Pages 80-82

Bryan Goodwin and Kirsten Miller

That's the finding from a national study sponsored by the Kaiser Family Foundation (Rideout, Foehr, & Roberts, 2010). Sure, children are reading outside school-about 25 minutes a day, according to the study. But most of that reading appears to be fiction. Another study found that juvenile fiction outsells nonfiction by more than 4 to 1 (Milliot, 2012).

Even in classrooms, nonfiction appears to be in short supply. Duke (2000) conducted a study of 20 1st grade classrooms and found that informational texts constituted, on average, just 9.8 percent of texts in classroom libraries. The mean number of informational books per child was just 1.2 in low-income districts and a still relatively paltry 3.3 in high-income districts. On average, students spent just 3.6 minutes with informational text each day. Lower-income students fared worse, logging just 1.9 minutes of exposure to informational text (for example, during student reading, teacher read-alouds, or writing activities) during an average school day.

A New Emphasis on Nonfiction

The new Common Core language arts and literacy standards attempt to correct this imbalance by placing more emphasis on reading nonfiction-starting with an equal emphasis on literature and informational text in elementary school (Coleman & Pimental, 2012). At nearly all grade levels, students are expected to develop research skills across content areas with a strong focus on nonfiction, including literary nonfiction; essays; biographies and autobiographies; journals and technical manuals; and charts, graphs, and maps (Gewertz, 2012).

For many schools and districts, the Common Core standards' greater emphasis on text complexity, reading comprehension, and nonfiction likely represents a sea change. Porter, McMaken, Hwang, and Yang (2011) found low to moderate alignment-a range of 10 to 48 percent overlap-between states' existing language arts standards and the Common Core standards, with an average alignment of only 30 percent.

In light of this new emphasis, we should ask what the research says about the benefits of reading nonfiction. Is it really worth tearing kids away from The Hunger Games, the Harry Potter books, or Diary of a Wimpy Kid? After all, with multimedia consuming so much of students' time, shouldn't we be happy they're reading at all?

What Students Read Matters

For years, we've known that the amount of independent reading students do contributes to their reading skills. Students who read more tend to learn more vocabulary, become more proficient readers, find reading more enjoyable, and thus continue to read more and become ever better readers (Stanovich, 1986). Poor readers, on the other hand, tend to read less and lose ground. Over time, these differences create a widening gulf in learning. Students at the 90th percentile of reading volume (reading 21.1 minutes a day) encounter 1.8 million words a year, while students in the 10th percentile (reading less than one minute per day) read only 8,000 words a year (Cunningham & Stanovich, 2001).

Only in the past decade, however, have researchers begun to uncover that it's not just how much students read that matters, but also what they read. In particular, students need to read and comprehend informational texts as often-and as fluently-as they do narrative texts.

Traditional basal texts-which consist of largely narrative content-have come under increasing scrutiny. A comparison of an enrichment reading program and basal reading programs (Reis, Eckert, McCoach, Jacobs, & Coyne, 2008) found that the enrichment reading group scored significantly higher in oral reading fluency than did the basal reading group. Students in the enrichment reading group received instruction on thinking skills during teacher read-alouds; independently read self-selected books; participated in individualized reading conferences; and engaged in a variety of enrichment activities of their choice, including book discussion groups, creative writing, and other interest-based projects. The researchers concluded that providing "structured silent reading of self-selected challenging books, accompanied by supported, individualized reading instruction ... may be a promising way to increase reading fluency" (p. 312).

In the Common Core State Standards, the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers (2010) cite a compelling research base supporting the shift to more complex, nonfiction texts. They note, for example, that students who are able to answer questions related to complex text have a high probability of earning a C or better in an introductory-level college course in U.S. history or psychology.

One reason reading nonfiction may be so important is that it helps students develop their background knowledge, which itself accounts for as much as 33 percent of the variance in student achievement (Marzano, 2000). Background knowledge becomes more crucial in the later elementary grades, as students begin to read more content-specific textbooks (Young, Moss, & Cornwell, 2007) that often include headings, graphs, charts, and other text elements not often found in the narrative fiction they encountered in the lower grades (Sanacore & Palumbo, 2009).

How Teaching Needs to Change

In response to the new standards, many teachers may need to shift how they approach both reading and writing. For example,

Book reports will ask students to analyze, not summarize. Presentations will be graded partly on how persuasively students express their ideas. History papers will require reading from multiple sources; the goal is to get students to see how beliefs and biases can influence the way different people describe the same events. (Santos, 2011)

One English teacher who taught a unit on the influence of media on teenagers said that she had previously had her students cite just one source for their papers; this year, she had them read multiple sources, including surveys, newspaper columns, and a 4,200-word magazine article by Nicholas Carr titled "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" (Santos, 2011).

Teachers may find that this shift pays off in terms of student enthusiasm. Researchers have noted one other benefit of nonfiction reading: the potential to motivate young children to read by tapping into their interests (Caswell & Duke, 1998). This may, in fact, be the most important insight to be gleaned from research. Although students may continue to find fiction appealing, nonfiction doesn't have to be boring. On the contrary, allowing students to explore and pursue their interests within a broad array of informational texts can help them to see that the real world can often be just as surprising and intriguing as make-believe.

References

Caswell, L. J., & Duke, N. K. (1998). Non-narrative as a catalyst for literacy development. Language Arts, 75, 108-117.

Coleman, D., & Pimental, S. (2012). Revised publishers' criteria for the Common Core State Standards in English language arts and literacy, grades 3-12. Washington, DC: Council of Chief State School Officers.

Cunningham, A. E., & Stanovich, K. E. (2001). What reading does for the mind. Journal of Direct Instruction, 1(2), 137-149.

Duke, N. K. (2000). 3.6 minutes per day: The scarcity of informational texts in first grade. Reading Research Quarterly, 35(2), 202-224.

Gewertz, C. (2012). Districts gird for added use of nonfiction. Education Week, 31(12), pp. 1, 14.

Marzano, R. J. (2000). A new era of school reform: Going where the research takes us. Aurora, CO: McREL.

Milliot, J. (2012, July 20). Industry sales pegged at $27.2 billion. Publishers Weekly. Retrieved from www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/financial-reporting/article/53112-industry-sales-pegged-at-27-2-billion.html

National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers. (2010). Common Core State Standards for English language arts and literacy in history/social studies, science, and technical subjects, appendix A. Washington, DC: Authors. Retrieved from www.corestandards.org/assets/Appendix_A.pdf

Porter, A., McMaken, J., Hwang, J., & Yang, R. (2011). Common Core standards: The new U.S. intended curriculum. Educational Researcher, 40, 103-116.

Reis, S. M., Eckert, R. D., McCoach, D. B., Jacobs, J. K., & Coyne, M. (2008). Using enrichment reading practices to increase reading, fluency, comprehension, and attitudes. Journal of Educational Research, 101, 299-315.

Rideout, V. J., Foehr, U. G., & Roberts, D. F. (2010). Generation M2: Media in the lives of 8- to 18-year-olds. Menlo Park, CA: Kaiser Family Foundation. Retrieved from www.kff.org/entmedia/mh012010pkg.cfm

Sanacore, J., & Palumbo, A. (2009). Understanding the fourth-grade slump: Our point of view. The Educational Forum, 73, 67-74.

Santos, F. (2011, April 24). A trial run for school standards that encourages deeper thought. New York Times. Retrieved from www.nytimes.com/2011/04/25/nyregion/100-new-york-schools-try-common-core-approach.html

Stanovich, K. E. (1986). Matthew effects in reading: Some consequences of individual differences in the acquisition of literacy. Reading Research Quarterly, 21(4), 360-406.

Young, T. A., Moss, B., & Cornwell, L. (2007). The classroom library: A place for nonfiction, nonfiction in its place. Reading Horizons, 48(1), 1-18.

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Nonfiction Reading Promotes Student Success - Educational Leadership

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December 2012/January 2013 | Volume 70 | Number 4 Common Core: Now What? Pages 80-82 Bryan Goodwin and Kirsten Miller That's the finding from a national study sponsored by the Kaiser Family Foundation (Rideout, Foehr, & Roberts, 2010). Sure, children are reading outside school-about 25 minutes a day, according to the study.

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Article: Working with Struggling Readers

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Article: Working with Struggling Readers

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How to really make a difference when working with struggling readers.

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Article: Fiction/Nonfiction and the Common Core

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Article: Fiction/Nonfiction and the Common Core

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Do the Common Core State Standards mean the end of literature in schools? To read some comments in the news media, one might get the impression that the standards will drive Mark Twain and Shakespeare out of classrooms, to make way for government manuals on insulation and invasive plants.

At issue is the Common Core's emphasis on informational texts. According to the Standards, students should read more informational texts than they currently do in order to be prepared for the expectations of colleges and careers. The Standards note that the framework for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) calls for 50 percent of the reading passages in elementary school, and 70 percent of the reading passages in high school, to be informational (the remainder should be narrative), and the Standards document recommends that schools adhere to those percentages.

In response, advocates of fiction and literature are tearing out their hair. As a columnist for the Washington Post put it:

"Forget 'Catcher in the Rye' (seems to encourage assassins), 'The Great Gatsby' (too 1 percenty), 'Huckleberry Finn' (anything written before 1970 must be racist) and 'To Kill A Mockingbird' (probably a Suzanne Collins rip-off). Bring out the woodchipping manuals!"

Is this true? In the spirit of the Standards, which also place a strong emphasis on arguing from evidence from texts, let's look at the text.

It is true that the Standards call for matching the proportions of narrative and information texts used by NAEP:

"The Standards aim to align instruction with this framework so that many more students than at present can meet the requirements of college and career readiness. In K-5, the Standards follow NAEP's lead in balancing the reading of literature with the reading of informational texts... In accord with NAEP's growing emphasis on informational texts in the higher grades, the Standards demand that a significant amount of reading of informational texts take place..."

Yet the same paragraph that sets forth those requirements also notes that much of the nonfiction reading will be done outside of English language arts class. As the Standards state: "Because the ELA classroom must focus on literature (stories, drama, and poetry) as well as literary nonfiction, a great deal of informational reading in grades 6-12 must take place in other classes if the NAEP assessment framework is to be matched instructionally."

A footnote further spells this out: "The percentages on the table reflect the sum of student reading, not just reading in ELA settings. Teachers of senior English classes, for example, are not required to devote 70 percent of reading to informational texts. Rather, 70 percent of student reading across the grade should be informational."

To me, that means that Twain and Shakespeare can rest a little easier. They will still have a place in English classes.

Now about those insulation and invasive plant manuals. It is true that Appendix B of the Common Core ELA standards lists them as illustrative texts. The idea of the list is to show the level of material students should read at each grade level. But the document clearly states that these manuals are informational texts in science, mathematics, and technical subjects. The list of grade-level appropriate stories includes The Odyssey, Fahrenheit 451, and, yes, To Kill a Mockingbird.

Literature is important, but so are informational texts. When students go to college or start work, they will read historical documents, scientific journal articles, and technical manuals, as well as novels and plays. And the evidence is that students get little exposure to nonfiction.

The California Partnership for Achieving Student Success (Cal-PASS), an organization supported by the California-based Institute for Evidence-Based Change, was created to turn around the high remediation rates students in San Diego faced when they went to college. The organization found that, although students earned grades of A or B in their high school classes, 95 of students who entered community college did not pass their placement exams, and were assigned to remedial courses. The remediation rates were high whether students stopped taking English classes after tenth grade or continued through twelfth grade.

Looking deeper, Cal-PASS found that the problem was what was taught: high school and college teachers were teaching different curricula. While the high school program reflected the national emphasis on literature, focusing on characters and storylines, the community college teachers focused on writing to inform, persuade, and describe. In response to this finding, high school teachers revamped their instruction; 86 percent of students then completed college-level English classes.

A study by Nell K. Duke found that the lack of emphasis on informational texts begins as early as first grade. Her study found that only 9.8 percent of books and other materials in classroom libraries, and 2.6 percent of materials on classroom walls, were informational text.

In addition, she found, only 3.6 minutes of the classroom day were devoted to informational text-only 1.9 minutes in classrooms with students from low socio-economic classes. Not surprisingly, U.S. ten-year-olds had the largest gap in performance between literary reading and informational reading of any country participating in the 2003 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS).

The discussion about the Common Core State Standards' requirements is a healthy one. If the Standards are to change practice and, ultimately, student learning, teachers, parents, and informed citizens should know what they say. But the discussion should be grounded in facts. Let's take a deep breath, go back to the Standards, and get to work to implement them.
Robert Rothman is a senior fellow at the Alliance for Excellent Education. You can read his other blog posts here.
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Fiction (and nonfiction) about the Common Core State Standards

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Do the Common Core State Standards mean the end of literature in schools? To read some comments in the news media, one might get the impression that the standards will drive Mark Twain and Shakespeare out of classrooms, to make way for government manuals on insulation and invasive plants.

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Article: Identifying Risk Factors to Prevent Reading Difficulties 

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Article: Identifying Risk Factors to Prevent Reading Difficulties 

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Identifying Risk Factors to Prevent Difficulties

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