Second grade teachers are using nonfiction texts to prepare students to read and understand complex texts.
Mrs. Johnson models questioning and finding evidence in an informational text about ants.
Mrs. Rish has students closely read a complex article about U.S. Presidents. This involves careful reading, reflecting, questioning, and rereading.
Why is nonfiction reading important for kids?
By Alice Bouis – Marketing Manager News-O-Matic, The Daily News App For Kids
On average, kids today spend less than 4 minutes a day reading nonfiction. Yes, 4 minutes. What can you actually read in 4 little minutes? How much can you truly understand and feel comfortable talking about later?
It is common knowledge that how much a child reads is important. Kids who read more will perform better, acquire a greater vocabulary and develop better critical thinking skills. However, what a child reads is also important. Statistics show that kids actually read an average of 25 minutes a day (which is very low compared to the 4 hours and 29 minutes a day they spend watching TV). Of those 25 minutes, just 4 are spent on nonfiction. But is that enough? How can reading nonfiction really help?
A study by Marzano underlined that nonfiction reading helps kids develop background knowledge. You might be thinking, “So what?” Well, that same study shows that background knowledge actually accounts for 33% of the variance in student achievement.
Educators now commonly assert that reading more nonfiction early on tremendously helps children reach the appropriate reading levels in later grade. An interesting report from ACT in 2006, Reading Between the Lines: What the ACT Reveals About College Readiness in Reading, states that “the clearest differentiator in reading between students who are college ready and students who are not is the ability to comprehend complex texts.” According to experts, nonfiction is a great way for kids to develop critical thinking and analytical skills and, you guessed it, the ability to read and understand complex texts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wyI_n20-SU
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