one day workshop on reading nonfiction

1. NWRESA
December 2015
Stances, Signposts, and Strategies for
Reading Nonfiction

3. INTRODUCTIONS
Turn to a partner:
Share your name and what you teach
and
What you hope to learn today

4. LUNCH.
and other essentials

5. Givestudentsthetoolsthey
needtoreadandthink How can students read, comprehend,
and think deeply about texts
on their own?

6. How do you define
“nonfiction” for your
students?
Nonfictio
n is…

8. Nonfiction is true.
This text is nonfiction.
Therefore, this text is true.

9. By telling students that nonfiction means
true, we inadvertently have excused them
from the task of deciding:
• if the text is accurate
• if the author’s biases have skewed
information
• if new information now contradicts “old”
information in that text, or, in our own
thinking
Kylene Beers and Robert Probst, Reading Nonfiction, 2015

10. We must:
• question the text
• question the author
• question our own
understanding of the
topic
• accept the possibility
that our views will
change as a result of
reading
Demands
of Reading
Nonfiction

11. (we must) Recognize that
in nonfiction, the author is
not offering the truth, but
one version of the truth.
Demands
of Reading
Nonfiction

12. Kylelne&Bob’sdefinitionof
nonfiction: Nonfiction is
that body of
work in which
the author
purports to tell
us about the real
world, a real
experience, a
real person, an
idea, or a belief.

13. Stand Up, Hand Up,
Pair Up
Stop & Jot:
The word “purports” is important in this
definition. Identify a few examples of
nonfiction that only pretend to tell you about
the real world but that, in fact, are deceptive or
fraudulent.

14. A Few Thoughts
About Rigor
• is more likely to be achieved by deepening
students’ engagement with the text
• engagement is directly correlated with
relevance
• we get to rigor by increasing students’
interactions with the text

15. All right, already…where are my tools?
Adopt a
Questioning
Stance
Notice and
Note
Signposts
Use Fix-Up
Strategies

16. Adopt A Questioning Stance:
-What surprised you?
-What did the author think you
already knew?
-What changed, challenged, or
confirmed what you already
know?

17. What surprised you?
Pilgrims brought the first honeybees
to America. By the 1850s, honeybees
had flown to California.
from The Life And Times Of The Honeybee by Charles Micucci

18. What surprised you?
by Jennifer S. Holland, for National Geographic
-Mark at least 3-4 parts that surprise you by placing
an ! beside them.
-When you’ve finished, go back and jot notes in the
margins about what surprised you (your questions,
why it surprised you, your thoughts, etc.)

19. What surprised you?
by Jennifer S. Holland, for National Geographic
Turn & Talk with your partner:
-share what you found surprising
-discuss why those passages were surprising to you

20. What did the author think
I already knew?
Helps students identify the “it” in “I don’t get
it” so they can decide what to do next.
The author thought:
• I’d know what this word means
• I could picture this
• I’d know something about this topic
• I’d get how this happens

21. What did the author think
I already knew?
Americans who lived through the rise
of fascism in Europe and militarism in
Japan in the 1920s and 1930s wanted
to know about the strengths of
American democracy.

22. What did the author think
I already knew?
by Jennifer S. Holland, for National Geographic
-As you read, when you notice yourself getting confused, circle
the confusing part and ask yourself, “What did the author
think I already knew?” Jot your thoughts in the margin.
-Turn & talk with your partner about why you marked those
passages.

23. What challenged, changed, or
confirmed what I already knew?
When reading nonfiction, we can:
• confirm what we already thought
• modify our thinking
• change our minds completely

24. What challenged, changed, or
confirmed what I already knew?
Professor Frank Fenner* has warned that the human race
can not survive a population explosion and ‘unbridled
consumption.’
He says that “homo sapiens will be extinct within 100
years…a lot of other animals will, too. It’s an irreversible
situation. I think it’s way too late…people are trying to do
something, but they keep putting it off.”
*Professor Emeritus of Microbiology, Australian National University, 2010

25. What challenged, changed, or
confirmed what I already knew?
by Komando Staff
-As you read, look for information that changes your thinking or
that confirms what you thought already. Mark those places & jot
notes in the margin.
-Turn & talk with your partner about why you marked those
passages.

26. Inner/Outer Circle
How is using the
three Big Questions
different from the
way you have been
teaching nonfiction?
How is it the same?
When using the three Big Questions, what do
you anticipate being the most difficult for
your students, and how might you help them?

27. Signposts in the Text:
-Contrasts & Contradictions
-Extreme or Absolute
Language
-Numbers & Stats
-Quoted Words
-Word Gaps

28. Contrasts
& Contradictions
What is the contrast or
contradiction and why does it
matter?

29. Contrasts and Contradictions
Ten-year-old Wilbur Carreno is less than
four feet tall and weighs only 50 pounds. He is
small for his age. That’s what makes him good at
his job.
Wilbur spends his afternoons climbing
banana trees four times his height. He expertly
ties the heavy stalks of bananas so the trees
won’t droop from the weight of the fruit. “I’ve
been working since I was 8,” he told TFK. “I
finish school at noon and then go to the field.”

30. Contrasts and Contradictions: Signal Words
• Sparta was content to keep to itself and
provided army assistance when necessary.
Athens, on the other hand, wanted to control
more and more of the land around them.
• Even though the temperature dipped below
32 degrees, the water did not freeze.

31. Contrasts and Contradictions
• Read “Vampires Prey on Panama”
• Mark Contrasts & Contradictions that you
notice in the text
• Answer the anchor question: What is the
contrast/contradiction and why does it
matter?

32. Extreme or
Absolute
Language
Why did the author use
this language?

33. “Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam
Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.”
-Dick Cheney, August 26, 2002
Extreme or Absolute Language

34. Extreme or Absolute Language
• Re-read “Vampires Prey on Panama”
• Mark Extreme or Absolute Language that you
notice in the text
• Turn & Talk to your partner about the
examples you found, and answer the
question: Why did the author use this
language?

35. Numbers and
Stats
Why did the author use these
numbers or amounts?

36. “Garana and her family have lived in their one-room
house for two years. It’s one of thousands of mud-
brick homes in the Shamshatoo Afghan Refugee
Camp. The camp holds about 50,000 Afghan
refugees.”
“In fact, nearly half of all bottled water is
reprocessed tap water, sold at prices up to 3,000
times higher than consumers pay for tap water.”
Numbers & Stats

37. “Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address honored the
50,000 plus soldiers who were killed or
wounded during one battle, the Battle of
Gettysburg. It was only about 300 words long.
Even though it was very short, it reminded us of
all that was lost in that battle and must never be
lost in our nation.”
Numbers & Stats

38. Numbers and Stats
• Re-read “Vampires Prey on Panama”
• Mark Numbers & Stats that you find, and
answer the question: Why did the author use
these numbers or amounts?
• Turn & Talk to your partner about the
examples you found, and talk about your
answers to the anchor question.

39. Quoted
Words
Why did the author quote or
cite this person?

40. Citations may be categorized as:
• Voice of Authority
• Personal Perspective
• Others’ Words
Quoted Words
Drought relief did not come this winter in California. People
are talking about what they might do if this pattern continues
and their water dries up. “I’ve never seen it this bad and I’ve
lived here all my life,” said resident Tom Peyton.
“There’s been a drought of some extent for multiple years
now, and it doesn’t look like its going to be ending anytime
soon” said meteorologist Jason Meyers.

41. Quoted Words
• Re-read “Vampires Prey on Panama”
• Mark Quoted Words that you find, and jot
notes to answer the question: Why did the
author quote or cite this person?
• Turn & Talk to your partner about the
examples you found, and talk about your
answers to the anchor question.

42. Word
Gaps
Do I know this word from someplace else?
Does it seem like technical talk for this topic?
Can I find clues in the sentence to help me
understand the word?

43. Do I know this word from someplace else?
Does it seem like technical talk for this topic?
Can I find clues in the sentence to help me
understand the word?
Word Gaps
A classic aboveground eruption is just one of the ways a
volcano can disturb the ocean and generate a tsunami.
Waves can also be triggered by submarine events—
eruptions, cascades of ash, or the collapse of a volcanic
flank. The 1883 volcanic explosion of Krakatau and the
collapse of its caldera stirred up 130-foot-high waves
and killed some 36,000 people. (National Geographic, April, 2005)

44. Word Gaps
• Re-read “The Dung Beetle as a Weapon
Against Global Warming”
• Mark Word Gaps (for you or that you
anticipate might be difficult for your students)
and jot notes to answer the questions:
Do I know this word from someplace else?
Does it seem like technical talk for this topic?
Can I find clues in the sentence to help me
understand the word?

45. Fix-Up Strategies
-Possible Sentences
-KWL 2.0
-Somebody Wanted But So
-Syntax Surgery
-Sketch to Stretch
-Genre Reformulation
-Poster

46. Possible Sentences
• *Select 8-14 words or phrases from the text
students are about to read.
• Tell them whether the words are from a fiction or
a nonfiction text.
• Have students work with a partner to write five
sentences that use the words, no fewer than 3-4
per sentence and no more than 5-6.
• Share sentences and make predictions of what
the text will be about.
*choose words/phrases that you believe are familiar to students

47. Possible Sentences
most children
nineteen
cotton mill
save
lifetime
eighty-one
pay day
mother’s hand
work
money
free
managed
missing
busted

48. Possible Sentences
• Use this strategy in place of “telling them
about the text” before they read. This
makes students active constructors of
meaning rather than passive recipients.
• Choose KEY words that represent main
ideas in the text.

49. Somebody Wanted But So
• Use a 4-column chart to create one-sentence
summaries from a text.
• Model the strategy multiple times before
asking students to do it on their own.

50. Somebody Wanted But So
In June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the
Austrian throne, visited the Bosnian capital,
Sarajevo. As the royal entourage drove through the
city Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip stepped from
the crowd and shot the archduke and his wife
Sophie. Princip was a member of the Black Hand, an
organization promoting Serbian nationalism. The
assassinations touched off a diplomatic crisis. On
July 28, Austria-Hungary declared what was
expected to be a short war against Serbia.

51. Genre Reformulation
• Students rewrite expository text into narrative
structure:
– Repetitive book (Brown Bear,Brown Bear, What do
you see?
– ABC (A is for ___ because_____.)
– Cumulative Tale (ex: House That Jack Built)
• Used to help solidify knowledge of content
• Research shows that we tend to remember
narrative texts with more detail & accuracy than
expository texts; this strategy leverages that
learning

52. Now, to get started…
Handout: Quick Pace Introduction of
Stances/Signposts/Strategies
Signal words, websites, and other
resources

53. BEFORE YOU GO:
Please complete the online evaluation
for today’s workshop, then pick up
your certificate of credit.
THANK YOU for being a collaborative
learner today!