Getting Students Hooked on Nonfiction Books

(Originally titled “The Dazzling World of Nonfiction”)

In this Educational Leadership article, Donalyn Miller (a Texas fifth-grade teacher and author) remembers a sixth grader saying to her, “I hate nonfiction, Mrs. Miller. It’s so boring. It’s all about dead presidents and whales.” Clearly this student hasn’t been exposed to the right kind of material, which is why Miller is on a campaign to immerse students in the dazzling array of high-quality nonfiction books available today. Here are some of her ideas:

• Do book talks on nonfiction books and magazines. “Children read what we bless,” she says.

• Read nonfiction texts aloud. This increases students’ background knowledge and provides opportunities to explore content. Websites like www.wonderopolis.com raise intriguing questions like, What gives you the giggles? and How do metal detectors work? So do books like Steve Murrie’s Every Day on Earth: Fun Facts That Happen Every 24 Hours (Scholastic, 2011). 

• Use nonfiction as mentor texts. Books like Big Wig: A Little History of Hair (Kathleen Krull, Arthur A. Levine Books, 2011) and Ubiquitous: Celebrating Nature’s Survivors (Joyce Sidman, Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2010) are models of descriptive writing, figurative language, and imagery. 

• Pair nonfiction texts with texts on related topics. Get students exploring real-world connections by suggesting related poems, fiction, and other nonfiction works – for example, UnBEElievables: Honey Bee Poems and Paintings (Douglas Florian, Beach Lane Books, 2012) with Hive Detectives: Chronicle of a Honey Bee Catastrophe (Loree Griffin Burns, HMH Books for Young Readers, 2010). 

• Provide access, time, and supports. Students should be able to scan nonfiction texts connected to topics that are coming up in the curriculum, locate text features on maps, charts, photographs, and glossaries, and share interesting facts from their own reading. Some students also need explicit instruction in the “predictable characteristics” of nonfiction texts. 

“The Dazzling World of Nonfiction” by Donalyn Miller in Educational Leadership, November 2013 (Vol. 71, #3, p. 22-27), www.ascd.org; Miller is at thebookwhisperer@gmail.com

From the Marshall Memo #509