Reading True Stories

Just when you thought you had nonfiction reading all figured out, in walks the black sheep of the nonfiction family -- NARRATIVE nonfiction!

Savvy readers know that narrative nonfiction is just a nonfiction text (a text designed to teach its reader) in disguise as an entertaining story.  But those same savvy readers know that a story is a story is a story, no matter whether it's true or false.  And how do we think about the stories we read?  We think about the characters!  This means we temporarily set aside all that we've learned about reading nonfiction -- boxing in main ideas of sections, listing (with bullets) the details that support those ideas, turning headings into questions, and using text features to deepen our learning -- and return to our sticky note type thoughts.

Readers should ask themselves: 

• What kind of person is this character?  What are their traits?
• What does this character want or need?
• What are their obstacles, dangers or struggles?

After we finish the text, we can use the "Somebody-Wanted-But-So-Then" one-sentence summary frame to help us focus on what this true story taught.

When we read Bamboo Valley: A Story of Chinese Bamboo Forest, we realized quickly that we needed to expand our definition of a main character to include animals, or perhaps even plants.  In this story, readers found the main character, a young panda, used his persistent, peaceful nature to overcome many obstacles to surviving alone in the forests of China.  They summarized this book like this:

The panda wanted to find a new home with water, live bamboo, and shelter, but everywhere he looked there was already another animal living there or no food, so he kept looking and walking for many miles, then he finally found a new valley with live bamboo & water.

But just thinking about what you read isn't always enough.  Just as we would ask ourselves, "Why is this important?" after we finish an informational text, we must think deeply to find the unifying ideas within a narrative nonfiction.  One strategy for digging deeper into a true story is to think about the character's choices, challenges and lessons.

Today, our readers recognized that, on a December 1st, very long ago, Mrs. Parks made a pivotal choice, or a choice that changed the course of her story, when she said "no" to not only the bus driver, but also the police officer, when she was asked to give up her seat.  Readers quickly saw that the immediate consequence of her arrest was only one of many effects of this choice.  (We learned that the word "consequence" doesn't always mean "punishment"!)  As a result of her personal choice, the women of her community organized a bus boycott, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. brought national attention to her situation, and people all over the nation sent their support to those boycotting the buses.  Ultimately, her simple choice to say "no" led to change on a national level.  To us, this meant we could make a small choice -- whether it's picking up trash on the beach or playground, or inviting someone to join us at the lunch table or on the recess field -- and know that our small choice could somehow lead to a big change, bigger than we might ever imagined possible!

Readers, we thought about so much more today.  What were some of your "take away" thoughts after reading Rosa, by Nikki Giovanni?  What do you recall about her challenges?  What helped her through these challenges?  How could we carry a little piece of this story and what it's taught us into our lives today?  Take a moment to share with the world and our Chets Creek community what lessons we could take from this remarkable story.  

Nonfiction Reading

Even little baby readers know that reading nonfiction is different than reading fiction.  I'll never forget the day that my own daughter came home with her first nonfiction book in a bag and announced, "Mommy, I can start anywhere I want to when I read tonight, because this book is NONFICTION!"

Now that we are more sophisticated readers, we know that this is only partly true.  Good nonfiction readers do begin their nonfiction reading differently than their fiction reading, but it's not really about just picking a starting point.  Reading nonfiction means thinking about the text before, during, and after our reading.

PREview, PREdict, PREpare

We've learned that nonfiction readers spend time before they ever begin reading the main text previewing the text.  They focus on the text feature, which includes photographs, captions, diagrams, charts, maps, headings, footnotes, text boxes, and more.  We use these text features to get an idea about the topic of the text and predict what main ideas we'll learn about.

Taking it a step further, we've learned that sometimes readers can rephrase subheadings into questions, giving us a guiding purpose for our reading as we move throughout the article or book.  As we read, we'll carry these questions in our mind, looking for the answers.

Stop and Think

Reading nonfiction means stopping and thinking many times throughout the text.  As we come to the end of a section, we should stop to ask ourselves, "What did I just learn?"  We can take this time to jot a quick main idea in the margins or box the main idea phrase in the text.  The best readers might also underline the key words in supporting details, helping them hang onto their learning as they read.  

Good readers will also ask, "How did this section fit with other sections I've read?"  This second step helps us to recognize how the author has organized the text.  Is the author writing to describe?  Are they comparing and contrasting more than one idea or topic?  Am I reading about a cause and its effect?  Is that cause a problem?  If so, did they also write about the solution?  Does this text teach about a series of events that happen(ed) in a particular order, or sequence?  Understanding how a text is structured gives us a glimpse into the author's purpose and helps a reader to understand the most important ideas of the text.

Think Back, Write Long & Talk

Good nonfiction readers do not just read texts and walk away.  The best readers know that they're really reading nonfiction to become experts.  The goal is to truly learn from our nonfiction reading.  Learning means the knowledge you gain from a text becomes YOURS forever and always.  In order to achieve this level or understanding and forever knowing, good readers will think back on all that they've read, asking questions like: What is the author's big idea?  What do I think the author really wanted to teach me?  What does that mean?  Why is this important?  

Two strategies for helping readers reach these deeper understandings are writing and talking.  By putting what we've learned into our own words, orally or on a page, we're truly making it our own.  

Readers, what are some strategies you've enjoyed learning and practicing for nonfiction reading?  What is something you've learned about how reading nonfiction is different than reading fiction?  How can these nonfiction reading strategies help you in your fiction reading?