Non-Fiction Text:
Coaching with a purpose
JOSEPH GINOTTI
PLN DIRECTOR
GSE/UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
What is non-fiction?
Biography/
Literary
non-fiction
Autobiography
Historical
Fiction
Non-Fiction
Informational
Textbooks/
articles
How is fiction different than literary non-fiction?
• The term “literary nonfiction” is a tricky one. It pulls in a wide swath of
texts, that cut across a lot of categories. I know research studies on narrative
texts, expository texts, persuasive texts, stories, genre such as historical
fiction, etc. I don’t know of any studies on literary nonfiction, and I think this
is because it is not a very meaningful category in terms of the cognitive
aspects of reading and writing. I certainly have no problem with essays,
criticism, speeches, and the like being accorded the status of “literary nonfiction”, and each of those certainly does belong in the informational text
realm… however, whether a story happened to an imaginative character or a
real one doesn’t change the demands on the reader.
• Tim Shanahan
How is fiction different than literary non-fiction?
• The whole point of increasing students’ experiences with informational text is to
improve their abilities in dealing with text features not likely found in literary
text. Stories are important, and kids should read a lot of them (fictional ones and
factual ones), but student reading experiences should be broader than that. That
is one of the important points of common core. If two different forms of stories
(e.g., stories that I made up, stories that I remembered) are divided across the
two categories, then teachers and publishers can appear to address the standards
without actually improving students’ exposure to informational text. That makes
it easier for everyone, except for the kids who may find themselves reading
biographies of mathematicians and scientists rather than Algebra and Physics.
• Tim Shanahan
So, non-fiction and informational text are not the same thing?
No, they are not. Informational text is factual, but that isn’t the point (or it isn’t the
only point). CCSS [including PA standards] is emphasizing the reading of literary
and informational text to ensure that students are proficient with a wide variety
of text. If the distinction was just fact vs. fiction, then text could be limited to
narratives. Kids need to learn how to read exposition and argument as much as
stories. Each of those types of text has different purposes, structures, graphic
elements, text features, etc. And, that’s the point: exposing kids to all of those
elements.
• Tim Shanahan
What are the implications?
• The strategies needed for students to be better prepared for college
and career, as called for in the Standards, far exceeds those called for
in reading and writing just non-fiction text. Informational text spans
the subject areas, builds connections between subjects, strengthens
vocabulary, and provides opportunities to deepen our knowledge
base and our literacy curriculum.
• Tim Shanahan
Tim Shanahan
What are the implications?
• While informational texts and nonfiction narratives are both types of
nonfiction writing, they use different strategies to teach audiences about a
topic. A nonfiction narrative, such as a personal essay or biography, uses
storytelling devices such as character, plot and description to tell about a
person's life or a significant event. Informational text, often seen in
textbooks, brochures and websites, instructs the audience about a topic
using clear, accessible language. Although both types of writing present
factual information, they do so using different structures, purposes, voices
and uses of research.
• Phyllis Litzenberger
BOCES Network, TC Columbia U.
What are the implications?
• The skills needed to read a fictional story and a true life story are not so
different; making sure that kids get a lot of non-fiction reading experience
won’t suffice. They need to be exposed to the general strategies of
CONTENT LITERACY involving the academic skills of close reading,
marking text, annotation, summary and attention to tier two vocabulary
related to learning, as well as to the more specific strategies of DISCIPLINESPECIFIC LITERACY related to the challenges of reading word problems in
math, primary source documents in history, scientific articles in physics,
etc., with all of the demands of the tier three (domain specific) vocabulary
that it implies.
• Gerald Campano, University of Pennsylvania
How do I help my teachers address reading non-fiction?
• Kylene Beers and Robert Probst in their book, Reading Non-Fiction suggest
stressing the Importance of Stance in helping build a consistent structure
when reading non-fiction and informational text:
• Fiction invites us to take one stance. The novel invites us to explore
the imagined world the writer has created for us. We enter it
willingly, and if we don't enjoy it, we put the novel down,
acknowledge we just don't like this author or this genre, and move
on. If we do enjoy it, we stay there until the end, maybe so immersed
in it that we might describe ourselves as ”lost in the book.”
How do I help my teachers address reading non-fiction?
• Nonfiction, on the other hand, should come with a cautionary note that
reminds us that getting lost in the text might be dangerous. The reader
needs to remember that a work of nonfiction will try to assert something
about his world, and he needs to take those assertions with a grain of
skepticism. They may be perfectly true, they may be somewhat slanted or
biased, or they may be flat-out lies. The slightly skeptical or questioning
stance implies three questions...
• What surprised me?
• What did the author think I already knew?
• What changed, challenged, or confirmed what I already knew?
• Beers and Probst
Why read with a Questioning Stance?
• Reading with these Big Questions in mind encourages a critical,
attentive stance and develops habits of mind that—if we can instill
them in our students—may help them deal more attentively and
intelligently with the nonfiction texts they will encounter throughout
their lives. These questions encourage a stance that reminds students
that nonfiction and informational text requires an effort to
understand, evaluate, and remember in a way that is different than
the demands of fiction.
• Beers and Probst
Why read with a Questioning Stance?
• [In addition], reading with these Big Questions in mind helps teachers
guide students to what is essentially a “close reading” of text as demanded
by the PA Standards. In fact, the challenges of non-fiction and, most
especially, informational text is that such texts must be read and reread and
this is done most effectively with a separate focus and purpose in mind for
each reading. Just as a poem must be read and reread for mood, audience,
language, form, etc., reading informational and non-fiction with a stance
that questions both the author’s intent and reflects on the reader’s
understanding and process of understanding helps build better and deeper
comprehension.
• Gerald Campano, University of Pennsylvania
How do we coach this Questioning Stance?
• What Surprised Me?
If students learn to read searching for the new—the information they
didn't know before that moment, the line of reasoning they hadn't
thought of that reconfirms an idea they already held, or the evidence
that requires them to reconsider and possibly reject a belief that they
had, until this moment, strongly held—then they will be able to learn
from the nonfiction they read. This stance is critical, and
therefore What surprised you? is the first question we encourage
students to ask as they read.
• Beers and Probst
How do we coach this Questioning Stance?
• What Did the Author Think I Already Knew?
We want students to read expecting that when they find themselves
confused, they can solve the problem. We want to empower students to
identify the confusion and then set about solving it. So we tell students
when they are confused to pinpoint the confusion and ask themselves, What
does the author think I already know?
• When we ask students to figure out what the author thought they already
knew, they can define the prior knowledge they need to acquire. We no
longer have to guess and provide information before students read. Instead,
we can let students identify what's missing, as they will have to do once
they leave our classrooms and our schools. What did the author think I
already knew? helps students clarify confusions.
Beers and Probst
How do we coach this Questioning Stance?
• What Challenged, Changed, or Confirmed What I Already Knew?
• This question is neither difficult to teach nor hard to understand, though it is one
that makes some students uncomfortable by demanding that they think rather than
simply remember. And it is important for the messages it conveys. This question
doesn't emphasize memorizing data from the text. It doesn't characterize student
responses as right or wrong. It tells the students, in a slightly subtle way, that
changing your mind is perfectly respectable and that, in fact, it ought to happen
occasionally, perhaps even often. It respects the students' responses to the text by
asking them to consider how the text has shaped their thinking. And it equips them
with observations that should sustain their subsequent talk.
Beers and Probst
Let’s Practice!
1. Determine the who at your table has the most number of years in
the field of education.
2. Congratulations – you are the Table Leader! Please distribute from
your Ask-it Basket, the article “The Ten Attributes of Successful
Schools.”
3. Check the bottom of page 2 for your number (1, 2, or 3).
4. Please read the article “The Ten Attributes of Successful Schools”
from the appropriate Questioning Stance:
1. What surprised me?
2. What did the author think I already knew?
3. What changed, challenged, or confirmed what I already knew/
Let’s Practice!
5. When complete, create small groups of three consisting of readers
from each stance, and share your take-aways from the text.
6. When your discussion of the article is finished, reflect on the
following:
a. Were your take-aways different?
b. What impact did your stance have on your reading?
c. How could this protocol be beneficial to students?
d. How could you introduce this strategy to teacher?
A Final Reflection
What stood out for you?