Reality Checks

Book excerpt: Teaching comprehension with informational texts is a critical component of any reading program and one that many children struggle with as they progress through their schooling. Nonfiction can be overwhelming to young readers, presenting them with complex vocabulary and a new density of information that may combine text, diagrams, pictures, captions, and other devices.Reality Checks: Teaching Reading Comprehension with Non-Fiction K-5 offers insights into why children struggle when faced with informational reading, and practical concepts, skills, and strategies that help them navigate nonfiction successfully.In this book, Tony Stead provides wonderful ways to enhance children's understanding and engagement when reading for information. He outlines practical approaches to ensure all children can become confident and competent readers of nonfiction. Part one examines effective ways to teach children how to extract the information that is explicitly stated in a text. Covered are strategies such as using prior knowledge, retelling, locating specific information, and the role of nonfiction read-alouds. Part two explores interpreting information, including making connections between the text, the reader, and the outside world, making inferences and making revisions to inferences based on reflection. Part three looks at evaluating information, assisting children in developing critical reading skills, differentiating fact from opinion, locating author bias, and identifying techniques writers use to persuade readers' thinking. Part four offers an array of practical ways to reinforce and extend children's nonfiction reading skills, including working with visual information such as maps and diagrams. It also provides pre-and -post-assessment strategies, procedures for monitoring progress, curriculum planning ideas, and instruction on guided reading.