Lesson 7: Reading Nonfiction

Discussion

Reading Nonfiction

Although it may require different strategies to read a narrative nonfiction story, you may find it just as hard to put down as a fiction story. In narrative nonfiction, an author writes about real events in a “story” form. Narrative nonfiction has the same elements as fiction (plot, setting, characters, etc.) and adds the element of truth. You will continue to use the active reading strategies you have been learning and practicing to identify the elements and techniques that nonfiction authors use to make these stories come to life for readers.

In this lesson, you will learn about sequence of events, cause and effect, and nonfiction writing techniques. You will also learn to adjust your reading rate and direct your thinking toward specific techniques used with nonfiction text. The stories will also give you some background information for the novel you will read for lesson 8.

Nonfiction writing is “true.” In other words, stories that are considered nonfiction are based on real people, places, and events. In narrative nonfiction, the writing sometimes sounds very much like fiction writing, because the author uses the same techniques of descriptive words, dialogue, and plot to tell a story. To be an active reader, you will need to use the techniques of clarifying, questioning, highlighting, and visualizing that you learned during your study of fiction.

In nonfiction text, you may notice certain text features. These are things like illustrations, photos, charts, graphs, bold-faced text, key words, and notes included by the author to give you background information or explain new vocabulary. Be on the lookout for these text features whenever you read nonfiction. Although they are more prevalent in informational nonfiction than in narrative nonfiction, you will find them in both types of writing.