I used to think that children like to read fiction and fairy tales more than non fiction because it can foster their imagination .In addition i thought that non fiction reading is boring .
To begin with ,Dr Kern discussed three well known myths about non fiction
-Myth number 1:-when given a choice students shy away from nonfiction
-Myth number 2:Students struggle to comprehend non fiction
-Myth number 3:Educators must strictly manage and monitor students'nonfiction reading
Regarding the first myth ,non fiction reading is important for the students'lives .Most people assume that students prefer fiction over nonfiction,However National Public Radio stated that children want factual information more.
.They want knowledge .They want to learn about everything. "Renaissance" and" My on "provide students with digital access to thousands of non fiction stories.Students like to read nonfiction when it is offered to them.
Now moving to myth number 2 that claims that students struggle to comprehend nonfiction.A study was conducted by Renaissance, proved how children are capable to comprehend nonfiction too.They are able to understand fiction more but overall ,they can read non fiction with high level of comprehension.
Myth 3 claims that the educators must strictly manage and monitor students'nonfiction reading
First teacher who teach subjects are teaching skills and content. ..
It is not about monitoring and managing students'nonfiction reading
It is about enriching the students'background knowledge through experiences.
We are all poor readers if we dont have information about a topic.
The gap in comprehension sometimes isn't caused by the lack of skill,it is the lack of knowledge
it is important to understand that we have theoretical difficulty and actual difficulty.
Theoretical difficulty is for example
when a child is poor in one of the reading skills.If the child is poor in one of the skills but he has knowledge about the topic he is reading then this child maybe is capable to read well due to his knowledge
Actual difficulty is when the reader doesn't have enough background knowledge to the topic.This will cause a difficulty in comprehension. Hirsch said:
two text that are rated at the same difficulty are rarely of the same difficulty for an individual students.;as an instance,a child can perform good when reading about batman and the same child can be a poor reader when he read about princesses.
Helpful Techniques for the Teachers
He said that there are two important techniques the teacher should use in her reading sessions to guide the students
First technique is:Text sets
Second technique is :Pairing of texts
Text sets :students who dont have background knowledge when reading a topic are said to be a poor reader.This will make the students struggle through reading.It is highly recommended that the teacher provides the students with the simplest version of the story then move
to a much harder level so the struggled students wont suffer when they read.
The second technique is pairing of texts
Most teacher give a full unit of fiction and another separate unit of non fiction.
The power is to pair between the texts because it helps to enhance the background
knowledge of all the students
As a future teacher ,i should always provide my students with a variety
of nonfiction and fiction stories because both will enhance the academic achievements of the students.
