6th grade nonfiction reading strategies

1. Before, during, and after reading strategies for 6th grade readers of nonfiction texts.
During
By: Joseph Share

2. Reading Strategies
Before
These strategies will
help the reader
activate prior
knowledge and
prepare him/her for
the passage
presented.
During
These strategies
will help the
student
understand what
he/she is reading
while they are
reading it.
After
These strategies
will help the
student to
comprehend what
they have read and
to reinforce the
knowledge they
obtained from the
passage.

3. 1. Pre-Teach Vocabulary
• Find words that may be difficult for students.
• Give the words meaning and have students use them in sentences.
• Students can be put into groups or called on one by one.
When dealing with 6th grade students and using nonfiction texts the most common source
of text would be the students’ textbooks. The textbook often provides a word list at the
beginning of the chapter or unit. Before reading, students are encouraged to create a
vocabulary list with the new words and their definitions so that they understand the new
material that is being presented to them.
EXAMPLE

4. 2. Preview the Text
• Skim the passage looking for headings, bold, underlined, or italic
words, pictures or graphs, this is referred to as the text structure.
Hopefully students have learned to use context clues and examine text
structures. If you teach students to look through the pages and look at any
headings, bold, underlined, or italic words, pictures, graphs, charts, text
boxes, or anything not written in normal text, it should give the students
many clues as to what the text is about.
In this sample the author has bold and highlighted words within the text,
colored headings and subheadings, pictures and side notes.
EXAMPLE

5. 3. Establish a Purpose
• Why are we reading this?
• Are we reading this for leisure?
• Are we reading this for specific information?– What information are we
looking for?
EXAMPLE
Usually when students
read 6th grade nonfiction
texts they are reading
for specific information.
For example: You might
need to find out how
sharks breathe

6. 4. Use Background Knowledge
• “What do I already know about this topic?”
• A KWL chart is a great graphic organizer to use for this question.
EXAMPLE
For nonfiction texts a KWL chart is a
great tool to use. Chances are most
children will have some knowledge
on the topic. The chart provides
sections for students to write
information they know, want to
know, and learned. Before reading,
you should only fill out the know and
want to know sections.

7. 5. Consider the Text Structure
• What kind of passage is this?
• Cause and effect
• Descriptive
• Sequence/procedural
• Problem/solution
• Comparison/contrast
• enumerative
EXAMPLE
If the students know what the author is
trying to write about he/she will be
prepared to look for certain words. If
students know it is a compare/contrast
text, they know that there are at least
two main ideas with details to be aware
of.

8. 1. Think-Aloud
• Think-alouds are great to use for the during reading process.
EXAMPLE
A teacher could model a think-
aloud to the students by simply
thinking out loud about his/her
process of defining a
vocabulary word using context
clues.

9. 2. Monitor Comprehension
• Fix-Up Strategies
• Sound out unknown words
• Look up words in a dictionary or use context clues to define them
• Reflect or make a connection to the text
EXAMPLE
Students need to be conscious of what they're
reading while they're reading it. A fix-up
strategy such as sounding out a word, defining
it, or making a connection to the text is a
great way to monitor comprehension.

10. 3. Stop-And-Jot
• Using post-it or sticky notes during
reading can help the reader
remember his/her thought process
while they were reading.
Stress to your students to
make notes about anything
they find interesting or
confusing.
EXAMPLE

11. 4. Make Inferences
• Making inferences can be a before reading strategy. It can also be
used during the reading process.
EXAMPLE
When reading nonfiction texts there
aren’t many opportunities to infer the
text. It is still important for the students
to infer during these texts.

12. 5. Visualize
• Try to encourage the reader to go back in time and put themselves into the
text.
• Have students draw a picture of what they’re visualizing.

13. 1. Ask Questions
• Encourage students to ask questions about the text. Remember, there
aren’t any bad questions.
• The teacher can come up with some interesting questions to ask as well.
EXAMPLE
Ask the students questions from
the text that will ignite their
critical thinking skills! Why do you
think some sharks can jump out of
the water? Are they all capable of
jumping out of the water? Why or
why not?

14. 2. Create a Graphic Organizer
• Graphic organizer are great for nonfiction texts.
• T-charts, outlines, and concept maps are some of the most used
graphic organizers for nonfiction texts.
EXAMPLE
Graphic organizers
can help you organize
the information in a
clear and easy to
understand way.

15. 3. Summarize
• Encourage students to retell the story in their own words.
By summarizing the text, you show
that understood the main ideas of
the passage.

16. 4. Answer Questions
• Students should be finding answers for important questions from the
during stage of reading.
• Group work is a great strategy to employ when asking questions.
There are four types of questions that you should be
able to answer after reading a passage. These
questions will help you with the comprehension of the
passage. They are called QAR’s. Each one can help you
with a different level of comprehension.

17. 5. Reread
• Rereading is a strategy that will work better for some students.
EXAMPLE
Tell the students to look back at their notes from the during process of reading. The students can reread
only the sections they were unsure about to save some time. Rereading can help because, since you read it
once, you should already know the words and can now focus on the information in the text instead of
reading it fluently.

18. Works Cited
• Bursuck, W. D., & Damer, M. (2011). Comprehension. In Teaching
reading to students who are at risk or have disabilities: A multi-tier
approach (pp. 272-322). Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson
• Phonological Instruction for Older Students. (n.d.). Retrieved
November 4, 2015, from
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/phonological-instruction-
older-students
• Tangient LLC (2013). NBJEnglish - NONFICTION READING.
Retrieved November 3, 2015, from
http://nbjenglish.wikispaces.com/NONFICTION+READING
• Images taken from Google Images