Reading & Responding to Non-Fiction

The Optimal Time to Dunk an Oreo

Base XP: 60

Learning Target(s):

Use information for diverse purposes and from a variety of sources.
Construct meaningful personal connections between self, text, and world.
Understand and appreciate how different forms, formats, structures, and features of texts reflect a variety of purposes, audiences, and messages.

I love poetry. I love crazy far-out-there metaphors and books with dragons in them. But if I'm being honest, the vast majority of what I read is non-fiction.

Non-fiction writing is writing that is based on fact. It can include essays, journals, documentaries, histories, scientific papers, photographs, biographies, textbooks, blueprints, technical documents, user manuals, and diagrams.

Nonfiction work is intended to give true accounts of real things and events. The literacy demands of today’s technological global world require that students be able to read and write not only in the print world but also in the digital world. Simplicity, clarity and directness are some of the most important considerations when producing nonfiction. Consideration of the audience is another one of the most important fundamentals for nonfiction writing.

We use different active reading strategies when reading prose fiction or creative non-fiction than we do when reading factual narratives. Non-fictional prose, or informational texts, include ads, newspaper articles, and blogs. The following are four active reading strategies to try when studying non-fiction:

question
predict
process
connect

Question

Some important question phrases to use for study-type reading of non-fiction are:

"What will this be about?"
"Why is this so?"
"How is this so?"

The answers you give to these questions must be more than simple facts or brief bits of information. They must lead to a deep enough understanding of the text that you could explain your discoveries to someone else.

Predict

When starting a book, chapter, or article, you can skim the title and subtitles, and decide in advance what the piece is likely to be about.

What do I expect to find in this nonfiction reading?
Will it have any detailed information about the title information?
What other useful information will I find in this book?

Process

When you are reading non-fiction, do not just let the words just flow into your brain. Force each sentence to make sense to you by asking questions. Why are you reading the selection? What question will you answer? In the material you're reading, ask questions about things such as:

cause-and-effect
parallels
contrasts
hidden meanings

NEVER skip or skim the hard part, figuring you'll start reading again when it gets interesting. Break the habit. When you find the text is boring or you have stopped understanding it, go back to where you last truly understood what you were reading, and go forward slowly from there. By reading with the clear purpose of understanding, you can read almost anything.

Connect

Efficient readers looks for elements in the writing that they can associate with what they already know (memories, stories of others' experiences, and information from texts). To improve your understanding while making the text much more interesting, find connections to text, to self, to others. You can make connections from the book or article you are reading to your own experience. Or you can ponder how it fits in with something else you have read or studied. Your brain works by association, by making connections; the more associations and connections you can create, the richer and more rewarding your understandings will be.

The more you think about new information and link it to the old, the more effective your written report will be. With a thorough understanding of the topic, you will be more easily able to put your new knowledge into your own words. Remember: simple copying of material does not lead to remembering it or understanding it.

Critical Reading

In the previous Reading & Responding quests, you learned strategies to help you better understand what you read. At times, however, you will need to go beyond just comprehending to read critically.

What does it mean to read non-fiction critically?

Critical reading is the ability to determine if a piece of writing is credible. This is a particularly important skill to use when you read non-fiction. Every non-fiction author has a purpose for writing; the author will usually highlight certain facts and details to support his or her purpose and minimize or ignore facts that don't. Authors use many common text features to communicate their main idea help the reader better understand nonfiction writing. Review the common text features to assist in your critical reading.

There are a few main goals in critical reading:

Goal #1: To identify the writer's purpose

As a critical reader, it's important to figure out the writer's purpose for writing the piece. Is the writer attempting to convey information or explaining something about a particular subject? Is the writer only interested in entertaining the reader? Or is the writer trying to persuade the reader of the value of his or her ideas?

Goal #2: To be aware of persuasive elements and tone

Writers use persuasive elements to change readers' opinions or beliefs, or encourage them to accept the credibility of their argument or belief. Tone is one way a writer attempts to persuade the reader. Tone in writing is much the same as the tone of voice in a verbal exchange. It's not as much what is said but how it is said and the particular words chosen.

What is the tone of the writing? Is it matter-of-fact? Angry? A sales pitch? Does the writer use facts or theory in which to base his or her opinion? How are the writer's feelings, point of view, and beliefs reflected? What is the denotation (literal meaning of a word), or connotation (implied definition or emotional association that a word evokes) of the words the writer uses? For example, the denotation of lamb is a "young sheep," whereas the connotations of the word lamb are vulnerable, gentle, and weak, to name a few.

Goal #3: To recognize bias

Bias in writing is when a writer has a strong opinion either in favour or against a certain issue. Bias is often based more on opinions and feelings than facts. Some bias is intentional, such as in advertising when a manufacturer attempts to persuade you to buy its product over another. Bias means a writer will include facts that support a position, and leave out others that do not support the position.

What is the writer's motivation? Is he or she trying to persuade you, the reader, to form an opinion? Is the writer indifferent to your opinion? Does the writer appear to have a personal or material interest in your opinion? What will the writer gain if you are persuaded to accept his or her point of view?

After using each of these active reading strategies, ask yourself: Do I still have questions that weren't answered? For further questions about the meanings of words or phrases, get out your dictionary or look them up online. For other questions, decide whether the writer accidentally left out information or instead wanted to give readers questions to think about and look into further.

Task:

For this quest, you will practice actively reading a nonfiction essay (PART A) and answer the questions that follow (PART B). Read the essay "The Optimal Time to Dunk an Oreo, According to Science" by Lucas Reilly and use the following worksheet to complete your assignment.

Assignment 4 - Responding to Nonfiction (.PDF)

Assignment 4 - Responding to Nonfiction (.DOCX)

Submit your response here when it's ready for assessment. Let me know when it's ready to assess, as well as whether you earned additional XP :)

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