Peggy Hughes is a writer based in Berlin, Germany. She has worked in the education sector for her whole career, and loves to help make sense of it to students, teachers and applicants. Read more on her website.
Evidence is stacking up that proves non-fiction’s importance, and students are (perhaps surprisingly) keen to get stuck in. But if you’re still having qualms over whether non-fiction is the right move for your class, here’s a walkthrough of the skills it can help your students master.
Non-fiction teaches readers how to:
1. Identify biased information
Since fact is the opposite of fiction, everything you read in a non-fiction text is completely, unquestionably true, right?
Not quite. People, whatever they are writing, just can’t help being swayed by their own opinions. Some non-fiction texts claim to be opinion-free, neutral commentaries (such as news reports), while some most certainly don’t (such as opinion articles). And there’s even more non-fiction out there that claims to be the first, unbiased category, but lurches ever closer to the second, personal opinion category (such as campaign speeches).
When reading non-fiction, students need to think critically about its reliability. They need to consider the information they are presented with, the source it comes from, and what the author might want them to think, feel and do. Take this blog post, for example— while everything we’ve written is fact, we’re on a mission to get students to read more non-fiction. How might that affect what we’ve chosen to include?
Practising this teaches students to carefully evaluate the information they consume. And, since half of children have reported concerns about their ability to spot fake news, this is a valuable skill to possess.
2. Structure their ideas and arguments
Driven by information rather than by plot, non-fiction persuades, informs and delivers information to its audience. Authors of non-fiction explain complex ideas to their readers, reasoning their way through tricky concepts and presenting evidence to support their theories.
When students read non-fiction, they are exposed to how this reasoning works. They explore how ideas are successfully (and, sometimes, unsuccessfully) organised. They can learn how an author walks a reader through an argument, explaining their thoughts and proving their point. And they get to see, first hand, how crucial structure and form can be to comprehension and persuasive effect.
With exposure to good examples of this, students are better equipped to structure their own ideas and arguments when writing.
3. Build a wide range of knowledge
Traditionally, the NCTE says, students are told they must learn to read before they can read to learn.
Non-fiction defies this assumption, enabling students to improve their reading skills while being exposed to new information, new vocabulary and new perspectives. By reading non-fiction, students build up background knowledge that can be leveraged across all their subjects. This in turn helps them form natural connections between the different subjects that they study.
And, not only does non-fiction expose students to new knowledge, it helps them assimilate it, having been proven to aid students in “categorising and synthesising” information.
4. Expand their vocabulary
Non-fiction has been proven to expand student vocabulary, for two reasons.
First, it teaches students how to use all the persuasive, connective and explanatory language that is crucial for structuring an argument. This vocabulary is highly transferable, able to be lifted by students and dropped right into essays and exam questions.
Second, non-fiction exposes students to a whole bunch of subject specific language, particular to the content of each non-fiction text. Often, when students encounter this new language, they’ll need to decipher its meaning from context alone—a useful skill to master when reading.
5. Develop empathy
The stories that students access in non-fiction are real stories, reflecting on real people’s lives and experiences.
By reading non-fiction, students get the chance to study accounts of real lives that differ from their own. They can learn about the lives of people on their road, or the childhoods of students on the other side of the world; they can pore over yesterday’s headlines or a newspaper from WW2; they can read magnificent public speeches or bury themselves in a personal letter.
Exposing students to such a wide range of opinions and outlooks has been proven to help their understanding of the world they live in. Students who learn about the lives of others are likely to feel more empathy, to better consider different perspectives, and to interact more respectfully.
Head to the National Literacy Trust’s site to learn more about Non-Fiction November.
