Running head: NONFICTION BEYOND COMMON CORE: METHODS AND REWARDS 1

Nonfiction Beyond Common Core: Methods and Rewards

Mila N. Argueta
Brigham Young University - Idaho
NONFICTION BEYOND COMMON CORE: METHODS AND REWARDS 2

Recent Common Core regulations have sparked greater conversation regarding nonfiction
literature. Dawan Coombs (2013), for instance, informs that teachers are now required to include
55-70% of nonfiction as secondary texts within the curriculum (p. 7). Teri S. Lesne (2013)
clarifies that those percentages do not just point to secondary reading, but specifically she points
out that it is 70% of [all] reading in high school classrooms (p. 65). These standards are in part
given to help students acquire analysis practice, and be able to read across many fields of study.
However, these conversations surrounding the changes have often included talk of weary and
unprepared educators. Stephen B. Heller (2016), for example, emphasizes the impact these
percentages have as he states, The Common Core State Standards recommendation to
dramatically increase the percentage of nonfictionfor an English classroom constitutes a
sacrifice (pg. 13). Many of these teachers are weary because English classrooms have
previously maintained much of their focus on fiction and must now reverse that emphasis onto
nonfiction. Lesne expounds on this struggle as she states that many of the courses she took were
centered on the classics, which were rarely from the nonfiction genre. In fact, she continues to
say, There was an occasional essay, of course, but the focus was squarely on fiction (p. 65). If
a teacher has been taught by fiction, it seems simpler to teach through fiction.
Now teachers must fill classrooms with more pages of facts rather than fancy, and
meaningful pictures rather than figurative language. Such conversations have led to research and
presentations of methods to assuage fears and show teachers that solutions are not far off from
the methods and priorities that they have already been putting into practice.
For ease in finding which practices to adopt, I will present a synthesis of those methods
including harnessing students already-present desires, using fiction and nonfiction together,
requiring more oral rather than written reports, reading nonfiction aloud, directing students to
worthy nonfictional texts, and instructing the students on the organization of those texts. After a
discussion of researched and applied methods, I will then relate not only the statistical but also
the individual necessities and rewards received from teaching nonfiction for students,
classrooms, and even societies.
I believe that the teaching and inclusion of nonfiction goes beyond fulfilling regulations and
the improvement of statistics like test scores, and additionally becomes a method for students to
improve and progress as individuals and life-long learners. In the end, that is the end goal of this
researchto ignite that progress by presenting research containing a compilation of actions
teachers should take when teaching nonfiction and the real reason behind all changes and
requirements.
Methods
Although the transfer to nonfiction has been made fairly recently, various scholars have
provided insightful methods on how to react to the change and effectively teach nonfiction. With
the first method, harnessing the students already-present desires, some of the research was
conducted long before a change in regulation was made. In a detailed study regarding nonfiction,
its history, and the tendency of students, Richard F. Abrahamson and Betty Carter found that
contrary to popular opinion students are often more attracted to nonfiction texts, and teachers
need to harness those desires rather than try to redirect them.
Their studies are not the only ones to produce findings of preference for nonfiction. In their
article The Importance of Reading in Earnest directed at gifted young-adults, Jennifer Job and
Mary Ruth Coleman agree that nonfiction is actually the preferred choice and that, Nonfiction
encourages students to read by activating their prior knowledge and allowing them to explore
their own interests (2016, p.156). In fact much of how teachers need to teach nonfiction relies
NONFICTION BEYOND COMMON CORE: METHODS AND REWARDS 3

on student choice and their own interests. Adding to this truth, Jeffrey S. Kaplan provides
research that along with gifted students, boys are more likely to read nonfiction (Kaplan, 2003, p.
91). Lesne records her own personal experience of this as she relates that while teaching she met
a boy who described himself as a non-reader because many teachers did not regard the books he
was reading as worthwhile. Lesne found that many of his choices were nonfiction (2013, p. 66).
It is interesting to find that while teachers have been hesitant to conform to Common Core
standards, students are more than prepared for the switch.
Abrahamson and Carter answer these surprising ironies as they conclude, As professionals,
we cannot claim to focus on what teenagers enjoy reading and, at the same time, offer students
only a collection of fiction titles in these workshop classrooms (1992 p. 49). Teachers should
know that their ability to teach nonfiction will be made more simple if the students desire it, and
considering that various studies have shown that they not only desire it but they prefer it, these
teachers should be moving forward with greater encouragement. And it is actually more than just
encouragement, Abrahamson and Carter direct teachers forward with a sense of duty.
Although teachers may gain this knowledge, that nonfiction is already largely desired by
students, and that it is then the teacher's role to fulfill that need, educators may still find it
difficult to transfer their curriculum from one that was mostly constructed from fiction to one of
nonfiction. In a recent article found with The ALAN Review Dawan Coombs emphasizes that
nonfiction and fiction do not have to compete, rather, they can be used symbiotically. She states,
The pairings and combinations discussed offer students alternative ways to view and
comprehend content as they explore multiple perspectives and build their content knowledge
(2013, p. 14). Coombs suggest that much of the important background of complex fictional texts
can be supported by shorter and more direct nonfiction texts.
Coombs further expounds that although, nonfiction presents ideas more directly, fiction does
it in a more narrative and pleasing way, and these characteristics across the genres emphasize
why both should be used in tandem (2013, p. 14). Students who love to learn many things
quickly also enjoy more story-like retellings.
Even though nonfiction may not be story-like, studies show that in one way it may be treated
like fiction and succeed. This method is nonfiction read aloud. In many classrooms teachers take
time out of the day to read enjoyable good books to their students, but most of the time they are
reading fictional text. But again the studies show that nonfiction read-alouds can have the same
effect on students. Abrahamson and Carter performed such an experiment and found, Over the
course of one semester she read ten nonfiction books to her remedial readers and asked them to
fill out a response questionnaire on each book. The students responded favorably to nonfiction
titles (Abrahamson & Carter, 1992, p. 51). Students need to know that nonfiction texts can be
enjoyable too, and a teacher's choice to read them along with fictional text communicates an
important message.
Beyond using nonfiction and fiction together as partners, and relating both their strengths
through read-aloud's, teachers might be saved from some unnecessary lengths by assigning
students oral rather than written reports as they read. Jeffrey S. Kaplan is a strong proponent of
this method, especially when it means gathering the true value of nonfiction. He decries the long-
held practices to just use nonfiction for book reports filled with tedious facts, and which are often
forgotten and dismissed after they are written. Instead he proposes,
if the students simply went to the library, found a bookand then shared the book with
the class? Wouldnt that save hours of copying, rewriting, rewording, word processing,
and redefiningfor the simple purpose of a teachers saying, Well at least now they
NONFICTION BEYOND COMMON CORE: METHODS AND REWARDS 4

have an idea of how to do a research report. After all, they do need this for college?
(2003, p. 92)
In fact, Kaplans idea of oral reports would save time across the field in both nonfiction and
fiction. Too often teachers present and overabundance of assignments, spend too much time
grading them, and in so doing, rationalize that they do so to prepare students for college. More
than teaching students how to get bored of writing tedious reports, teachers should engage and
encourage students interests. Oral reports allow students to maintain their interests in what they
read, and in so doing furnish lifelong learners who wish to share their education with those
around them.
Further than avoiding tasks liked written reports that might stifle students love of
nonfiction, teachers should grow that desire by giving students more options in the genre and
teaching them where to go for good nonfiction titles. For example, unlike fiction, nonfiction does
not have to be read from cover to cover or even intensely. Students may even skim and skip to
necessary parts of their reading (Dorn & Soffos, 2005). Unlike fiction, nonfiction titles need not
be approached through literary analysis, but should vastly be read through a rhetorical lens.
Headings, design, urgency, and even pictures should be analyzed. Students are not necessarily
looking for themes but for argument. Stephen B. Heller explains the reason for this as he states,
In a word: timeliness. Context matters. What circumstances influenced the writer or
speaker? What social or environmental conditions necessitated that message? In other
words, the study of nonfiction focuses on the timely, while the study of fiction focuses on
the timeless (2016, p. 13).
Students should be asked to search for the timely ethos, pathos, and logos that are being applied.
And teachers should not be worried that students are not reading intensely for timeless themes
and ideals.
On the other hand, although students should be allowed freedom on how intensely they are
reading nonfiction texts, they should be instructed on the organization of such text, and where to
go to make their search more direct. At the very least, students need instruction on the
organization of nonfiction sources including information regarding the glossary, index, and other
rhetorical strategies usually present in those texts. They also need guidance on finding
worthwhile texts. Although teachers need not be weary of picture books, they must be aware of
books that will enrich and edify not solely entertain. This is emphasized by Abrahamson and
Carter as they state, Teenagers need guidance in locating nonfiction as surely as they do when
looking for the latest novel (Abrahamson & Carter, 1992, p. 52). There are several lists
available which can be found through articles like Teri S. Lesnes article Tell Me a (Real)
Story: The Demand for Literary Nonfiction, and exemplary texts have also been provided by
the Common Core (2013, pgs. 64-69).
Not only can teachers help students through presenting books from these lists, but they can
make them more available by including them in classroom libraries. In fact classroom libraries
allow for increased literacy in all fields. Terrell A. Young and Barbara Moss emphasize,
Students who have ready access to books in their classrooms have better attitudes about
reading, reading achievement, and comprehension than their peers who have less access to books
in the classroom (Young & Moss, 2006, p 207). Instructors may find that their students are
better readers overall by combining this knowledge, that students need access to books in order
to increase comprehension and achievement, with the findings previously mentioned, that
students are more likely to gravitate to nonfiction if they are given freedom to choose. Students
who are allowed these opportunities, given this access, and taught through these methods will be
NONFICTION BEYOND COMMON CORE: METHODS AND REWARDS 5

more willingly drawn to reading, analyzing, and deeply learning. Although there might be other
unique methods, these have been tested, tried, and repeated throughout many scholarly findings.
Rewards
After using these methods to teach and implement nonfiction, teachers will be able overcome
reservations and to see both academic and individual progress within their students. While
Common Core standards regarding nonfiction hope for increases in areas like national and state
test scores, and studies have shown that increases have indeed been made in that spectrum of
academics, there are other reasons teachers should feel excited to include nonfiction texts in their
classroom.
One major area that can encourage these educators is the ideal that including more nonfiction
in the curriculum will create serious and life-long learners. One of the findings within Mary
Coleman and Jennifer Jobs article Reading in Earnest reports that nonfiction will help
students read longer and more deeply, take on challenging course work, increase analysis skills,
and become better writers ( 2016, p. 155). Students will increase their ability to take on difficult
tasks not only in English, but also throughout various subject areas because of nonfiction. And if
a student has the ability to read, write, and understand more intense coursework, then they will
enjoy it because ability engenders enjoyment. And if the students enjoy these things, they will
seek to progress and independently learn. This is the case in a lot of articles surrounding
nonfiction. When someone is able to make the switch from solely reading fiction to an inclusion
of nonfiction, they seem to feel this desire to learn more about the world around them. And the
only way for them to quench that desire is to continue reading.
Another area of improvement beyond improving students desires to read and learn is one
that may not be as expected; it is the ideal that students will become better students because of
the inclusion of nonfiction in the curriculum. One scholar exemplifies this as he finds the
connection with nonfiction between nonfiction and rhetorical analysis, and the effects on the
reader. Keller states that students will learn how to analyze the urgency of speakers in these
books, and be able to analyze the soundness of arguments. He states that with the study of
rhetorical argumentation, students will learn how to logically determine where to stand on issues
and be empowered to form arguments correctly for themselves. Keller adds that this helps
students realize the importance of their voice, the importance of taking a logical stance, the
importance of being masters of their own learning (2016, pgs. 15-16). If students can see
where they stand on important issues and gain empowerment, then they can take certain stances
beyond the pages of a book and out into the world around them. Kaplan emphasizes, Books
provide us with the opportunity to awaken from our stock responseswhere we see the world in
new and different ways (2003 p. 93). This awakening could spark much improvement in
participation, worthwhile discussion, and excitement within classrooms.
Conclusion
In the end, teachers should know that although hesitancy in regards to changes in regulations
is expected, much excitement should be felt because of these changes and what they mean for
classroom settings and rewards for students and communities. As teachers apply methods that
have already been tried and tested, their hesitancy can be converted into excitement. Harnessing
students desires, using fiction and nonfiction symbiotically, reading nonfiction aloud, assigning
oral reports, guiding students through and to nonfiction sources, and providing these sources in
classroom libraries are ways that teachers can achieve higher and meaningful ends.
When students are allowed and expected to read more nonfiction, their chances of becoming
life-long learners and better citizens increase. More importantly, as Rachel Billings states, My
NONFICTION BEYOND COMMON CORE: METHODS AND REWARDS 6

main reason for teaching nonfiction is to help my students understand that we are all part of the
past, and we can make a difference (2013, p. 24) Students deserve to be empowered, to know
where they fit in the world, and to be active participants within it. As teachers that should be our
goal and nonfiction can help us achieve it.
 NONFICTION BEYOND COMMON CORE: METHODS AND REWARDS 7

References

Abrahamson, R. F., & Carter, B. (1992). What we know about nonfiction and young adult
readers and what we need to do about it. Publishing Research Quarterly, 8(1), 41.
Billings, Rachel. (2013). Why Teach Young Adult Nonfiction? ALAN Review, 41(1), 24.
Coombs, Dawan. (2013). Fiction and Nonfiction: A Symbiotic Relationship. ALAN Review,
vol. 41(1), 7.
Diana Mitchell, a. (1996). A new look at nonfiction in the classroom. The English
Journal, (2), 74. doi:10.2307/820622
Heller, S. B. (2016). Timely or timeless? the merits of teaching nonfiction. English
Journal, 105(4), 13-16. Retrieved
from https://search.proquest.com/docview/1774318923?accountid=9817
Job, J., & Coleman, M. R. (2016). The Importance of Reading in Earnest. Gifted Child
Today, 39(3), 154. doi:10.1177/1076217516644635
Kaplan, J. S. (2003). Bold books for innovative teaching: Nonfiction books in the
classroom: Undervalued, underused, and oversimplified. The English Journal, (2), 91.
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https://byui.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eds
jsr&AN=edsjsr.3650505&site=eds-live
Lesesne, T. S. (2013). Tell Me a (Real) Story: The Demand for Literary Nonfiction. ALAN
Review, 41(1), 64.
Young, T. A., & Moss, B. (2006). Nonfiction in the classroom library: A literacy
necessity. Childhood Education, 82(4), 207. Retrieved from
https://byui.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric
&AN=EJ754802&site=eds-live http://www.acei.org