Why Non-Fiction is Important to Reading and Learning

Children learn by taking in pieces of information and categorizing them. They do this all through their schooling years. When they reach puberty they take this information, make sense out of it, and think critically with it.

As a child grows, he or she adds to that warehouse of information. Unfortunately, many high school and college students do not have a solid informational knowledge base to do the work required of them in high school and college. Most college professors assume students already know how to summarize an article or infer the meanings of unknown vocabulary words in context. So from as early as possible, children need an ongoing diet of non-fiction reading material and all throughout their schooling years.

Books like Usborne are designed to provide information to the child in the way he or she learns it. Usborne books have large beautiful illustrations with small chunks of information around them. The illustrations and the factual text give the child the information in a straightforward, easy to understand way.

Studies show that children are not reading sufficiently, not comprehending what they read, and are not reading enough non-fiction. The only way to ensure comprehension and create good reading habits is to read a lot.

What This Means For Teachers

Teachers need to expose students to a variety of motivating non-fiction texts that are challenging. There should be plenty of oral and reading activities to help close some of the reading gaps and especially for English language learners. In fact, teachers should aim for a balanced oral-reading approach. "The research suggests that the reason for the disparity between word-and text-level skills among language-minority students is oral proficiency. Well-developed oral proficiency in English is associated with English reading and writing skills for these students" (August and Shanahan 4).

Practice, Practice, Practice.

With lots of practice, children will learn to sound out words and retain what they read. Usborne non-fiction books are fun, engaging and informational. The large illustrations give clues to the text. Even a lower performing reader can understand what's happening from an Usborne book. The pictures, located directly under or over the easy-to-understand text, help create an emotional response to the information. This response, whether it is happy, sad, or something else helps a child retain the information.

Have a Reading Plan

A child's reading will not take care of itself once s/he enters school. Children have many different ways of learning and what they understood from their early years already affects his/her learning. While teachers will change every year, a parent is the only constant in a child's school career. Parents/teachers can take already ensure that all reading components are in place by taking the following actions:

Start the reading process early.
Reduce the Summer Brain Drain. Kids can lose up to 60% of what they have learned during the summer months. Experts say reading during the summer is the best way to offset brain drain.Make sure you have a good stock for your kid's summer reading list.
Read well and read often.
Build an diverse library for your child with plenty of Usborne Books.
Include in their library non-fiction, fiction and practical "How To's."
Have the books available; be ready at the first initiative to read a book - don't wait until they express interest.

And remember...

* Readers often write well because they have read good literature.
* Readers have a better vocabulary because they are exposed to more words.
* Reading stimulates the mind.
* Reading entertains without dulling the mind like television and video games.

Read good books that will broaden their informational base and shape their futures.

Read books where you will get the most fun and learning for your money.

And just read!

Works Cited

August, Diane, and Timothy Shanahan (Eds.) Executive Summary. Developing Literacy in Second-Language Learners: Report of the National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2006. 8 January 2009

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