Nonfiction Reading Power

Adrienne Gear's book Nonfiction Reading Power: Teaching Students How to Think While They Read all Kinds of Information has been on my desk and dog-eared for a while now. Not only does it contain terrific teaching strategies, but also some thematic lists of titles. The components of nonfiction reading power: (1) zooming-in; (2) questioning/inferring; (3) determining importance; (4) connecting: and (5) transforming, are all summarized in chapter two. Each component is then described in more detail in its own chapter. If you would like to preview it or read the entire book online, you can do that here.

Here is the publisher's description.

How can you help students find meaning in informational texts and become independent strategic readers and thinkers? Nonfiction Reading Power gives teachers a wealth of effective strategies for helping students think while they read material in all subject areas. Using the best children's books to motivate students, Adrienne Gear shows teachers how help students zoom-in, question and infer; find the main idea, make connections, and transform what's on the printed page. Key introductory concept lessons for each of the five reading powers provide valuable insight into the purpose of each strategy. The book also explores the particular features of nonfiction and offers lists of key books organized around strategies and subject areas.

Whether you teach kids at home or work with them in a traditional classroom setting, this book contains some fine suggestions for helping develop reading to learn skills.