Up the Ladder Reading: Nonfiction is for upper-grade readers—and teachers—who are new to the norms and culture of reading workshop, and for readers who would benefit from foundational instruction in the skills of reading nonfiction. By instilling strong habits and routines, this unit will support students in taking charge of their own reading lives and reading nonfiction with curiosity and engagement as they learn deeply about the world around them.
The unit:
- reinforces the critical structure of read-aloud, utilising nonfiction texts woven into the minilessons to model the essential skills of determining main/central ideas, monitoring for meaning, and drawing on fiction reading skills when reading narrative nonfiction;
- invites readers to engage in shared understanding and idea-building through reading partnerships;
- teaches students to recognise and select appropriately levelled, just-right nonfiction books with agency and independence;
- supports readers in tackling higher levels of text complexity, utilising running records and performance assessments to gauge students’ accuracy and ability to do higher-level comprehension work;
- builds capacity for writing about reading through flagging, jotting ideas, and pausing to reflect and grow thinking around books.
Students will come away from this unit as reinvigorated, changed readers—seeing themselves, their nonfiction books, and their world differently.
While these units are ideal for use with students in intermediate grades, specific guidelines are offered in the online resources to help teachers adapt instruction for middle school readers.
