Education Next – Doug Lemov, Colleen Driggs and Erica Woolway
“Reading nonfiction poses a double challenge for most students. Comprehension of nonfiction often demands a strong base of prior knowledge, but reading nonfiction is also one of the primary ways such a base of knowledge is built. Nonfiction, in other words, both relies on and develops knowledge, and the significance of this paradox is far reaching. We can start with the practical. One of the most forceful arguments in the Common Core is that students should read significantly more nonfiction than most currently do. This argument is intended to address a gap in preparation. Much of what many students must read in college is nonfiction—often complex and dense nonfiction—but their reading during their middle and high school years is usually heavily weighted toward fiction, often, as we discussed in chapter 1, insufficiently complex fiction. Thus students arrive on campus unprepared to read what is required of them.”(more)