Non-Fiction Focus: Elevating Informational Literacy

✔️ Teaching the Heart of Non-Fiction: Identifying Main Ideas and Supporting Details

This foundational workshop helps educators teach students how to uncover the central ideas in non-fiction texts and support them with relevant details. We explore instructional routines that:

• Guide students to distinguish between key concepts and interesting facts.

• Teach annotation and summarization strategies.

• Use graphic organizers to visualize the structure of ideas.

• Align instruction with grade-level standards and text complexity.

Educators leave equipped with practical tools to help students become purposeful, analytical readers of informational texts.

✔️ Unlocking Understanding: Enhancing Comprehension Through Text Features

Non-fiction texts often include a wide range of visual and structural features — headings, captions, diagrams, charts, glossaries, and more. This workshop focuses on:

• Helping students interpret and integrate these features to build full-text comprehension.

• Modeling how text features support the main idea and enrich context.

• Teaching students to “read with their eyes wide open” — making connections across text and visuals.

Participants learn to incorporate targeted mini-lessons that enhance students’ ability to navigate complex informational texts independently.

✔️ Vocabulary That Drives Meaning: Building Non-Fiction Understanding Through Robust Word Instruction

Academic vocabulary is essential to unlocking the meaning of non-fiction texts. In this session, we provide:

• Strategies for identifying tiered vocabulary (Tier 2 and Tier 3).

• Techniques to explicitly teach content-specific and high-utility words.

• Methods for integrating vocabulary instruction into reading, writing, and speaking tasks.

• Approaches for using morphology (prefixes, roots, suffixes) and context clues to deepen word learning.

Educators will walk away with lesson frameworks and word-learning strategies that promote retention and transfer across subjects.

✔️ Thinking Deeply: Teaching Importance and Inference in Informational Texts

Critical reading of non-fiction requires more than just finding facts — it calls for interpretation, evaluation, and inference. This advanced-level workshop supports educators in:

• Teaching students how to identify the most important information in complex texts.

• Helping readers move from “what the text says” to “what the text means.”

• Designing questions and prompts that encourage inferential thinking.

• Using text evidence to support conclusions.

Participants develop a deeper understanding of how to scaffold higher-order thinking within informational reading units.

✔️ Question It, Answer It: Using Strategic Questioning to Deepen Non-Fiction Comprehension

Inquiry fuels comprehension. This session explores how educators can leverage strategic questioning to guide students toward deeper engagement and understanding. Key takeaways include:

• Techniques for modeling and teaching text-dependent questioning.

• Structures for student-led questioning (e.g., QAR, Reciprocal Teaching).

• How to scaffold questions that promote synthesis, comparison, and evaluation.

• Using essential questions to frame instruction across units.

Educators learn to design lessons where questions are not just answered — but used to drive exploration, discussion, and critical thinking.

 Format Options:

• Half-day or full-day workshops

• Multi-session coaching cycles

• Virtual or in-person delivery

• Tailored content for K–2, 3–5, and 6–8 educators