In this blog series about the relationship between reading and writing, informational text is a topic that deserves its own spotlight. While a lot of the shared foundational knowledge and skills that reading and writing share can apply to all texts, nonfiction texts have their own patterns, structures, and rules that require specific attention. Because nonfiction texts are the kind most likely encountered in content area classes, there are some unique implications for science and social studies classrooms.

Reading Informational Texts Like a Writer

Many unit plans and curriculum documents rightly pair genre-based writing lessons with the reading genre under study, but they sometimes miss the mark when it comes to making strong connections between the reading and writing. In her book Writers Read Better: Nonfiction, Colleen Cruz (2018) presents 28 rich lessons for elementary and middle school teachers that help students see the clear connections between the strategies nonfiction writers use and the ways they can apply them in their own writing.

Take for example the pair of lessons on the importance of sequencing information in informational texts. She begins with a writing lesson with the purpose of students learning “the order and placement of information matters” (p. 94). In that lesson, the teacher shares a list of facts she’s using in her modeled informational writing and she organizes and re-organizes the facts in real time, thinking aloud about the impact that order has on the meaning. Students then repeat her strategy with their own facts, making note of the logic behind how the information flows.

Cruz then offers a reading lesson as a follow up in which students then “analyze how the placement of information influences the meaning readers draw from it” (p. 98). Taken together, these lessons deepen students’ critical thinking skills, sharpen their knowledge ability to use text structure as a tool for comprehension, and prepare them to revise their own writing with these knowledge and skills in mind. 

As Nell Duke (in Collier, 2013) and Timothy Shanahan (2024) have both noted, reading and writing mutually reinforce one another to deepen comprehension and learning when taught together, a truth Cruz’s nonfiction text lessons underscore.

Analyzing Informational Texts in Science and Social Studies

The benefits of integrating reading and writing instruction extend beyond literacy learning to include learning experiences in science and social studies, too. Writing in content area classes can be a generative site for knowledge building and critical thinking (Terada, 2021), but it can also provide support for comprehension and analysis of content rich source texts. 

The writing students tend to do in content area classes takes the form of crafting arguments about primary sources, making a claim based on scientific observations and data, or putting forth an explanation of a scientific process or historical event in their own words. Students are engaging in writing as a means to deepen their understanding and solidify learning as well as employing key disciplinary thinking skills.

Writing about content-heavy texts in science and social studies classrooms both requires that students spend more time thinking about the content (a win for content area learning) and provides more opportunities for students to apply the informational text reading and writing strategies they’re developing (a win for developing strong readers and writers).

NoRedInk Supports Critical Thinking About Informational Text

NoRedInk offers activities to support both English Language Arts teachers and content area teachers as they work to develop students’ critical thinking about informational texts. 

Our Text-Based Writing library includes a curated collection of engaging nonfiction texts for students in grades 3-12, each accompanied by text-based prompts organized by depth of thinking that ask students to apply informational text reading skills like analyzing text structure and identifying key ideas and details.

Skill-Building with Mentor Text Quick Writes help students apply non-fiction writing strategies in an authentic context, like this one that helps students use transitions to connect ideas in an informational text.

Finally, NoRedInk offers some Science and Social Studies prompt templates that content area teachers can use to help frame content area writing with discipline-specific language.

Ready to explore how NoRedInk can help you maximize your informational text instruction? Sign up for free today!

References

Collier, L. (2013, November). Nell Duke on reading and writing informational texts: Keys to student success. The Council Chronicle, 23(2), 18–21. National Council of Teachers of English. 

Cruz, M. C. (2018). Writers read better: Nonfiction: 50+ paired lessons that turn writing craft work into powerful genre reading. Corwin.

Shanahan, T. (2024, January 20). Blast from the past: How can we take advantage of the reading-writing relationship? Shanahan on Literacy. https://www.shanahanonliteracy.com/blog/blast-from-the-past-how-can-we-take-advantage-of-the-reading-writing-relationship

Terada, Y. (2021, January 7). Why students should write in all subjects. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/why-students-should-write-all-subjects/

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