Reading non-fiction: necessity and pleasure
As Non-fiction November is on the horizon, we take a look at the importance of reading non-fiction and how it can also be a pleasurable experience.
Let me ask you a question: Where do you encounter non-fiction reading in your everyday life?
Is it:
Reading work emails?
Checking the latest updates on your news app?
Reading education blogs like this one?
Interpreting a train timetable?
Checking that you're taking your medication properly?
When I met with groups of English subject leaders earlier this term, these were the sorts of responses I got to that question. Now certainly, I asked about the place of non-fiction in their everyday lives and had I framed the question differently, I may have received a different set of responses. But what is clear from the English leaders’ answers is that they read non-fiction for necessity rather than pleasure.
Non-fiction as necessity: navigating the world
Let's explore this further, starting with non-fiction reading as necessity. Non-fiction reading is a necessity. In our everyday lives we need to navigate all those important non-fiction texts listed above. As adults how would we pay our bills on time, follow cooking instructions and organise our medical care without non-fiction? This necessity for everyday literacy is illustrated in the National Literacy Trust’s research report Literacy and life expectancy, 2018.
“43% of working-age adults in England don’t have the literacy skills they need
to understand and make use of everyday health information (known as
‘health literacy’)6. Low health literacy is associated with a 75% increased risk
of dying earlier than people who have high literacy levels.”
Quite simply, being able to read public health information saves lives. What more compelling evidence is there for ensuring our children can read nonfiction? But there is more.
Non-fiction as necessity: a broad and balanced reading curriculum
In primary schools there is another strand to the necessity of non-fiction reading that stems from the national curriculum and the reading tests that children complete in the key stage 2 SATs.
“All pupils must be encouraged to read widely across both fiction and non-fiction to develop their knowledge of themselves and the world in which they live, to establish an appreciation and love of reading, and to gain knowledge across the curriculum.”
Children need to read widely and non-fiction should be part of that diet. Now I’m not one for centring everything on the SATs; ensuring children read non-fiction should be far more than preparing them answer questions about a text during a one-hour test taken in May. But SATs are used to measure the effectiveness of our provision and we should ensure our children have sufficient experience to complete the tests successfully.
Non-fiction is included in the key stage 2 reading test every year and the following slide captures the non-fiction texts that children have read since 2016.
Non-fiction texts found in key stage 2 reading SATs since 2016.
So thinking about necessity as illustrated by these key stage 2 non-fiction text examples, do the children in your school encounter reading texts that teach them to navigate non-fiction using headings and subheadings, boxed information, illustrations and maps? And what of Question-and-Answer format magazine articles? Furthermore, can they sift through paragraphs of information that don’t use these navigational aids - take a look at The Way of the Dodo (2016) if you want to experience this particular challenge. It’s certainly worth considering whether your reading curriculum supports this range of non-fiction reading in reading lessons.
Non-fiction as pleasure: book corners and daily reading aloud
The national curriculum is clear that children should be reading widely and often for pleasure. I concur and certainly see no reason why the two should be exclusive. Non-fiction reading can be extremely pleasurable. When discussing the reading curriculum above, I’ve alluded to a wide range of non-fiction texts for teaching reading. But what about for choosing to read? My question, then, must be how much non-fiction is there in your classroom book corner to support children’s reading for pleasure? And do you ever read non-fiction during the daily read aloud session?
“The national curriculum for English aims to ensure that all pupils… develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information.”
It's worth going back to the image above. It includes information texts, fact sheets and magazine articles. But there is more to non-fiction. There are procedural texts such as cookbooks and ‘how to…’ guides. There are books explaining how things work including natural phenomena such as the water cycle and manmade objects such as electric toasters. There are magazines, newspapers and periodicals written specifically for children that share information about animals, the environment, history, science and technology. And there are biographical texts, whether these be about historical figures or famous celebrities and sports stars. Non-fiction is a wide and varied field that stretches beyond a book with a contents page, glossary and index.
So let me share my updated version of that slide. It includes text three from this year’s key stage 2 reading SAT: The Leopard. I’m prepared to be shouted down here because I know it comes from a collection of short stories by Ruskin Bond but look closely; it’s an account of a personal experience. It reads like literature with lyrical and figurative passages but is recounting events that the author experienced. Non-fiction written to engage and be read for enjoyment.
Non-fiction texts found in key stage 2 reading SATs since 2016 including The Leopard by Ruskin Bond.
Non-fiction as pleasure: literary non-fiction
Reading The Leopard puts me in mind of literary non-fiction. Non-fiction written using the techniques of literature with the intention of engaging and entertaining the reader whilst remaining faithful to the factual information being shared.
“…literary nonfiction is a type of prose that employs the literary techniques usually associated with fiction or poetry to report on persons, places, and events in the real world without altering facts.”
My current favourite children’s book is The Fossil Hunter by Kate Winter. It is a joyous exploration of the life of palaeontologist Mary Anning and the scientific achievements she made despite prejudicial treatment because of her social class and gender. It is an exceptional example of literary non-fiction written and illustrated to entertain whilst building the reader’s understanding of palaeontology. If you’ve not already seen it, take a look at this short video of Kate Winter sharing her book.
Non-fiction: necessity and pleasure
So let’s summarise. Non-fiction is essential for our successful participation in adult life, and with no hyperbole whatsoever we can see that having basic non-fiction literacy skills saves lives. We need to ensure that we equip children with the skills to navigate information texts so that they can operate in the adult world. But non-fiction is about more than getting by in the adult world. Finding out about the world around us builds our understanding of that world. It helps us care. A recent study by The National Literacy Trust showed that children who read non-fiction care more about the environment than those that do not. And of course reading non-fiction can be pleasurable. Stocking our classroom book corners with a range of non-fiction, including literary non-fiction, gives our children the option to choose information for fun.
“Those who read non-fiction are more likely to want to take care of the environment compared with those who don’t read non-fiction (68% vs 49%).”
This article is based on our English Subject Leader Training Sessions delivered in Autumn Term 2024. The training sessions were jointly authored with primary English expert Sarah Ratcliffe from Sarah SquarEd Limited . I am indebted to Sarah for her expertise in, and enthusiasm for non-fiction, and this article would not have found its way to the Primary English website without her encouragement.