Yet they had become extremely successful in a range of fields, including law, medicine, biochemistry, graphic arts, neurology, education, and business. These people's interest-based reading experiences, which often involved informational texts, were critical to their becoming successful adults despite their reading difficulties Applying and Building World Knowledge Nonfiction, informational texts also allow readers to apply and build world knowledge. When students read informational text, they have opportunities to apply their background knowledge and, more importantly, to build additional knowledge. While these kinds of reading may not be glamorous, other forms of informational reading are. Adults pursue passionate interests through informational literacy, reading on topics from the Civil War to contemporary rock music, from an exotic travel destination to the plants in their own backyard, from personal hobbies to famous people.
Children too can gain essential knowledge and pursue personal interests through informational texts.
In fact, some teachers feature an Expert of the Week or Expert Exhibitions for students to display knowledge they gain from informational texts. Nonfiction, informational texts are central to these projects. Another reason to take up the challenge of developing students' informational literacy is that it may improve their overall reading achievement. The struggling reader-writers described earlier in this paper saw their abilities to read many kinds of text, including stories, improved by their experience with informational forms. Larger-scale research has also suggested the value of informational reading experience for overall reading development.