Enhancing Nonfiction Reading Comprehension through Online Book Discussions.

As a teacher educator, I'm sometimes asked to assist teachers who are struggling or frustrated. Often these situations involve a teacher who has a desire to learn effective, new strategies, as well as requests for incorporating the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Jeri (all names are pseudonyms) contacted me to assist in implementing the CCSS's call for increased emphasis in the use of informational text. She was also looking for new, engaging methods in doing so.As a result of Jeri's invitation, she and I decided to investigate the outcomes of scaffolded online book discussions of her seventh grade students facilitated by graduate students. Specifically, we examined whether her students' participation in online book discussions would improve the comprehension of informational text, and whether it would improve their use of reading strategies. This article describes the online book discussions she used with her seventh grade reading classes and our findings as a result of data collection and analysis.Literature ReviewClose ReadingAccording to Goodwin & Miller (2013), quantity is not the only factor all that matters in reading, the quality of what students read is also important. Students need to read and comprehend nonfiction texts as often as they do narrative texts. Typically, students reading nonfiction cannot simply glide over unfamiliar words as it may cause a loss in ongoing meaning. Reading nonfiction text typically requires careful attention and deeper thought while students grapple with new understandings.Close reading is a type of guided instruction in which students explore a complex and worthy text, mining it for information and actively exploring meaning on various levels is referred to as close reading (Shanahan, 2014). According to Owocki (2014), "Close reading is the practice of carefully and thoroughly attending to what an author is saying and of working to uncover the layers of meaning that are so often embedded within complex text" (p. 3). It is taking a mindful, meticulous look, making connections while reading. Close reading suggests careful attention to the text, the relevant experience, the thought and memory of the reader, and attention to the responses and interpretations of other readers (Beers & Probst, 2013).Close reading did not evolve from the CCSS. While the CCSS emphasize close reading of nonfiction texts (Burke, 2013), close reading is not a new concept. According to Akhavan (2014), close reading should be utilized when we want to make a critical analysis of what we read. It should be used when teachers want students to examine purpose, determine deep meaning, and tackle texts that might be above students' current reading level.Nonfiction TextThe call for nonfiction text in the CCSS comes, in part, from knowledge that most of the reading engaged in by students in secondary education and beyond is nonfiction text. Carefully examining the CCSS, however, one learns the purpose of increasing attention to nonfiction texts is not just for students to have a greater appreciation of and facility with a range of text genres; it is also meant to ensure that students build knowledge and are prepared to read and write in all content areas (Cervetti & Heibert, 2014).As students move through the grade levels, students' ability to read and obtain information from nonfiction becomes more and more essential to their academic success. Text, whose primary purpose is to convey information, surrounds students in the upper grades. Achievement in schooling, the workplace, and society depends on one's ability to comprehend informational material (Duke, 2004).According to Fisher and Frey (2013), the reasons for increasing nonfiction text include the need to improve content knowledge, meet demands of digital environments, and improve the fourth-grade slump. Additionally, the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) has steadily increased the use of informational passages on its assessments. …