Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources Resources for non-fiction reading comprehension

My 8 year old DS has very good reading comprehension. He reads books for pleasure in addition to assigned books from school and he is recently reading books of the level of "The mysterious Benedict society". When questioned, he can go on and on about the detailed plots and twists in these books and seems to have a good grip on the story lines and seems to use his knowledge and real life experiences to tie them to the story lines and make inferences. He also scores an A+ or A on his literature classes in school (he is grade skipped and the content is fiction, classics, biographies) and very highly in the comprehension part of the annual standardized testing.
But, when he is reading non-fiction (for e.g. a science textbook that is above his age level), he seems to lose focus and is unable to get the underlying concepts correctly and he is missing out on smaller details or cannot retain them in his memory. Are there any ways to help a motivated child improve his comprehension for non-fiction work? He wants to study a lot of astronomy and biology in the upcoming year and is disappointed that he cannot follow the books on these topics that he picked out from the library.

Thank you, Portia. I had not considered background knowledge as a factor in increasing non-fiction comprehension. I like the videos you listed. I will screen them first as you suggested.

My dd13 has this same issue - she loves to read read read fiction and I am loathe to ever ask her what happened in a book because instead of summarizing she'll recount every single last darned detail - even if it's years after she's read it She struggles though with remembering factual text that she reads, particularly science. I don't know if this is true for your ds, but my dd remembers things much easier if she either hears them or experiences them visually (not by reading words). Audiobooks might be worth a try, or one thing my dd does is take a small chunk (section) at a time, reads it, thinks it through, then moves on, instead of reading a full science chapter at one time without stopping.

I also wonder, if your ds is reading books that are a bit above his readiness level for non-fiction comprehension, on the topic he's looking at? Fiction and non-fiction are two very different beasts - my dd easily reads fiction light-years ahead of where she's at with non-fiction. So you might try having him learn from a lower reading level book at first, then move up.

One last thought - when my dd started complaining about how she couldn't remember the things she read in science books, I was completely surprised because she reads so far above grade level and is finishing up huge novels within hours of picking them up, with total recall. So I asked her how she was able to remember what she read in the novels she reads. What she had to say about it was interesting and revealing - she thinks in movies, and when she reads fiction, that translates into pictures/movies as she reads. Science textbooks, not so much! When she reads a chunk at a time, then processes it, she's essentially building the "movie" in her head

Best wishes,

polarbear

This could definitely help. The science books are so densely packed with information that reading a chunk at a time and having a discussion about it before proceeding could be a good approach. Thanks, polarbear.