When students read non-fiction material, they will encounter text features that are not evident when reading fiction. Use the diagrams, labeled photographs, and other text features to enhance student comprehension.

Activate student listening by asking questions throughout the text. Questions you might ask include: 

Is this important?  
What does this word mean?  
What did we learn on this page?  
Tell me 3 things you learned on this page (or in this paragraph)?

This text can be a difficult read for students because of the many concept specific words. Rereading a selection of text several times can improve accuracy and smoothness, as well as meaning of text. Because fluency should be practiced with a “good-fit” book, this text will work well for some students and for others it will provide a good opportunity for teacher modeling.

Possible word choices in this text include: vibrations, swivels, distant, impulses, influenced, prongs, and cartilage.

Context clues are the words, phrases, and sentences surrounding an unfamiliar word that gives clues or hints to its meaning. Non-fiction texts often use context clues to define concept specific words. Begin with modeling how context clues help the reader.

Example:“Rays of light enter the eyeball through a clear, round layer of cells called the cornea. The cornea acts like a camera lens and bends light into the eye." I just read about the cornea, but I am not sure what the cornea is. Let me see if the surrounding words can help me figure out what a cornea is. (reread text) What do you think a cornea is? (wait for student response) How did you figure that out? (student response) Yes! You used the clues the author gave us about the meaning of the word! That is a vocabulary strategy good readers use to help them understand what they are reading.

Other possible word choices in this text include: cornea, vitreous humor, retina, farsighted, nearsighted, pinnae, ossicles, and earwax.