I think the most important aspects of the article was what it said about using more expository texts and technology. As stated in the article, informational books can be used in order to prepare students for their future readings in text books. Literacy is more important now than ever, and at a more academic perspective, using expository text is a more kill-two-birds-with-one-stone approach. While teaching reading, you can also be teaching history, or science.
The article also brings to light that technology is an essential facet of the future that plays a part in literacy. How many text messages does an average individual send and receive each day? Social networks abound, information is shared, news is spread via internet. Using online resources can acquaint students with the internet and computers in general, and also provide a reason to teach online safety.
I myself remember reading only fiction as a child. I think that fiction was regarded as more of a motivational tool because it was closer to the stories we hear and see on television. I know that I did not want to read nonfiction at a young age because it was really confusing and I did not have comprehension skills geared towards textbooks. Fiction I understood, because it played like a movie in my head while I read, but when faced with expository text, it was difficult to imagine such a scene in my mind.
I found it more interesting to think of nonfiction as a motivational tool. At that age, I wanted a story, that 'movie' in my mind, not to learn things. I think I would have found it very difficult to learn in this new setting that is being introduced to schools.
I do see the value now of content area reading, but I worry about using it in such a way that students find it interesting. As I've said, I don't think that at a young age, I would have found it motivating, and I worry about having students with more of an imaginative mind set than a factual one. How do you effectively teach students who prefer fictional stories? If they have no interest in expository books, the value of learning two things at once (reading and content) is utterly lost and may actually backfire, since the student won't get anything at all from it. I really wonder what I could do if I were required to teach content area literacy techniques to students who held little interest in nonfiction reading.
I love how you point out the differences in expository and narrative text in alignment with imaginations!! I never thought about it but it is much easier to imagine a fictional story. A picture would not be hard to draw in your mind. In a more informational text, pictures are hard to imagine. It is more about experiences in which many times, children don't have much of. It's simpler for students to imagine themselves in a fictional story than in someone's real life!
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