When Reading Plateaus (1): Reading Nonfiction

In our last post, we talked about how, around grades 3–4, the focus of reading shifts from “Learning to Read” to “Reading to Learn,” and how, during this transition, some children read words without any trouble but still struggle to understand what they read.

Every child has different reading habits, and the exact reason reading has stalled differs from child to child. But it doesn’t mean your child lacks ability or effort. It may be a sign that the way of reading that worked in the early grades, following the plot and reading by feel, no longer works as well with upper-grade texts. So what can you do? Watch how your child actually reads a text and explains its main point and evidence. For example, if your child can tell you specific details or the plot of a book but hesitates at “What’s the most important point in this text?” or “What is this text really trying to say?”, it’s worth paying a little more attention to comprehension. What helps here is not reading more, but reading differently. At the center of that is reading nonfiction. In this post, we look at how to read nonfiction.

Why nonfiction?

In a story, you can follow the narrative through the characters and events. Nonfiction is different. First, it’s written for a different purpose. If stories are written to entertain and help readers relate to the story, nonfiction is written to inform, explain, or persuade. So texts about science, history, and social studies are built from facts and concepts, causes and effects, and the author’s claims and evidence, and readers have to sort out what the main point is and what supports it as they read.

When reading nonfiction, look not only at the body text but also at the title and headings, bold words, captions, tables, and pictures. That’s how you find where the main point is. The Common Core State Standards ask fourth graders reading informational text to describe the overall structure of a text, such as chronology, comparison, cause and effect, and problem and solution.[3]

Vocabulary changes too. Vocabulary research sorts words into three tiers: everyday words learned in conversation (Tier 1), technical terms used only in a specific field (Tier 3), and, in between, words used across many fields and common among skilled language users (Tier 2).[1] In nonfiction, your child will often come across Tier 2 words. Under the Common Core grade 4 standards for informational text, children should be able to work out the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words in a text.[3]

On your child’s MAP Growth Reading report, check the results for Informational Text and Vocabulary.* (*Area names may differ by grade and school.)[2] The sub-areas can show you where your child is actually finding things hard, or which areas need work.

DIBELS is a tool for understanding reading fluency, comprehension, and more. If your child’s school uses DIBELS, it’s worth looking at Maze, the comprehension measure. It doesn’t report nonfiction results separately, but because informational text makes up a larger share in some grades, you can use it as an indirect indicator.[5]

Try reading this way

1. Say the main idea in one sentence. In nonfiction, each paragraph often carries one idea. This practice is part of the Common Core grade 4 standards.[3] Once you find the main idea, you can also see where the details fit.

• Say it in a sentence: After your child reads a paragraph, ask, “What is this paragraph mostly about?” Your child needs practice summing up the paragraph in a short sentence, in writing or out loud. At first, have them look for hints in the heading or in the first and last sentences of the paragraph. Once they’re used to it, have them say it in their own words.

• Bring the paragraph summaries together: After finishing the text, use the paragraph summaries to state the main idea of the whole text in one sentence.

• Add the details: Have your child also note two or three details that support that main idea.

1. Underline the evidence, not just the answer. If you use a nonfiction workbook, have your child find where the evidence for each answer is as they work toward it.

• Ask for evidence: First make clear what the question is asking, then ask, “Which sentence in the text tells you that answer?”

• Explain the evidence for an inference: Some answers are stated directly in the text, and some questions require putting together hints from several sentences to make an inference.[3] For inference questions, have your child explain what in the text led them to that answer.

1. Learn the text structure. Nonfiction uses common structures, and each one has signal words that often appear with it. A meta-analysis of 44 studies of grades 4–6 (covering both stories and informational text) found that reading comprehension improved right after children were taught text structure.[4]

• Predict the structure: Look at the headings and signal words, and think first, “How is this text organized?”

  • Cause and effect: because, so, as a result, therefore

  • Compare and contrast: both, similarly, however, unlike

  • Problem and solution: problem, solution, one way to

  • Sequence: first, next, then, finally

• Follow the signal words: Ask questions like “What’s the cause and what’s the effect?” or “What is being compared with what?” and look at how these words connect the ideas and change their direction.

1. Make a summary chart. Have your child show the content and structure of the text as a picture, such as a Graphic Organizer. The same study found a tendency for larger effects when children looked at structure paragraph by paragraph and built summaries themselves.[4]

• Draw a shape or chart that fits the structure:

  • Cause and effect: causes on the left, effects on the right, linked with arrows

  • Compare and contrast: a two-column chart or two overlapping circles (a Venn diagram) to sort similarities and differences

  • Sequence: boxes connected in the order things happened

  • Main idea and details: the main idea in the center, supporting details around it

• Summarize: Looking at the finished chart, summarize the whole text in two or three sentences.

1. Collect Tier 2 words. When you spot words in nonfiction that are likely used across many fields, start a word list.

• Pick words: Choosing just three or four per text keeps it manageable.

• Write a note: Have your child write, in order, the sentence from the text as it appears, the meaning they guessed, the dictionary meaning, and a sentence of their own using the word.

• Find it again elsewhere: Have your child look for words from a science book in a history book or a news article, and check whether they recognize the meaning when they come across the word again.

You don’t have to do all five every time you read. Start with 1 and 2, and add 3–5 once those feel familiar. This kind of reading doesn’t stick after one or two tries, so keep going the same way.

Talk about direction with your child’s teachers

Whether it’s a school class or a private tutor or learning center, talk with the educator about the direction of your child’s reading and ask for any materials you need. These questions can help:

• When my child gets an answer right, can they find the sentence in the text that shows why?

• Do you cover enough nonfiction, such as science, history, and social studies, and its vocabulary, rather than mostly fiction?

• Is there practice in identifying text structure and summarizing?

How MapMastery reads it

MapMastery analyzes MAP Growth and DIBELS reports. We don’t look only at the number in Reading. We connect the sub-area results on the report and point out which areas are solid and which are still growing. For the MAP Test, we also look at how the patterns in Reading connect to other subjects and how they may affect them. That makes it clear which direction to support your child in, rather than what more to add.

If your child’s Reading seems to have plateaued, have MapMastery analyze your child’s report.

In our next post, we’ll share how to talk with your child after reading a book. Stay tuned.

Master your learning journey.
You grow. We map.

MapMastery’s analysis is not an official result of any assessment organization and is provided for educational purposes.

Sources
[1] Beck, I. L., McKeown, M. G., & Kucan, L., Bringing Words to Life (2002), excerpt on Reading Rockets, “Choosing Words to Teach” — https://www.readingrockets.org/topics/vocabulary/articles/choosing-words-teach
[2] NWEA, MAP Growth Reading areas (CCSS 2025) — https://www.nwea.org/uploads/CCSS_2025.pdf
[3] Common Core State Standards, Grade 4 Reading: Informational Text RI.4.1, RI.4.2, RI.4.4, RI.4.5 (California Department of Education) — https://www2.cde.ca.gov/cacs/id/web/5701 · https://www2.cde.ca.gov/cacs/id/web/5702 · https://www2.cde.ca.gov/cacs/id/web/5704 · https://www2.cde.ca.gov/cacs/id/web/5705
[4] Bogaerds-Hazenberg, S. T. M., Evers-Vermeul, J., & van den Bergh, H., “A Meta-Analysis on the Effects of Text Structure Instruction on Reading Comprehension in the Upper Elementary Grades”, Reading Research Quarterly (2021) — https://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/rrq.311
[5] University of Oregon, “DIBELS 8th Edition Administration and Scoring Guide” (2021), pp. 11–12, 35 — https://dibels.uoregon.edu/sites/default/files/2021-10/UO_Dibels8_Scoring_Guide_100121.pdf