Timelines and Texts: Motivating Students to Read Nonfiction

Nonfiction texts, in many students’ opinion, lack the excitement, energy, and adventure of fictional stories. In this lesson, students use timelines to help motivate them to read more nonfiction, which will, in turn, help increase their comprehension of nonfiction. Students begin with a discussion about timelines and their use to prepare for the research activity. Using a historical timeline and the students’ prior knowledge of events, students predict when specific inventions were produced and take notes describing their reason for identifying that particular year.