Professional Development
In many science classrooms, reading is treated as something students must get through before they are allowed to do the “real” work of science. In KnowAtom lessons, nonfiction reading serves a different instructional role. It is not a gatekeeper, a vocabulary check, or a test of decoding skill. It is the first opportunity students have to encounter a phenomenon, notice what stands out, and begin forming ideas that can later be tested.
For teachers, especially those supporting English learners, this sequence often raises real concerns. Why read first when some students are still developing decoding skills? Why not let students jump straight into the lab, where language can feel less like a barrier?
In KnowAtom classrooms, the answer is not that students need to independently read and comprehend the text before they can think. The answer is that the reading experience is designed to be shared, visual, and discussion-driven, not decoding-centered.
Students are not asked to extract information on their own. Instead, the class treats the text, images, captions, and diagrams as shared objects of attention. Teachers read aloud, pause, point, gesture, and invite students to notice, wonder, and connect ideas together. Meaning is constructed socially through talk, drawing, and reference to visuals.
In this way, nonfiction reading becomes the first space where students begin making sense of a phenomenon together. It gives all learners, including English learners, something to think with and talk about before they are asked to test ideas with materials.
Why Students Encounter Phenomena Through Text and Visuals First
In KnowAtom lessons, students typically encounter a phenomenon through a short nonfiction text paired with photographs, diagrams, captions, or maps. This first encounter is not meant to replace hands-on investigation. It is meant to orient thinking.
Text and visuals help students notice scale, context, and patterns that would be difficult to infer from materials alone. They provide a shared reference point that grounds later discussion and investigation.
In kindergarten, students reading about seasonal changes in Weather in Our World study photographs of the same place across different times of year. Before experimenting with sunlight and shade, students begin noticing patterns in light, temperature, and living things.
In grades 1–2, students in Changing Seasons examine diagrams of Earth’s tilt alongside images of seasonal environments. The reading raises a puzzle that cannot yet be resolved: If Earth is closer to the sun in winter in some places, why is it colder there?
In grades 3–5, students in Shaping Earth’s Surface analyze maps and photographs of landforms shaped by erosion. These visuals orient students to time, force, and scale before they model erosion with water and sediment.
In grades 6–8, students in Forests or Climate and Human Activity encounter graphs, satellite images, and scientific photographs that reveal system-level patterns not visible in a single investigation.
Across grade levels, reading is where students first encounter the intellectual terrain of the problem.
Reading as Layered Sensemaking, Not a One-Time Explanation
Teachers are right to name a real tension here. In some cases, nonfiction reading can feel explanatory. Strong readers may quickly assimilate information and shift from testing ideas to confirming what they believe the text already told them.
This does happen. And it matters to acknowledge it.
In practice, KnowAtom reading works best when it is understood as layered sensemaking over time, not a single pass meant to do all the cognitive work.
Not every student takes away the same ideas from an initial read, even after discussion. Some students need more layers. In many classrooms, some of the most powerful sensemaking happens when students return to the text after an investigation, noticing details or explanations that now mean something different because they have evidence to think with.
The goal is not that the first reading withholds all explanation. The goal is that reading, discussion, investigation, and revisiting text work together as a system. Investigation gives students a reason to reread. Rereading deepens interpretation rather than ending inquiry.
For English learners, this layered approach matters deeply. Students are not penalized for partial understanding. They can contribute observations using gestures, drawings, home language, or emerging academic language. Precision grows as understanding grows.
Research on disciplinary literacy supports this view of reading as iterative sensemaking rather than information extraction (Shanahan & Shanahan, 2017).
How Reading Supports Early Explanatory Thinking
Before students test ideas, they need a way to imagine what might be happening. Nonfiction reading supplies representations that help students begin forming those early explanations.
In upper elementary and middle school, reading introduces representations of invisible processes such as energy transfer, ecosystems, or genetic inheritance. These representations help students imagine how systems might work, but their initial ideas are tentative and partial. Investigation then allows students to probe, refine, and revise those ideas based on evidence.
This cycle reflects model-based reasoning, where learning occurs through proposing, testing, and revising explanations rather than receiving them fully formed (National Research Council, 2012).
How Images, Captions, and Diagrams Extend Thinking
Images and diagrams play a critical role in nonfiction reading, but not primarily by creating confusion. Their main function is to orient and extend thinking.
Visuals often clarify scale, structure, or relationships that text alone cannot. At the same time, they invite students to think beyond what is explicitly stated.
A diagram may clearly show parts, but not explain how they interact. A photograph may orient students to scale, but raise questions about cause or function. A map may display distribution while leaving mechanisms unresolved.
In Plant and Animal Structures, diagrams help students see internal and external features, then prompt questions about how those structures function. In Water on Earth, maps and charts clarify distribution while inviting questions about movement and interaction. In Human Genetics, DNA models make structure visible while raising questions about how small changes produce large effects.
For English learners, visuals provide powerful entry points. Students can point, compare, describe, and hypothesize even when language is still developing. Meaning is built socially through discussion, not privately through silent decoding.
How Early Reading Sets Up the Rest of the Lesson Sequence
Nonfiction reading is not an isolated activity. It prepares students for everything that follows.
Supporting Discourse
The text and visuals give students shared reference points. During discussion, students can point back to images, phrases, or diagrams to support ideas, disagreements, and questions.
Supporting Question Generation
Reading surfaces what students notice and what does not yet make sense. Questions grow out of evidence, not guessing, which leads to more focused investigations.
Supporting Investigation Planning
When students design investigations or engineering solutions, they draw directly on ideas formed during reading and discussion. They have already begun thinking about variables, constraints, and mechanisms worth testing.
By the time students handle materials, they are not just following procedures. They are testing ideas they already care about.
Why This Sequence Matters More Than It Might Seem
Placing nonfiction reading before discussion and investigation is not about delaying hands-on learning. It is about ensuring that hands-on learning has intellectual purpose.
When students encounter a phenomenon through shared reading and visuals first, they begin forming early explanations, questions, and points of disagreement. They notice what stands out and what does not yet add up. By the time materials are introduced, students are testing ideas rather than simply completing tasks.
This is especially important for English learners. Because reading is social and visual, students can participate in meaning-making from the start. Language develops alongside understanding rather than acting as a prerequisite for it.
Across K–8 KnowAtom lessons, this routine creates coherence:
- Reading orients and seeds thinking
- Discussion surfaces ideas and questions
- Investigation tests and revises explanations
- Revisiting text deepens understanding
When nonfiction reading is used this way, it does not compete with investigation. It strengthens it. Students enter the lab with ideas worth testing and reasons to care about the evidence they gather.
Teacher Takeaway
Nonfiction reading comes before investigation because it gives students a context to share connections and ideas to think with. When reading is treated as a social, layered sensemaking routine rather than an individual decoding task, it supports English learners, deepens discourse, and makes hands-on investigation more purposeful.
References
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Gibbons, P. (2015). Scaffolding language, scaffolding learning. Heinemann.
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National Research Council. (2012). A framework for K–12 science education. National Academies Press.
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Shanahan, T., & Shanahan, C. (2017). Disciplinary literacy: Just the facts. Educational Leadership, 75(2), 18–22.