Trending Post : Books Made Into Movies

Imagination Soup

21 Good Picture Books to Teach Problem and Solution

This post may contain affiliate links.

Read mentor text picture books to teach problem and solution text structure. Understanding the problem and solution story structures improves comprehension and helps readers make informed predictions. (As well as helping children see the creative possibilities in problem-solving!)

Of course, almost all stories have a problem and a solution –with the exception of a concept book. So really, you can search out problem and solution examples in any book, whether it’s fiction or nonfiction.

problem and solution books

When children learn what to expect in a problem and solution story, not only will they be able to predict solutions, but they will also be better able to write their own problem-solution stories. I started teaching this early to my young kids, well before they were school-age because we want our children to become problem solvers. That is an important life skill!

While many picture books model the narrative story structure of problem and solution, these are my favorites to use with kids both at home and in the classroom.

PRINTABLE LIST

problem and solution picture books mentor texts

Mentor Text Picture Books to Teach Problem and Solution

problem solution nonfiction books

Problem Solved! by Jan Thomas When Rabbit sees his messy room, he learns that he has HIS OWN PROBLEM SOLVING PORCUPINE! Which seems good at first. But, it turns into a disaster. Because to clean up the blocks, the porcupine flushes them down the toilet. And to clean up his shirts, he feeds them to the goldfish. How can Rabbit get rid of his not-very-helpful problem-solving porcupine?

problem solution nonfiction books

A House in the Woods  by Inga Moore Little Pig’s den becomes filled with friends, but once Moose arrives, the den collapses. Oh, no! Problem. What will they do to find a solution? Together, the animals build a new house in the woods big enough to fit all the friends.

problem solution nonfiction books

Enigma  by Graeme Base Bertie needs to find the missing magic show props that have disappeared from his grandpa’s retirement home. Each performer tells him what’s missing. Readers help find the items in the illustrations so that Bertie can find the culprit. Like all his books, Base excels in his detailed illustrations.

problem solution nonfiction books

7 Ate 9: The Untold Story  by Tara Lazar, illustrated by Ross MacDonald 6 bangs on Private I’s door for help! Because there’s a rumor that 7 is eating other numbers because apparently, 7 ate 9. YIKES! But did 7 really eat 9? Pitch perfect tongue-in-cheek number and word humor will crack you up throughout this suspenseful, funny problem and solution story. (Also on:  Best Picture Book Mysteries .)

problem solution nonfiction books

The Brownstone  by Paula Scher, illustrated by Stan Mack The Bear family is ready for hibernation but first, they need to figure out what to do about the noise problem. Their solution? All the animals work together to shift apartments so that everyone finds the best apartment for their specific needs. You’ll love the message and illustrations.

problem solution nonfiction books

Pigeon P.I.  by Meg McLaren What a unique and delightful mystery story! A little canary asks Pigeon P.I. (private investigator) to help her find her missing friends. Then the canary goes missing, too. It’s up to Pigeon to solve the missing bird mystery. The author writes in the style of the old detective shows– punchy with short sentences. The illustrator captures the details, giving kids clues to notice as they read.

problem solution nonfiction books

One Word from Sophia  by Jim Averbeck, illustrated by Yasmeen Ismail This picture book is a great way to teach kids summarizing and word choice as well as a problem-solution text structure! Sophia really wants a pet giraffe for her birthday. As a result, she sets out to convince her family, starting with her mother, a judge. However, Mother says that Sophia’s argument is too verbose. As a result, Sophie tries fewer words with Father. But he says her presentation is too effusive. Sophia continues with each family member until she reaches her last-ditch attempt and says the one word that works: PLEASE.

problem solution nonfiction books

No Boring Stories!  by Julie Falatko, illustrated by Charles Santoso When a cute little bunny tries to join a group of animal storytellers (mole, weevil, crab, and babirusa), the group doesn’t want to add her to their brainstorming group. As the animals continue their story plans with relatable characters, an inciting incident, rising action, climax, and…. Only the group gets stuck with the ending. That’s when bunny reveals that she likes making up weird (not boring) stories. The group realizes that the bunny has the perfect ending idea. Reluctantly, they agree that she can be part of the group. At least until a “ bunch of adorable frogs and puppies show up next week… ” This book shows plotting as well as the creative strengths of writers working together.

problem solution nonfiction books

That Fruit Is Mine!  by Anuska Allepuz This is a charming problem and solution story about learning to share and the power of working together. You’ll crack up watching the elephants’ many failed attempts to get delicious-looking fruit off a tree while simultaneously watching a tiny group of mice work together to get the yummy fruit, too. The problem is getting the fruit but only one animal group succeeds in a solution. Who do you think it will be? Great for prediction! (Also on:  Picture Books That Teach Cooperation .)

problem solution picture book

Great, Now We’ve Got Barbarians!   by Jason Carter Eaton, illustrated by Mark Fearing Mom says that if the boy doesn’t clean his room, he’ll get pests . . . which the boy thinks aren’t all that bad, right? However, things go downhill when barbarian “pests” start arriving. Because they eat everything, use his toys to clean out their ears, and steal blankets and pillows. So there is only one thing to do — CLEAN up his room. It’s a predictable but funny solution with the perfect forgot-to-clean-up twist at the end.

problem solving picture books

Walrus in the Bathtub  by Deborah Underwood, illustrated by Matt Hunt The worst thing about this family’s new home is the walrus in the bathtub. And walrus songs are very, very loud. It’s a big problem. The family tries lots of clever things to get the walrus to leave the bathtub but with no success. So they decide to move. Again. That’s when the walrus shows them his list — “ How to Make Your New Family Feel Welcome ” — which, surprisingly, includes all the things that annoy the family. It turns out the walrus was just trying to be nice. As a result, the family stays with a few *new* rules. This story will make you want your own walrus in a bathtub.

problem solution nonfiction books

The Thingity-Jig by Kathleen Doherty, illustrated by Kristyna Litten Wordplay, problem-solving, and persistence! One day Bear finds a Thingity-Jig (aka. a couch), which he thinks is wonderful as a sit-on-it, jump-on-it thing.  He asks his friends to help him carry it home but they’re too fast asleep, so Bear figures out some ideas to do it himself. He makes a Rolly-Rumpity! Which is a pack-it-up, heap-it-up, load-it-up thing. That isn’t enough to move the Thingit-Jig so Bear makes something else — a Lifty-Uppity. And then, a Pushy-Poppity. And at daybreak, he arrives back at home where his friends are waking up, with his special Thingity-Jig. Bingity…Bing…Boing…Bear falls asleep.

problem solution nonfiction books

Someday is Now: Clara Luper and the 1958 Oklahoma City Sit-Ins  by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich Clara advocated for justice and equality during a time when Black people weren’t permitted the same rights as white people. As a teacher, she inspired her students to believe that change was possible. Clara and her students went to the Katz drugstore and asked to be served — even though the store didn’t serve black people. She and her students returned day after day despite people yelling and throwing food. Eventually, the Katz store relented and started to serve people of all races. Clara and her students finally could enjoy a Coke and a burger without trouble.

problem solution nonfiction books

Wangari’s Trees of Peace  by Jeannette Winter Based on the true story of Wangari Maathai, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, read how Wangari helped her country of Kenya whose forests were all but destroyed. She started planting trees which started a movement motivating other people to plant trees as well. This is an example of how narrative nonfiction book can also teach the plot structure of problem and solution .

problem solution nonfiction books

Battle Bunny   by Jon Scieszka and Mac Barnett, illustrated by Matt Myers When Alex gets a silly, sappy picture book called Birthday Bunny, he picks up a pencil and turns it into something he’d like to read: Battle Bunny. An adorable rabbit’s journey through the forest becomes a secret mission to unleash an evil plan–a plan that only Alex can stop. Not only does this mentor text model problem and solution, but also voice and revision.

problem solution nonfiction books

When Pigs Fly  by James Burke One day, an exuberant pig declares that he will fly. His sister observes with disbelief and horror as one attempt after another fails. The brother pig is so disappointed that he decides to give up. That’s when his sister comes up with an idea — something he hasn’t tried before that will help her brother fly — a pretend airplane. The pigs’ expressive illustrations are absolutely perfect as is the message of persistence despite failure.

problem solution nonfiction books

Piper and Purpa Forever!  by Susan Lendroth, illustrated by Olivia Feng Most stories have a  problem and a solution  but this story is a great example showing a little girl’s ability to creatively  problem solve  with a beautiful solution to her problem. Piper loves her beloved purple sweater, Purpa, and is so sad when she grows out of it. Will she be able to keep her sweater somehow?

problem and solution picture books

KEEP READING

Picture Books to  Teach Perspective

Picture Books to  Teach Vivid Description

Favorite Book Character Costumes

Avatar photo

Melissa Taylor, MA, is the creator of Imagination Soup. She's a mother, former teacher & literacy trainer, and freelance education writer. She writes Imagination Soup and freelances for publications online and in print, including Penguin Random House's Brightly website, USA Today Health, Adobe Education, Colorado Parent, and Parenting. She is passionate about matching kids with books that they'll love.

Similar Posts

20+ Recommended Children’s Anxiety Books

20+ Recommended Children’s Anxiety Books

Brilliant Family Read-Aloud Books for Kids of Different Ages

Brilliant Family Read-Aloud Books for Kids of Different Ages

Good Middle School Books for Reluctant Readers

Good Middle School Books for Reluctant Readers

Motivating SCHOLASTIC BRANCHES Chapter Books

Motivating SCHOLASTIC BRANCHES Chapter Books

55 Best 6th Grade Books to Read for Summer (Ages 11 – 12)

55 Best 6th Grade Books to Read for Summer (Ages 11 – 12)

Children’s Books for Hope & Understanding Amid the Israeli Palestinian Conflict

Children’s Books for Hope & Understanding Amid the Israeli Palestinian Conflict

Leave a reply cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

My grandson loves cars, RC cars, sports cars but I don’t find any books about cars, racing, car features, etc. It would be a ‘hook’ to get him to read more. Any suggestions appreciated.

Here is a list of vehicle books. https://imaginationsoup.net/picture-books-vehicle-loving-kids/ . My recommendation for car books is Professor Wooford McPaw’s History of Cars by Elliot Kruszynski.

FREE EDITABLE PARAGRAPH RUBRIC? YES, PLEASE!

problem solution nonfiction books

Mentor Texts for Informational Text Structures

problem solution nonfiction books

Teaching informational text structures, just like any concept, can be done in a number of ways. One of my favorite teaching strategies though is to use mentor texts.

I love using picture books with upper elementary students because they’re motivating! Another plus is that a mentor text can be completed rather quickly, which is a bonus when the school day is packed with more to teach than time allows.

This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. If you purchase through one of these links, The Teacher Next Door, LLC receives a few cents on the dollar.  This commission directly supports us as a small business and ensures that we can continue to create high-quality content for upper elementary teachers, like yourself!  As always, the products shared are tried, true, and tested. Enjoy! 

Here are the text structures i teach, with some of my favorite mentor texts pictured:.

problem solution nonfiction books

Description

Nonfiction books that describe something, in no particular time order, fall under the description category. These books give lots of facts about a particular subject, like llamas, or bicycles, or Yellowstone Park!

Here’s a list of mentor texts with a descriptive text structure: 

  • Our Amazing World’s  Penguins 
  • National Geographic’s Planets 
  • Dinosaurs: A Kids Book Around Dinosaurs
  • Inside Out: Human Body 
  • Take Off! All About Airplanes 
  • Hurricanes by Gail Gibbons 
  • My Book of Rocks and Minerals 
  • Smithsonian’s Everything You Need to Know About Birds
  • A True Book: Comets and Meteor Showers 

problem solution nonfiction books

Order and Sequence

Order and Sequence books present informational text topics in chronological order. Many biographies and history books fall into this category.

So, the life cycle of butterflies, Walt Disney’s life story, and the making of the Great Wall could be written with an Order and Sequence text structure.

Here’s a list of mentor texts with an order and sequence text structure: 

  • The Children’s Book of the Eiffel Tower
  • A Frog’s Life
  • Biography’s Amelia Earhart
  • Building of the Transcontinental Railroad
  • The Amazing Life of Benjamin Franklin
  • Flute’s Journey 
  • Castle by David Macaulay 
  • Time for Kids: A Butterly’s Life 
  • Milk: From Cow to Carton 

problem solution nonfiction books

Compare and Contrast

This informational text structure is all about looking at two different people, animals, or things and finding the ways they are alike and how they’re different. Some Compare and Contrast books are written so that the items are compared and contrasted concurrently.

For example, an author might write that dolphins are mammals and have lungs, while sharks are fish and have gills. Other Compare and Contrast books describe the first subject in its entirety and then describe the second subject.

Examples for this category would be books comparing Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Franklin, hawks to owls, or the Eiffel Tower to the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Here’s a list of mentor texts with a compare and contrast text structure: 

  • Are You a Snail? 
  • Teeth by Sneed B. Collard
  • Butterflies and Moths
  • What’s the Difference?
  • Sharks and Dolphins 
  • National Geographic Kids: Cats vs. Dogs
  • All About Big Cats 
  • What’s the Difference Between an Alligator and a Crocodile?
  • Living Things and Nonliving Things

problem solution nonfiction books

Cause and Effect

Picture books, magazine articles, or any type of passage that is written in the Cause and Effect text structure will show how one event caused another. Topics that have this type of text structure might include animal adaptations, historical events such as war, and naturally occurring phenomena like volcanoes or earthquakes.

This text structure is often confused with Problem and Solution. I do make sure to tell students that if they only see a cause and effect with no solution, it is simply Cause and Effect.

If something happens and a solution is proposed, it’s Problem and Solution. For example, if the author is discussing how some people litter and how it leads to pollution, that’s Cause and Effect. If the author mentions littering as a form of pollution and then tells about how this can be resolved, then it’s Problem and Solution.

Here’s a list of mentor texts with a cause and effect text structure:

  •   Volcanoes
  • Toad Overload 
  • The Reason for a Flower 
  • Thunder and Lightning 
  • What Happens to a Hamburger
  • From Tree to Paper 
  • What Are Germs and Why Do They Make Us Sick? 
  • Extreme Animals 
  • Transformed: How Everything Things Are Made

problem solution nonfiction books

Problem and Solution

Nonfiction books that have the Problem and Solution text structure will present an issue, either past or present, and then describe how it was or could be remedied.

Books with topics such as a zoo’s efforts to save endangered pandas, Rachel Carson’s explanation of how pesticides such as DDT are harmful to birds and other animals and how they should be banned, or a book which discusses how rain forests are shrinking and what we can do to save them are all examples of the Problem and Solution text structure.

Here’s a list of mentor texts with a problem and solution text structure:

  • Human Footprint 
  • When the Wolves Returned 
  • A Place for Birds
  • Why Should I Recycle?
  • The Rainforest Book 
  • The Man-Eating Tigers of Sundarbans 
  • A Place for Butterflies 
  • If You Traveled on the Underground Railroad 
  • Falcons Nests on Skyscrapers 

Want to try a really fun scavenger hunt activity for Informational Text Structures?

Click here to read about the Informational Text Structures Scavenger Hunt.

Finally, if you need some new Informational Text Structure materials, I have a unit that I love using. It comes in both print AND digital and has a teaching passage for each text structure, independent passages where students have to figure out the text structure, 32 task cards, posters, a flipbook, graphic organizers, and writing activities.

problem solution nonfiction books

Click the photos below to see the 3rd grade version or the 4th/5th grade set.

Informational Text Structures 3rd Grade Print and Digital

4th/5th Grade

Informational Text Structures for 4th and 5th Grades in print and digital

Thanks for stopping by!

The Teacher Next Door - Creating upper elementary resources that target standards for busy teachers

  • Read more about: Mentor Texts

You might also like...

Mentor Texts for Text to World Connections Square Cover

Mentor Texts for Teaching Text to World Connections

When readers are really thinking about what they’re reading, they sometimes make connections to what’s going on in the world right now or how it

problem solution nonfiction books

Mentor Texts for Teaching Text to Text Connections

. I love teaching about making text to text connections! My students always get excited about comparing and contrasting things from two books that we’ve

problem solution nonfiction books

Mentor Texts for Teaching Text to Self Connections

One important reading comprehension strategy is to help students activate their background knowledge in order to boost reading comprehension. Teaching students about their schema (memories,

Hi, I’m Jenn, CEO and owner of The Teacher Next Door!

I know that you strive to be an effective upper elementary teacher while maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

In order to do that, you need resources that are impactful, yet simple .

The problem is that most resources and curriculums out there are far from simple. The pages upon pages of daily lesson plans are just plain overwhelming .

At TTND, we believe teachers should be living their lives outside of the classroom, and not spend hours lesson planning and searching for resources.

We understand that now, more than ever, teachers need space to be themselves which is why we create and support teachers with timesaving tips and standards-aligned resources.

Want access to TTND's Free Resource Library? Sign up for our newsletter and we'll email you the exclusive password!

Trending posts.

problem solution nonfiction books

SEARCH BY TOPIC

  • Classroom Ideas
  • Holidays and Seasonal
  • Mentor Texts
  • Reading Workshop
  • Uncategorized
  • Writing & Grammar

POPULAR RESOURCES

Complete Paragraph Bundle - Explicit Writing Instruction - The Teacher Next Door Product Cover

JOIN MY NEWSLETTER

Gain access to a library of FREE resources for upper elementary grades!

problem solution nonfiction books

Facebook Group

Teachers Pay Teachers

Free Resource Library

💌 Contact Us

Disclosures

Privacy Policy

Refund Policy

Purchase Orders

Your Downloads

Reward Points

©  The Teacher Next Door, LLC. All rights reserved.

FREE RESOURCE LIBRARY (3)

* Please note: If your school has strong email filters, you may wish to use your personal email to ensure access.

problem solution nonfiction books

How to Teach Problem and Solution using a Nonfiction Picture Book

problem solution nonfiction books

You know how much I love picture books and this week is no exception. Check out the Empathy Picture book post!! When it’s time to teach nonfiction problem and solution, I immediately go to my favorite picture book “You wouldn’t want to be on Apollo 13!” I have to tell you that being a native Floridian anything with NASA or Space Shuttles is in our blood. We love everything about it and you can find us up in Cape Canaveral during any launch.

Problem & Solution Picture Book

I’m sure you have heard of one of the most famous launches called Apollo 13. If not- watch the movie. It’s freaking amazing. Anyways- the shuttle ends up exploding and pieces of it go out into space. The mission turns from being a lunar landing to a “get the boys home” mission. SPOILER ALERT- They get home safely.

Tired of spending hours searching for the right picture book?

Make all 5 components of reading lessons fun and engaging.

This picture book pack will help with your planning and creating thematic units. Download the entire week of Iggy Peck, Architect.

problem solution nonfiction books

Using Picture Book to Teach Problem & Solution

How does this picture book help with problem and solution? The mission itself has a massive problem. Like I said before- the shuttle explodes. I start on page 10 and read all about how their day started and how the day went. I do read this after the Titanic book (check this post here) so they have the foundation for Chronological Order. (Hello spiral work!)We are constantly asking- was there a problem? We tend to skip around and get to page 18. Now we come across the problem.

Let your students solve the problem!

Need a nonfiction problem and solution picture book? You wouldn't want to be on Apollo 13 is a great book!

The kids get insanely creative with this. I tell the kids that there is no wrong answer at this time. I also give them hints like they can use the moon to help assist, they cannot get another shuttle out there because they don’t have extra shuttles on hand, and that they need to solve their problem with what they have on board. We spend a good 15-20 minutes discussing alternatives. This puts the learning in the students’ hands. The kids really love doing this activity.

The following day we read page 20 & 21. We review the different options that are provided by the book. Ask the students which they would. Why would they choose that specific one?

We skip to pages 28 & 29 and discuss the problems that may happen if they enter Earth’s atmosphere. Again, let them decide the solution. Once you decide on a solution, read page 29. The students love seeing that the astronauts make it safely back to earth.

Nonfiction Problem & Solution Picture Book

nonfiction problem and solution picture book

It takes patience and a lot of searching for the perfect picture book for each skill. Luckily for you, I have found that perfect book just for problem & solution! You can purchase this book on Amazon !

Picture Book Checklist

We know that not all of the picture books are perfect for each skill. I am giving you my picture book checklist that I use with every single picture book that I use. This checklist is my way of identifying if it is a book if I should bring it into my classroom or not.

Similar Posts

Engaging Your 5th Graders in Deeper Word Work with Word Work for 5th Grade

Engaging Your 5th Graders in Deeper Word Work with Word Work for 5th Grade

One of the biggest challenges that 5th-grade teachers face is how to engage students in a meaningful way when it comes to learning and mastering new words. Vocabulary acquisition is a fundamental skill that can make or break a student’s…

“The Panda Problem” in the 4th and 5th Grade Classroom: A Teacher’s Guide

“The Panda Problem” in the 4th and 5th Grade Classroom: A Teacher’s Guide

You’ve got “The Panda Problem” on your hands, and it’s the perfect book to shake things up in your classroom. It’s all about engaging those older kids with a story that’s fun and a bit out there. Ready to turn…

15 of the Best Literacy Week Ideas

15 of the Best Literacy Week Ideas

As a teacher, I know the importance of having my students fall in love with reading. That is why I have decided to take literacy into my own hands and start Literacy Week every January in my classroom! With literacy…

Planning a Historical Fiction Unit in Elementary

Planning a Historical Fiction Unit in Elementary

Do you want to introduce your students to the genre of historical fiction, but not sure where to start? I recently planned out an in-depth historical genre unit, and I wanted to share some of the things I decided to…

The Boy & The Giant

The Boy & The Giant

Welcome to my Picture Book Rec! I am bringing you some of my favorite picture books each week and I am honestly very excited. This week we are working on teaching empathy to kids. Students sometimes need some assistance with…

Create the Best Guided Reading Schedule for YOU

Create the Best Guided Reading Schedule for YOU

Does guided reading ever feel like a chore to you? I know it does to me! Even though I love reading and teaching reading, it can be tricky. It will be tricky to make sure that every student is getting…

What picture book are you using to teach about problem and solution? Let me teach introduce you to the Titanic.

Your cart is currently empty.

Return to Shop

The Best (and Most Anticipated) Nonfiction Books of 2024, So Far

Here’s what memoirs, histories, and essay collections we’re indulging in this spring.

the covers of the best and most anticipated nonfiction books of 2024

Every item on this page was chosen by an ELLE editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy.

Truth-swallowing can too often taste of forced medicine. Where the most successful nonfiction triumphs is in its ability to instruct, encourage, and demand without spoon-feeding. Getting to read and reward this year’s best nonfiction, then, is as much a treat as a lesson. I can’t pretend to be as intelligent, empathetic, self-knowledgeable, or even as well-read as many of the authors on this list. But appreciating the results of their labors is a more-than-sufficient consolation.

Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture by Kyle Chayka

There’s a lot to ponder in the latest project from New Yorker writer Kyle Chayka, who elegantly argues that algorithms have eroded—if not erased—the essential development of personal taste. As Chayka puts forth in Filterworld , the age of flawed-but-fulfilling human cultural curation has given way to the sanitization of Spotify’s so-called “Discover” playlists, or of Netflix’s Emily in Paris, or of subway tile and shiplap . There’s perhaps an old-school sanctimony to this criticism that some readers might chafe against. But there’s also a very real and alarming truth to Chayka’s insights, assembled alongside interviews and examples that span decades, mediums, and genres under the giant umbrella we call “culture.” Filterworld is the kind of book worth wrestling with, critiquing, and absorbing deeply—the antithesis of mindless consumption.

American Girls: One Woman's Journey Into the Islamic State and Her Sister's Fight to Bring Her Home by Jessica Roy

In 2019, former ELLE digital director Jessica Roy published a story about the Sally sisters , two American women who grew up in the same Jehovah’s Witness family and married a pair of brothers—but only one of those sisters ended up in Syria, her husband fighting on behalf of ISIS. American Girls , Roy’s nonfiction debut, expands upon that story of sibling love, sibling rivalry, abuse and extremism, adding reams of reporting to create a riveting tale that treats its subjects with true empathy while never flinching from the reality of their choices.

Leonor: The Story of a Lost Childhood by Paula Delgado-Kling

In this small but gutting work of memoir-meets-biography, Colombian journalist Paula Delgado-King chronicles two lives that intersect in violence: hers, and that of Leonor, a Colombian child solider who was beckoned into the guerilla Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) only to endure years of death and abuse. Over the course of 19 years, Delgago-King followed Leonor through her recruitment into FARC; her sexual slavery to a man decades her senior; her eventual escape; and her rehabilitation. The author’s resulting account is visceral, a clear-eyed account of the utterly human impact wrought by war.

Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum by Antonia Hylton

A meticulous work of research and commitment, Antonia Hylton’s Madness takes readers deep inside the nearly century-old history of Maryland’s Crownsville State Hospital, one of the only segregated mental asylums with records—and a campus—that remain to this day. Featuring interviews with both former Crownsville staff and family members of those who lived there, Madness is a radically complex work of historical study, etching the intersections of race, mental health, criminal justice, public health, memory, and the essential quest for human dignity.

Come Together: The Science (and Art!) of Creating Lasting Sexual Connections by Emily Nagoski

Out January 30.

Emily Nagoski’s bestselling Come As You Are opened up a generations-wide conversation about women and their relationship with sex: why some love it, why some hate it, and why it can feel so impossible to find help or answers in either camp. In Come Together , Nagoski returns to the subject with a renewed focus on pleasure—and why it is ultimately so much more pivotal for long-term sexual relationships than spontaneity or frequency. This is not only an accessible, gentle-hearted guide to a still-taboo topic; it’s a fascinating exploration of how our most intimate connections can not just endure but thrive.

Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis by Jonathan Blitzer

A remarkable volume—its 500-page length itself underscoring the author’s commitment to the complexity of the problem—Jonathan Blitzer’s Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here tracks the history of the migrant crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border through the intimate accounts of those who’ve lived it. In painstaking detail, Blitzer compiles the history of the U.S.’s involvement in Central America, and illustrates how foreign and immigration policies have irrevocably altered human lives—as well as tying them to one another. “Immigrants have a way of changing two places at once: their new homes and their old ones,” Blitzer writes. “Rather than cleaving apart the worlds of the U.S., El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, the Americans were irrevocably binding them together.”

How to Live Free in a Dangerous World: A Decolonial Memoir by Shayla Lawson

Out February 6.

“I used to say taking a trip was just a coping mechanism,” writes Shayla Lawson in their travel-memoir-in-essays How to Live Free in a Dangerous World . “I know better now; it’s my way of mapping the Earth, so I know there’s something to come back to.” In stream-of-consciousness prose, the This Is Major author guides the reader through an enthralling journey across Zimbabwe, Japan, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Italy, Mexico, Bermuda, and beyond, using each location as the touchstone for their essays exploring how (and why) race, gender, grief, sexuality, beauty, and autonomy impact their experience of a land and its people. There’s a real courage and generosity to Lawson’s work; readers will find much here to embolden their own self-exploration.

Get the Picture: A Mind-Bending Journey Among the Inspired Artists and Obsessive Art Fiends Who Taught Me How to See by Bianca Bosker

There’s no end to the arguments for “why art matters,” but in our era of ephemeral imagery and mass-produced decor, there is enormous wisdom to be gleaned from Get the Picture , Bianca Bosker’s insider account of art-world infatuation. In this new work of nonfiction, readers have the pleasure of following the Cork Dork author as she embeds herself amongst the gallerists, collectors, painters, critics, and performers who fill today’s contemporary scene. There, they teach her (and us) what makes art art— and why that question’s worth asking in an increasingly fractured world.

Alphabetical Diaries by Sheila Heti

A profoundly unusual, experimental, yet engrossing work of not-quite-memoir, Sheila Heti’s Alphabetical Diaries is exactly what its title promises: The book comprises a decade of the author’s personal diaries, the sentences copied and pasted into alphabetical order. Each chapter begins with a new letter, all the accumulated sentences starting with “A”, then “B,” and so forth. The resulting effect is all but certain to repel some readers who crave a more linear storyline, but for those who can understand her ambition beyond the form, settling into the rhythm of Heti’s poetic observations gives way to a rich narrative reward.

Slow Noodles: A Cambodian Memoir of Love, Loss, and Family Recipes by Chantha Nguon

Out February 20.

“Even now, I can taste my own history,” writes Chantha Nguon in her gorgeous Slow Noodles . “One occupying force tried to erase it all.” In this deeply personal memoir, Nguon guides us through her life as a Cambodian refugee from the Khmer Rouge; her escapes to Vietnam and Thailand; the loss of all those she loved and held dear; and the foods that kept her heritage—and her story—ultimately intact. Interwoven with recipes and lists of ingredients, Nguon’s heart-rending writing reinforces the joy and agony of her core thesis: “The past never goes away.”

Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story by Leslie Jamison

The first time I stumbled upon a Leslie Jamison essay on (the platform formerly known as) Twitter, I was transfixed; I stayed in bed late into the morning as I clicked through her work, swallowing paragraphs like Skittles. But, of course, Jamison’s work is so much more satisfying than candy, and her new memoir, Splinters , is Jamison operating at the height of her talents. A tale of Jamison’s early motherhood and the end of her marriage, the book is unshrinking, nuanced, radiant, and so wondrously honest—a referendum on the splintered identities that complicate and comprise the artist, the wife, the mother, the woman.

The Great Wave: The Era of Radical Disruption and the Rise of the Outsider by Michiko Kakutani

The former chief book critic of the New York Times , Michiko Kakutani is not only an invaluable literary denizen, but also a brilliant observer of how politics and culture disrupt the mechanics of power and influence. In The Great Wave , she turns our attention toward global instability as epitomized by figures such as Donald Trump and watershed moments such as the creation of AI. In the midst of these numerous case studies, she argues for how our deeply interconnected world might better weather the competing crises that threaten to submerge us, should we not choose to better understand them.

Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection by Charles Duhigg

From the author of the now-ubiquitous The Power of Habit arrives Supercommunicators , a head-first study of the tools that make conversations actually work . Charles Duhigg makes the case that every chat is really about one of three inquiries (“What’s this about?” “How do we feel?” or “Who are we?”) and knowing one from another is the key to real connection. Executives and professional-speaker types are sure to glom on to this sort of work, but my hope is that other, less business-oriented motives might be satisfied by the logic this volume imbues.

Whiskey Tender by Deborah Jackson Taffa

Out February 27.

“Tell me your favorite childhood memory, and I’ll tell you who you are,” or so writes Deborah Jackson Taffa in Whiskey Tender , her memoir of assimilation and separation as a mixed-tribe Native woman raised in the shadow of a specific portrait of the American Dream. As a descendant of the Quechan (Yuma) Nation and Laguna Pueblo tribe, Taffa illustrates her childhood in New Mexico while threading through the histories of her parents and grandparents, themselves forever altered by Indian boarding schools, government relocation, prison systems, and the “erasure of [our] own people.” Taffa’s is a story of immense and reverent heart, told with precise and pure skill.

Grief Is for People by Sloane Crosley

With its chapters organized by their position in the infamous five stages of grief, Sloane Crosley’s Grief is For People is at times bracingly funny, then abruptly sober. The effect is less like whiplash than recognition; anyone who has lost or grieved understands the way these emotions crash into each other without warning. Crosley makes excellent use of this reality in Grief is For People , as she weaves between two wrenching losses in her own life: the death of her dear friend Russell Perreault, and the robbery of her apartment. Crosley’s resulting story—short but powerful—is as difficult and precious and singular as grief itself.

American Negra by Natasha S. Alford

In American Negra , theGrio and CNN journalist Natasha S. Alford turns toward her own story, tracing the contours of her childhood in Syracuse, New York, as she came to understand the ways her Afro-Latino background built her—and set her apart. As the memoir follows Alford’s coming-of-age from Syracuse to Harvard University, then abroad and, later, across the U.S., the author highlights how she learned to embrace the cornerstones of intersectionality, in spite of her country’s many efforts to encourage the opposite.

The House of Hidden Meanings by RuPaul

Out March 5.

A raw and assured account by one of the most famous queer icons of our era, RuPaul’s memoir, The House of Hidden Meanings , promises readers arms-wide-open access to the drag queen before Drag Race . Detailing his childhood in California, his come-up in the drag scene, his own intimate love story, and his quest for living proudly in the face of unceasing condemnation, The House of Hidden Meanings is easily one of the most intriguing celebrity projects of the year.

Here After by Amy Lin

Here After reads like poetry: Its tiny, mere-sentences-long chapters only serve to strengthen its elegiac, ferocious impact. I was sobbing within minutes of opening this book. But I implore readers not to avoid the heavy subject matter; they will find in Amy Lin’s memoir such a profound and complex gift: the truth of her devotion to her husband, Kurtis, and the reality of her pain when he died suddenly, with neither platitudes nor hyperbole. This book is a little wonder—a clear, utterly courageous act of love.

Thunder Song by Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe

Red Paint author and poet Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe returns this spring with a rhythmic memoir-in-essays called Thunder Song , following the beats of her upbringing as a queer Coast Salish woman entrenched in communities—the punk and music scenes, in particular—that did not always reflect or respect her. Blending beautiful family history with her own personal memories, LaPointe’s writing is a ballad against amnesia, and a call to action for healing, for decolonization, for hope.

Lessons for Survival: Mothering Against "The Apocalypse" by Emily Raboteau

Out March 12.

In Emily Raboteau’s Lessons For Survival , the author (and novelist, essayist, professor, and street photographer) tells us her framework for the book is modeled loosely after one of her mother’s quilts: “pieced together out of love by a parent who wants her children to inherit a world where life is sustainable.” The essays that follow are meditations and reports on motherhood in the midst of compounding crises, whether climate change or war or racism or mental health. Through stories and photographs drawn from her own life and her studies abroad, Raboteau grounds the audience in the beauty—and resilience—of nature.

preview for Watch Our Newest Videos

What to Read in 2023

dolly alderton

My HBCU Taught Me What Authority Sounds Like

text

Kiley Reid Wants to Talk About Money

the author danzy senna alongside images of los angeles and the hollywood sign

Danzy Senna Reveals the 'Colored Television' Cover

eve portrait session

An Ode to Eve’s Singular Style

a body of water with trees and mountains in the background

Manjula Martin on The Last Fire Season

a boy is shown consoling a crying girl with illustrations of hearts and teardrops around them

Read an Excerpt of 'Funny Story' by Emily Henry

a collection of book covers representing the most anticipated fiction of 2024

The Best (and Most Anticipated) Fiction of 2024

laura van den berg alongside images of vegetation

Laura van den Berg On 'State of Paradise'

the cover of 1000 words by jami attenberg and a photo of jami attenberg smiling

Jami Attenberg on Giving Writers '1000 Words'

american girls by jessica roy

On the Border Between Two Lives

erica jong

Shelf Life: Erica Jong

This Reading Mama

Non-Fiction Text Features and Text Structure

*This post contains affiliate links. Please read my full disclosure policy for more information.

What are Text Features?

Text features are to non-fiction what story elements are to fiction.  Text features help the reader make sense of what they are reading and are the building blocks for text structure (see below). So what exactly are non-fiction text features?

Text Features and Comprehension

Text features go hand-in-hand with comprehension. If the author wants a reader to understand where a country is in the world, then providing a map helps the reader visualize and understand the importance of that country’s location. If the anatomy of an animal is vitally important to understanding a text, a detailed photograph with labels gives the reader the support he needs to comprehend the text.

Text features also help readers determine what is important to the text and to them. Without a table of contents or an index, readers can spend wasted time flipping through the book to find the information they need. Special print helps draw the attention of the reader to important or key words and phrases.

In my experience, readers of all ages, especially struggling readers tend to skip over many of the text features provided within a text. To help readers understand their importance, take some time before reading to look through the photographs/illustrations, charts, graphs, or maps and talk about what you notice. Make some predictions about what they’ll learn or start a list of questions they have based off of the text features.

Sometimes, it’s even fun to make a point to those readers who like to skip over the text features by retyping the text with no features and asking them to read the text without them first.  Once they do that, discuss how difficult comprehension was. Then, give them the original text and help them to see the difference it makes in understanding.

Nonfiction Text Features Charts - helping readers understand text features

Find our free Nonfiction Text Features Chart !

Some Common Text Features within Non-Fiction

  • Captions: Help you better understand a picture or photograph
  • Comparisons: These sentences help you to picture something {Example: A whale shark is a little bit bigger than a school bus.}
  • Glossary: Helps you define words that are in the book
  • Graphics: Charts, graphs, or cutaways are used to help you understand what the author is trying to tell you
  • Illustrations/Photographs: Help you to know exactly what something looks like
  • Index: This is an alphabetical list of ideas that are in the book. It tells you what page the idea is on.
  • Labels: These help you identify a picture or a photograph and its parts
  • Maps: help you to understand where places are in the world
  • Special Print: When a word is bold , in italics , or underlined , it is an important word for you to know
  • Subtitles: These headings help you to know what the next section will be about
  • Table of Contents: Helps you identify key topics in the book in the order they are presented

What is Text Structure?

Simply put, text structure is how the author organizes the information within the text.

Why do text structures matter to readers?

  • When readers what kind of structure to expect, it helps them connect to and remember what they’ve read better.
  • It gives readers clues as to what is most important in the text.
  • It helps readers summarize the text.  For example, if we’re summarizing a text that has a sequence/time order structure, we want to make sure we summarize in the same structure.  (It wouldn’t make sense to tell an autobiography out of order.)

Examples of Non-Fiction Text Structure

While there are differences of opinion on the exact amount and names of different kinds of text structure, these are the 5 main ones I teach.

Teaching Text Structure - 5 day series by This Reading Mama

You can read more about each one on day 3 and day 4 of our Teaching Text Structure to Readers series .

1. Problem/Solution

The author will introduce a problem and tell us how the problem could be fixed.  There may be one solution to fix the problem or several different solutions mentioned. Real life example : Advertisements in magazines for products (problem-pain; solution-Tylenol)

2. Cause and Effect

The author describes something that has happened which has had an effect on or caused something else to happen.  It could be a good effect or a bad effect.  There may be more than one cause and there may also be more than one effect. (Many times, problem/solution and cause and effect seem like “cousins” because they can be together.) Real life example : A newspaper article about a volcano eruption which had an effect on tourism

3. Compare/Contrast

The author’s purpose is to tell you how two things are the same and how they are different by comparing them. Real life example : A bargain hunter writing on her blog about buying store-brand items and how it compares with buying name-brand items.

4. Description/List

Although this is a very common text structure, I think it’s one of the trickiest because the author throws a lot of information at the reader (or lists facts) about a certain subject.  It’s up to the reader to determine what he thinks is important and sometimes even interesting enough to remember. Real life example : A soccer coach’s letter describing to parents exactly what kind of cleats to buy for their kids.

5. Time Order/Sequence

Texts are written in an order or timeline format. Real life examples : recipes, directions, events in history

Note: Sometimes the text structure isn’t so easy to distinguish.  For example, the structure of the text as a whole may be Description/List (maybe about Crocodilians), but the author may devote a chapter to Compare/Contrast (Alligators vs. Crocodiles).  We must be explicit about this with students.

More Text Structure Resources:

problem solution nonfiction books

  • 5 Days of Teaching Text Structure to Readers {contains FREE printable packs for Fiction AND Non-fiction, as seen above}
  • Fiction Story Elements and Text Structure
  • Teaching Kids How to Retell with Fiction (Fiction Text Structure)
  • Teaching Kids How to Summarize

Nonfiction Series Books for K-5th grades This Reading Mama

  • Our Favorite Nonfiction Series Books , perfect companions for working on text features/structures!

Enjoy teaching! ~Becky

problem solution nonfiction books

Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach

November 6, 2019 4 Comments

Try This Classic Structure for Your Next Nonfiction Writing Project

For Writers Who Struggle with Structure...a Remedy (Ep 215: Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach)

Organization is a challenge for writers. You may have strong ideas, feel confident with grammar, and write in a fun style.

But putting it all together in a structure that makes sense? That can be hard.

There’s no one perfect way to structure most projects. You have options.

Some people find this liberating. They enjoy exploring countless options and settle naturally into an order that makes sense for their content.

Other writers find this overwhelming. They’d like to be told, “If you’re writing THIS, you always use THAT structure.”

Without structure, those writers get stuck.

Structure Brings Order and Clarity

In fact, I’ve met with writers who have been stuck for weeks, months…occasionally for years. All because they didn’t know how to structure their project.

Without structure, they didn’t know how to order and organize their ideas, so writing itself felt confusing. They simply shoved it aside, unclear what to do next.

Structure brings order and clarity to the writer.

And structure brings order and clarity to the reader.

Walkway with structure

Structure for Poets

Some writing offers built-in structure.

If you’re a poet, for example, you can turn to form poetry to find structure built into the assignment. So many kinds of poems follow a form or a pattern, like a sestina, sonnet, and a rondelet. They each come with rules, rhythms, and rhyme schemes. While challenging, these limits offer structure that a poet who works in free verse lacks.

Structure for Novelists

Novelists can turn to structure that works well for fiction, such as the hero’s journey. The author doesn’t have to include the obligatory scenes, but many genres work well when the author hits those beats, moments, or scenes a reader has come to expect.

Structure for Nonfiction Writers

Nonfiction writers may face the blank page with no idea where to start. Or they spit out their ideas with no clue how to arrange them to create an order that flows well for the reader.

Writers who compose essays, articles, books know they have a problem to solve: they need structure.

And they may struggle with structure due to lack of resources. Maybe no one has pointed out to them structure options. Or maybe they struggle to remain objective with their own material to see how it would best flow.

They may have tried methods they’ve learned over the years and those have gotten them only so far.

Mind Maps Don’t Automatically Lead to Structure

For instance, maybe they tried a mind map. And that helped them spit out the main ideas they want to cover in their book. But all those circles spread out like a web on the paper don’t themselves reveal a solid structure—they just reveal a number of possible starting points and all their subpoints. So the mind map may have served to pull out of the writer content ideas, but the map itself didn’t result in a clear structure.

confusing lines with no structure

Traditional Outlines Don’t Automatically Lead to Structure

The writer of nonfiction may have reverted to the I, II, III, and A, B, C format they remembered from their youth, with those Roman numerals leading the eye down the page with indented A, B, C items underneath. Under those lines came the numbers 1, 2, 3, then lowercase a, b, c, followed by the little “i’s” with one “i” then two “ii’s” and “iii’s” that created those miniature Roman numerals, leading up to “iv’s” and “v’s.”

The poor writer may spend more time fretting over those little “i’s” than they do crafting content. So knowing how to type up a list with Roman numerals again doesn’t in and of itself reveal a structure.

Even organized, sequential-types who love to line up papers and numbers and files and books on shelves can create a perfectly reasonable classic outline, yet find themselves unsure if that’s formed an effective structure for their writing project.

Orderly Outlines Don't Lead to Structure

Try Ready-Made Outlines to Structure Your Next Project

How can writers who struggle to organize their ideas find a structure that works?

I propose they try “ready-made” outlines.

I’m calling these big, broad outlines “ready-made outlines” because they serve as templates to try out with your content. They offer a broad, big-picture, flexible structure that can be applied to projects of all sizes and types, as you group your ideas under the overall headings.

Ready-made outlines serve the writer by providing her with multiple structures to test out in order to find one that best suits the material.

As I said last time, my source for these ready-made outlines is the speech and debate club I’m part of. We use these to help impromptu speakers have a place to start.

Past-Present-Future Outline

The first one I introduced to you was the past-present-future outline. It’s just one ready-made outline to try out on all kinds of projects.

For example, a past-present-future outline could work as structure for:

  • testimonials
  • sales pages
  • how-to projects
  • analysis essays or articles
  • books (organize chapters under the past, present, and future sections and/or organize a given chapter with that structure)

Problem-Solution Outline

This week’s ready-made outline is Problem-Solution or Problem-Solution-Benefit.

You can see how straightforward it is, and how handy it can be for certain writing projects.

I gave it a try with this very article. If you look back, you can see my general flow.

Introduction: If you were try try this outline, you’d start with an introduction that would include some kind of hook.

For this piece, I just talked about the challenge of structure for writers.

Problem: Next, you’d introduce the problem.

Pretty quickly I transitioned to introducing the writer’s problem of structure—or lack thereof. You can see from my attempt here that a problem you’re writing about doesn’t have to be a giant societal-level problem. It can be a small frustration of any kind.

When you think about your audience, and you imagine their struggles, frustrations, and challenges, that’s the problem—that’s your starting point with this ready-made outline.

Articulate the problem. Speak their language. Get your audience nodding, “Yes. That IS my problem.”

Solution: Then, you introduce a solution (or solutions).

You may have one proven solution to one specific problem, and the writing will be narrow and focused. Or you may offer multiple solutions to a complex problem, and your writing will be more involved.

Conclusion: Follow that with a conclusion, and you’re done.

You’re done, that is, unless you want to touch on benefits of implementing the solution. I mean, the obvious benefit is that the problem is solved . But your readers may appreciate a window into what their life would look like and what they’d feel like if they implemented that solution, so the additional “benefits” section could serve them well.

That’s it in a nutshell. That’s how you can test the Problem-Solution or  Problem-Solution-Benefit  outline.

jade plant-problem-solution outline in a nutshell

Problem-Solution Example: Article Structure

Let’s say you contribute content to a website that focuses on organization. Perhaps you’ll write an article that addresses the problem of training young children to understand and begin joining in the process of sorting, folding, and putting away laundry. Laundry can be an overwhelming problem that parents face, and you’ll offer several possible solutions.

Well, there’s your structure to test out:

  • Solution(s)

If you add the benefits, you might find research showing the self-esteem rises exponentially in children who contribute to meaningful household chores and your family grows close by working together.

But often the benefits are self-evident—like your family has clean, folded laundry each week. In that case, you can leave that element off the outline.

Let’s look at another writing project.

Problem-Solution Example: Letter to the Editor (or Op-Ed) Structure

If you’re troubled by a local issue and want to write a letter to the editor or an op-ed piece, the Problem-Solution ready-made outline could work well for organizing your thoughts with a structure that readers find easy to follow.

  • Hook (a sentence or two to hook the reader)

Again, you could add in benefits if you have the space and if it feel it adds value to the message. But you can leave it off if the benefits are obvious or if they could be summarized in the conclusion.

Problem-Solution Example: Nonfiction Book Structure

Maybe you’re writing a book about communication in the workplace. You could try out the problem-solution ready-made outline to see if the content fits.

Problem(s): First you analyze some of the biggest communication problems people face in the workplace.

Solution(s): Most of the book will probably focus on the solutions to those problems.

Benefit(s): If the solutions don’t already make clear the benefits gained beyond solving the problem, a book could bring this up chapter by chapter or in a section toward the end of the book.

Perhaps you have a multi-step process that can work for every communication challenge: “Seven Steps to Clear Communication in the Workplace.” After the early chapters introduce the problems, the next several chapters could each tackle a step of this process.

Or maybe you have different communication solutions for different communication problems. In that case, you could address each separately, one per chapter, presenting both the problems and solutions specific to emails, team meetings, reports, newsletters, and one-on-one mentoring conversations. Each chapter could take on a type of communication.

Either way, you would still be turning to the problem-solution outline.

Applications for Problem-Solution Outline

Longer projects will offer more layers of analysis and more examples to support claims, but you can see how this ready-made outline can be used with a variety of writing projects. I think it could work for:

  • testimonials (past-present-future is one structure for testimonials, but problem-solution is another option for someone to explain they had a problem and this product or service was the perfect solution to that problem)
  • sales pages (again, problem-solution is a really basic approach that helps you organize your thoughts and explain what you offer)
  • letter to the editor
  • book (overall structure and micro-level within a given chapter could follow problem-solution structure)

Problem-Solution Outline for Essay Structure

While the Problem-Solution (or Problem-Solution-Benefit) structure may seem best suited to prescriptive-type content, I think this can also be a wonderful way to enter into personal essays.

Question (“Problem”) Launches Inquiry

If an essayist starts with a question, or inquiry, that invites the essayist to follow that question (aka “problem”) into the piece. Keep this creative openness to see where the question leads.

Let’s say the essayist wonders something or poses a question. If he thinks of that more or less as a problem and writes toward that, continuing to question that, he may be seeking an answer to that question, or deeper insight into that observation, or maybe even an epiphany.

Answer (“Solution”) Revealed Through Inquiry

By keeping that overall structure in mind, the essayist can explore the problem from various angles in hopes of experiencing breakthrough in understanding without forcing the matter.

That’s a more subtle, nuanced variation of the Problem-Solution approach, but if you creatively press into a question, you’re likely seeking some kind of solution.

Question to ask for essay

Problem-Solution Example: Memoir

A memoir that focuses on an era of a person’s life might loosely follow this structure, by showing the problem this person faced and how complicated life got until they encountered, finally, some kind of solution.

And this solution may not be a tidy one, so you can think broadly about the idea of “solution.”

The memoir possibly rolls into a kind of benefits segment. Again, none of these words need to appear anywhere in the text—it’s just a way for you mentally to group information or scenes in search of a possible structure to test on your own content. To try it out, you drop scenes into these three big categories or sections of the memoir: problem, solution, benefit.

Maybe the problem is that a memoirist struggles to trust a parent, so the scenes establish this and lead ultimately to a scene or a moment when this shifted. The writer gained insight into this parent, and that ignited compassion or openness and the relationship grew.

Or perhaps the opposite happened—the parent had a deep mental illness and the problem was that the memoirist kept making herself vulnerable only to be hurt again and again. And the solution came when she realized sometimes even a parent is so deeply scarred and struggling that a trusting relationship isn’t possible. So the memoirist finds new ways to protect herself while trying to relate to the parent and finds trust in other relationships.

Memoir seeks solutions to problems

Is the Problem-Solution Outline the Structure for Your Next Project?

So many kinds of writing address a problem of some kind, it’s worth giving this ready-made outline a try.

And keep in mind you don’t have to use the actual words “problem” and “solution” to apply this structure to your next writing project. If you prefer a more subtle approach, you can use different words—synonyms—to imply a similar structure.

Try it out and see if this is the solution you’re looking for. For writers who struggle with structure, the Problem-Solution or the Problem-Solution-Benefits ready-made outline may be the remedy you’re looking for.

For Writers Who Struggle with Structure...a Remedy (Ep 215: Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach)

  • Are Outlines a Writer’s Greatest Gift…or Curse? (Ep 214)
  • A Writer’s Guide to ROI series
  • Next-Level Writer series
  • Write to Discover series
  • All podcast episodes
  • (note: photos sourced through Stencil, Pixabay, and Unsplash)

Subscribe to this podcast using your podcast player or find it through  Apple podcasts,  Stitcher, or Spotify.

______________________________

Ready to write a book, but you can’t quite articulate your idea?

problem solution nonfiction books

Join the FREE 3-day challenge: Craft Your Book’s Big Idea,  and you’ll finally put words to the idea you long to write.

In just three days, you’ll nail your book’s big idea (and generate a working title)! Sign up and finally move forward with the message that’s in you…just waiting to come out!

Sign up today!

' src=

November 21, 2019 at 4:24 am

Hi, i am reading your articles from a long while and have learnt a lot. You are truly inspiring man, i am always excited for your upcoming Post. I am also a blogger and writes about IIT-JEE Books and notes related topics. It will be a glad if you read them at BEST IIT JEE BOOKS

' src=

October 12, 2023 at 8:06 am

Thank you so much!

' src=

October 12, 2023 at 3:01 am

This article beautifully encapsulates the transformative power of writing as a therapeutic tool. The idea that putting pen to paper can serve as a cathartic release, helping us navigate through life’s challenges, is profound. It’s a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the profound connection between our thoughts and emotions. I’ve personally experienced the profound benefits of this practice, finding solace in the act of pouring my heart out onto the page. Thank you for articulating this so eloquently and reminding us of the healing potential that lies within our own words.

October 12, 2023 at 8:07 am

I’m thrilled to know how much writing has helped you. Thank you for taking time to read and respond!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

instagram

Landing page graphic and other design elements by Sophie Kroeker .

  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Freebie Library
  • Search this website

Teaching with Jennifer Findley

Upper Elementary Teaching Blog

June 13, 2018 | 2 Comments | Filed Under: Read Alouds , Reading

Read Alouds for Teaching Text Structures | Mentor Texts for Reading

Informational text structures is one of my favorite nonfiction reading units to teach. Once students start to see how information is organized in a text it really helps their comprehension and understanding of the text and it also helps them become stronger informational text writers. On this post, I will share my favorite read alouds for teaching text structure as well as share other tips and strategies.

Check out this post for informational text structure mentor texts and read alouds for teaching text structure. The post also includes tips for introducing and teaching text structure to upper elementary students.

Before we dive into the read alouds for each text structure, I will point out that I don’t read all of these books to my students. I usually read one of each and then may read one more for any text structures the students are struggling to identify or understand. I use the other books in reading centers with graphic organizers and teaching posters as review. You can read more about that in the tips section that immediately follows the read aloud recommendations.

You can click on each read aloud to see it on Amazon (affiliate links are included if you choose to use the links provided).

Read Alouds for Chronological Order

Check out this post for informational text structure mentor texts and read alouds for teaching text structure. The post also includes tips for introducing and teaching text structure to upper elementary students.

Looking at Glass Through the Ages by Bruce Koscielniak Trapped by the Ice by Michael McCurdy Tricky Vic The Impossibly True Story of the Man Who Sold the Eiffel Towe r by Greg Pizzoli

Read Alouds for Description

Check out this post for informational text structure mentor texts and read alouds for teaching text structure. The post also includes tips for introducing and teaching text structure to upper elementary students.

Amazon Affiliate links are included if you wish to purchase the books listed in this post through the links provided.

What the Moon is Like by Franklyn Branley Your Fantastic Elastic Brain by JoAnn Deak Ant Cities by Arthur Dorros

Read Alouds for Cause and Effect

Check out this post for informational text structure mentor texts and read alouds for teaching text structure. The post also includes tips for introducing and teaching text structure to upper elementary students.

Milk: From Cow to Carton by Aliki What Happens to a Hamburger by Paul Showers Flash, Crash, Rumble, and Roll by Franklyn M. Branley Oil Spill by Melvin Berger Aliens from Earth: When Animals and Plants Invade Other Ecosystems by Mary Batten

Read Alouds for Problem and Solution

Check out this post for informational text structure mentor texts and read alouds for teaching text structure. The post also includes tips for introducing and teaching text structure to upper elementary students.

Where Does the Garbage Go? by Paul Showers When the Wolves Returned: Restoring Nature’s Balance in Yellowstone by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent Miracle Mud by David A. Kelly A Place for Butterflies by Melissa Stewart

Read Alouds for Compare and Contrast

Check out this post for informational text structure mentor texts and read alouds for teaching text structure. The post also includes tips for introducing and teaching text structure to upper elementary students.

Teeth by Sneed B. Collard III Shark or Dolphin? How Do You Know? By Melissa Stewart (Frog and Toad, too) What’s the Difference Between a Turtle and a Tortoise? By Trisha Speed Shaskan Dinosaurs vs Beasts by Lee Martin Crocodiles and Alligators by Seymour Simon

Using Movie Clips to Teach Text Structures

Movie clips also make excellent mentors and examples to introduce students to the different text structures. To read more about how to use movie clips while teaching text structures and get links to movie clips for each text structure, head over to Literacy for Big Kids by clicking here.

Tips for Teaching Informational Text Structures

1. Use books and specific text structure organizers to really dive in and teach the characteristics of each type. As I mentioned above, I don’t read every one of these read alouds (because…time). I do like to place a few of the books in a reading center with a reminder poster and a graphic organizer for them to complete while reading the book. The poster and organizer shown are part of my Text Structure Teaching Resource which you can see in my TpT store by clicking here.

Check out this post for informational text structure mentor texts and read alouds for teaching text structure. The post also includes tips for introducing and teaching text structure to upper elementary students.

2. If needed, start with short texts versus the read alouds. Sometimes, I like to frontload each type with instruction using short texts before we dive into the read aloud. It really depends on your students but sometimes seeing the text structure beforehand in a shorter format helps them understand the structure before moving into the lengthy read alouds.  The passage and poster shown are also included in my Text Structure Teaching Resource

Check out this post for informational text structure mentor texts and read alouds for teaching text structure. The post also includes tips for introducing and teaching text structure to upper elementary students.

3. Take the instruction a step further by exploring how the same overall topic can be presented in different text structures. My text structure teaching resource includes a set of passages just for this purpose. Each passage has an overall topic of pollution but each is written in a different text structure. It is a great way to teach the students how the focus of the text influences the text structure the author chooses to use.

4. Integrate text structures into writing instruction. I always teach my informational writing unit while I am teaching nonfiction reading skills so I can integrate the two. During and after text structure instruction, we do a lot of writing in different text structures.

5. Have students complete a “hunt” for text structures as they read their independent reading books, guided reading books, and even science and social studies books. Click here to grab two free printables for a Text Structure Hunt (the one shown below and one other).

FREE text structure printable for the students to use to keep track of the text structures of the books they read.

6. Connect to science and social studies textbook or article reading. Prompt the students to notice the text structure used as they are reading and learning about science and social studies topics. You can even do a text structure hunt while reading in science and social studies.

7. Teach the definition of the text structure, the keywords typically used, and the purpose of the text structure. Teaching the purpose of the text structure will help the students identify the text structure and also prove that the text structure they identified is correct. Click here to grab both of these Text Structure posters for FREE to help you do this. I print these for the students to keep in their reading notebooks and refer to as needed.

FREE text structures posters to help you teach students how to identify and describe text structures.

Additional Resources for Teaching Text Structures

In the above section, I shared different ways to introduce and teach text structures. All of the resources I mentioned and use can be found in my Text Structures Teaching Resources. Click here or on the image below to see my Text Structures Teaching Resource in my TpT store.

Everything you need to teach, re-teach, and assess informational text structures in this resource. Follow this link to read more tips and find mentor texts for teaching text structures.

Do you have any favorite read alouds for introducing or teaching text structure? Let me know in the comments. I am always looking for new read alouds.

Want more recommended read alouds? Click on the links below to check out my other read aloud posts.

Read Alouds for Teaching Story Elements

Read Alouds for Teaching Inferring

Read Alouds for Teaching Theme

Read Alouds for Teaching Point of View

Back to School Read Alouds

September 11 Read Alouds

Halloween Read Alouds

Thanksgiving Read Alouds

Christmas Read Alouds

Spring Read Alouds

Read Alouds in Upper Elementary

Planning Read Alouds in Upper Elementary

Share the Knowledge!

problem solution nonfiction books

Want reading vocabulary posters for grades 4-5 for FREE?

Free reading vocabulary posters for grades 4-5! Enter your information to get these free posters sent straight to your email.

By entering your information, you agree to receive email communication from me. Per my privacy policy , you can unsubscribe at any time.

You May Also Like These Posts

problem solution nonfiction books

Reader Interactions

' src=

March 14, 2021 at 1:57 pm

Love your resources! Without our district testing this year, we were missing our data that drives our instruction. We noticed in other sources that text structure was what our students needed support with. Do you have resources for assessing this or suggestions on showing growth with this? Our resources really don’t work for this. Thanks!

' src=

March 15, 2021 at 12:31 pm

Hi Melissa! This resource might work: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Text-Structures-with-Google-Slides-and-Google-Forms-for-Distance-Learning-667981

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Notify me of follow-up comments by email.

Notify me of new posts by email.

problem solution nonfiction books

Welcome friends! I’m Jennifer Findley: a teacher, mother, and avid reader. I believe that with the right resources, mindset, and strategies, all students can achieve at high levels and learn to love learning. My goal is to provide resources and strategies to inspire you and help make this belief a reality for your students. Learn more about me.

Mrs.Judy Araujo, M.Ed.,CAGS, Reading Specialist

Mrs.Judy Araujo, M.Ed.,CAGS, Reading Specialist

Donations are appreciated to help alleviate the maintenance fees for this unsponsored website. Receive a Word doc of any of my pages with your donation. Thank you! :)

Nonfiction Text Structures & Features

problem solution nonfiction books

The above is a GREAT nonfiction text feature poster set sold on Amazon by Carson Dellosa – $9.99! 

Here are some great nonfiction text feature videos for kids!

First, check out. . .

  • Graphic Organizers to Support Reading Strategy Instruction
  • Graphic Organizers WITH Sentence Frames for EACH Structure
  • Check out these great sample nonfiction text structure paragraphs for older students.

The emphasis on informational text has increased dramatically with the Common Core State Standards. According to these standards, the recommended balance of literary and informational text is as follows:

  • 50% literary and 50% informational in 4th grade
  • 45% literary and 55% informational in 8th grade
  • 30% literary and 70% informational in 12th grade

The Common Core State Standards have raised the importance of informational texts while redefining content area literacy.

Why is content reading and writing so difficult?

It isn’t easy because it requires the following:

  • knowledge of specialized vocabulary
  • background knowledge
  • good study/memory ability
  • nonfiction reading strategies regarding various text structures (as described here)
  • perseverance ~ there are multiple readability levels within a single text
  • the need and ability to monitor for meaning
  • judging importance while remembering many concepts
  • knowledge of source reliability
  • keeping one’s interest

RESEARCH SHOWS… Almost all expository texts students read can be separated into two groups: texts that describe and texts affected by time (Calfee & Patrick, 1995). Thus, elementary students encounter three descriptive and three sequential structures.

Descriptive structures focus on the attributes of something: the qualities that distinguish it from other things. For example, the writer may present the attributes of New York, glass, or rattlesnakes. The three descriptive patterns that readers encounter most frequently are list, web, and matrix (see Dymock and Nicholson [2007] for an in-depth discussion on these structures).

  • List. The simplest descriptive pattern is a list. This may be a grocery list, a list of countries that grow wheat, a list of goods and services sold by street merchants in India, or science, the attributes of a kangaroo.
  • Web. A web is a more complex structure than a list. This text structure is called a web because it looks like a spiderweb (Calfee & Patrick, 1995). A spiderweb has a center and several fine threads that form a network of lines. On a web, the attributes of an object are discussed. The attributes have a common link. The important thing for the student to remember is that, as a list, a web describes one thing or idea, but the difference is that a web has categories.
  • Matrix. A matrix is more complex than either a list or a web. The difference between a matrix and a web or list is that a web or list describes just one thing, and a matrix describes more than one thing. It compares and contrasts two or more topics. For example, it could compare types of bears, volcanoes, bicycles, or crocodiles.

Sequential structures present a series of events or steps that progress over time. Typically, sequence texts are set in a first-to-last pattern or step-by-step.

  • String. A string is a detailed description of events (e.g., the sequence for baking cookies).
  • Cause-Effect. Two (or more) ideas or events interact in the cause-effect text structure. One is the cause, and the other is an effect or result. For example, a text may cover the causes and effects of environmental disasters, such as an oil spill in the ocean. This pattern is typical in history, science, and health publications.
  • Problem–Solution. In the problem-solution text structure, the writer states a problem or poses a question followed by a solution or answer. This text has a sequence: first, the problem, and then the solution.

The above information came from. . .

Dymock, Susan, and Tom Nicholson. “High 5!” Strategies to Enhance Comprehension of Expository Text.” The Reading Teacher 64.3 (2010): 166-78. Web.

Many people ask for the above poster, but I do not have it. This is FREE and is similar –  Nonfiction Text Structures.

NONFICTION TEXT STRUCTURES

In the Order to be Taught :

Description, Sequence, Problem-Solution, Cause-Effect, and Compare-Contrast

  • Writers use text structures to organize information. Teachers should point this out whenever students read and write.
  • Skim and scan to predict text structure(s). Make predicting possible text structures a part of every pre-reading activity. Then, during reading, revise predictions about structure.
  • Teach the signal words for each text structure.

problem solution nonfiction books

DESCRIPTION – Teach 1st

nonfiction text teaching

Click here for a larger version: NSTA .

Description:  Describes something by listing its features, characteristics, or examples. Signal Words:

problem solution nonfiction books

Mentor Texts to teach Description

problem solution nonfiction books

SEQUENCE – Teach 2nd

nonfiction text teaching

Click here for a larger version: NSTA

Sequence: Describes events in order or tells the steps to follow to make or do something. Signal Words:

problem solution nonfiction books

  • to begin with
  • most important
  • for instance
  • for example
  • not long after

Mentor Texts to teach Sequence

problem solution nonfiction books

PROBLEM AND SOLUTION – Teach 3rd

nonfiction text teaching

Problem-Solution: Tells about or says why there is a problem, then gives one or more possible solutions to fix the problem. Signal Words:

problem solution nonfiction books

  • solution is
  • difficulty is

Mentor Texts to teach Problem/Solution

problem solution nonfiction books

CAUSE AND EFFECT – Teach 4th

nonfiction text teaching

Cause-Effect: Cause is why something happened. Effect is what happened. Signal Words:

problem solution nonfiction books

  •  accordingly

Mentor Texts to teach Cause/Effect

Cause and Effect Mentor Texts

Text Structures Anchor Charts Bulletin Board: Scholastic Teacher's Friend, Scholastic: 0078073344932: Amazon.com: Books

COMPARE AND CONTRAST – Teach 5th

nonfiction text teaching

Compare – Contrast: This shows how two or more things are alike or different.   Signal Words:

problem solution nonfiction books

not only…but also

Mentor Texts to teach Compare/Contrast

  • Teach and model the use of graphic organizers to go with each text structure. Teachers have to identify text structures in advance and provide appropriate graphic organizers.
  • Teachers should model how to determine the text structure and note-taking on a corresponding graphic organizer.   Then students should practice with teacher support. Finally, students should apply the skills and strategies for independent practice.
  • Explicit instruction must show students how and when to use strategies such as attending to signal words while reading different content areas or using signal words when writing expository text.
  • Use the think-aloud strategy. First, the teacher reads aloud a paragraph, pausing at appropriate points to share their comprehension strategies and understanding of the text. Next, move to a shared-reading strategy, encouraging students to talk aloud as they engage in the process with the teacher. For example, the teacher asks students to discuss clues to identify the text structure.
  • Ask focusing questions targeting the text structure, such as which signal words are used to show a particular relationship among ideas in a text structure.
  • Pictures can be drawn to model the sequence structure.
  • Create and provide guides and teacher-made organizers that reflect the structure of the original text. This can help students focus on the critical elements of the reading selection.
  • Present students with a completed graphic organizer as a pre-reading strategy. Have students write a probable paragraph using a predicted text structure before reading. After reading, compare students’ probable passages and the original text.
  • Write using the text structures. The teacher should model writing a paragraph using a particular text structure and describe their actions as they are writing. Then students write their own paragraphs using text structure/ paragraph frames as templates.
  • Make the connection between reading and writing. When students read an example of a particular text structure, have them write using that same text structure. Writing can be done as a pre-reading or post-reading strategy.
  • Rewrite a paragraph or passage using a different text structure than the original. Compare the two and analyze why the author might have chosen the original pattern.
  • Use summary frame questions to guide students’ comprehension before, during, and after reading. Each organizational structure suggests questions readers should consider as they read and answer once they’ve finished reading the passage.
  • Use text coding strategies – highlighters, Post-It Notes, etc. – targeting text structures. Teachers must model these strategies and be consistent in the procedures (same color each time).

Identifying patterns of the organization is not the final goal ~  the final goal is for students to internalize the various text structures to improve nonfiction reading comprehension and expository writing organization. 

When teaching nonfiction, think of before reading (assessing and building content knowledge), during reading (supporting and monitoring comprehension), and after reading (evaluating, extending, and transferring content knowledge) activities.  

Before reading.

Activate Prior Knowledge  – Elicit from the students what they already know.

K-W-L Chart – K (what I know), W (what I want to know), L (summarize what I learned). This activity helps activate background knowledge while building background knowledge for peers. Students can develop a list of questions about what they would like to learn from their background knowledge. Synthesizing takes place when they write what they have learned.

Skimming and Scanning – This is necessary to quickly find the most critical information in a text. Have students work in pairs to skim and scan the nonfiction text features  (title, headings, glossary, maps, charts, bold-faced words, etc.), and have the students read only the first and last paragraphs. Ask what they think the text or chapter will be about. Next, have students write down questions/comments in one column and facts they quickly learned in another. What will be the critical points in the text or chapter? (Teachers may ask in what section certain information would be found. This will help assess critical thinking.)

Anticipation Guide –  Anticipation Guides help activate background knowledge and build interest in an upcoming lesson. Teachers determine critical ideas in a text or chapter. Then, they write 3-8 statements that tap into the student’s background knowledge; include statements that could be opinions ~ not just facts that only can be answered by reading the text. Have students read the statements, circling agree, disagree, or yes/no. Working with a partner allows students to have discussions about expanding their knowledge. Then, students revisit the statements after reading the text. Circling agree or disagree (yes/no).

Predict-O-Gram – This is an excellent way to highlight language in a text, make predictions, and create questions before reading. The teacher reads aloud a portion of a text, then supplies the students with words that appear on the upcoming pages. The students use the words to anticipate upcoming events, suggest ways the words might be used, and ask questions they believe might be answered.

Admit Slip –   Admit slips develop a purpose for reading, which, research shows, leads to a deeper understanding of a text and higher retention of information because readers create connections, storing new information in meaningful ways. The teacher copies an illustration from a textbook and lists headings and subtitles used in the text. Next, the students must write 3 questions they believe the reading will answer or list 3 pieces of information they think they will learn. Have students discuss their predictions/questions before reading and list them together. Then, read to confirm/answer the items on the list.

Teach New Words Before Reading – Whether you teach new words in context, through association, integration with background knowledge, structural analysis, compare/contrast, or visuals, understanding the new vocabulary will significantly improve students’ comprehension. Connect the new words to the reading. Not all new words need to be formally taught to understand the passages; students may figure out many new words in context. Always use integration, repetition, and meaningful use to make the new vocabulary memorable.

Advance Organizer – A graphic organizer provides students with general information about a topic before reading.

Assessing Preconceptions and Addressing Misconceptions – Brainstorm what students think they know before introducing a topic. Clarify misconceptions with hands-on activities, explanations, photographs, examples. . . before the students read; this way, they can better accept the new ideas as they read.

Ask Questions Before, During, and After Reading  – Questions to Ask

DURING READING

Close Reading ~ an excellent description of this process is found on the Scholastic site, which states:

“The first time you dig your shovel in (read), you just scrape the surface off the ground. The second time you dig in (reread the text), you get a little more dirt (meaning). And every time you dig in (read) after that, your hole gets bigger and bigger until it’s just right and you get the full meaning” (quote from the UNE course). See the chart:

Close Reading

SQ4R ~ Survey, write Questions for each heading and subheading. Read the information in 1 section and take notes. Recite the vital information. Review questions.

Reciprocal Teaching – This strategy helps students focus and monitor their reading to achieve higher comprehension. After watching teacher demonstrations of predicting, questioning, clarifying, and summarizing from a short passage, students practice these 4 with a partner. First, assign each student a reading partner. They will read a short section together and work together through the 4 stages. For example, at the questioning stage, one student will ask questions of the other. This role is changed in the next section. Finally, they can predict, clarify and summarize together.

nonfiction text teaching

DR-TA (Directed Reading-Thinking Activity) –  This strategy is helpful because of the 4 components that extend and support students’ reading and thinking:  activate prior knowledge, predict, read, and revisit prediction to confirm or revise. First, the teacher asks the class to brainstorm words or ideas associated with a topic. These are recorded. Second, students examine the text’s or chapter’s features such as illustrations, graphs, charts. . . .  They form predictions and questions of what they will read. Third, they have a purpose of reading. Read. Finally, students discuss the predictions that were confirmed. They discuss the predictions they revise as they read and look at their lists to see if further reading is still needed before predictions can be confirmed or changed.

TAG (Textbook Activity Guide) – A TAG is designed to support students as they read. Prompts are written for the students to help them focus on strategic processes and self-monitoring strategies to help them understand a text. The teacher reads the section on her own first, highlighting critical content. The teacher then creates a TAG to guide the students to this content as they read. In a TAG, the student works with a partner or small group. Words like “predict” and “skim” are often used in a TAG, as well as references to the nonfiction text features (glossary, bold-faced words, maps, etc.). Questions are asked, and page numbers of where the answers are are given. This can become a study guide.

Cornell Note-Taking – This strategy is effective for helping students understand and remember more of what they read or view. It supports students in making connections, developing questions, focusing and monitoring their reading, and analyzing what they have learned. The teacher will model the following first. Fold a piece of paper in half. One side is for questions, the other for notes, and leaves a space at the bottom to summarize.    During reading or viewing a video clip, take notes, and develop questions that your notes would answer. Use these notes to summarize the main ideas at the bottom of the page. Have students do this individually, then compare with a partner.

Graphic Organizers – Depending on the text structure, prepare an appropriate graphic organizer for students to fill out as they read.

MORE During Reading Strategies:

Compare and Contrast Ideas

Distinguish Facts from Opinions

Identify Main Ideas and Supporting Details

Make Inferences and Draw Conclusions

Make Generalizations

Recognize Cause and Effect Relationships

Use Context Clues to Decipher Unfamiliar Words

Adjust Reading Rate/Rereading

Visualize Images From Text

AFTER READING

Summarize, Synthesize, Paraphrase/Retell

Sequence Events 

Exit Slips – This strategy is suitable for assessing students’ learning at the end of class. Exit slips are short prompts for focused writing that will give the teacher feedback. For example, some exit slips may include:  Write about something you learned today. What questions do you still have? How did what we learned today connect with what we knew prior?

GIST (Generating Interactions Between Schemata and Texts) – This strategy helps students write organized summaries. The teacher models this by finding a short paragraph detailing a concept, event, time period, description, problem, or sequential directions. Read the 1st sentence, and have the class summarize that sentence in 15 words or less. Read the 2nd sentence. Now have the class combine the first and second sentences into one sentence summarized in 15 words or less. Continue doing this until the paragraph is read and the whole paragraph is summarized into one sentence of 15 words or less. Have students practice on their paragraphs.

Conceptual Questions After the Passage – Have students answer questions after reading to help with recall and apply conceptual information to new situations.

Consider the Author  – Identify Author’s Purpose and Viewpoint: Why Did the Author Write the Selection?

Good Readers of Informational Text

Good readers of nonfiction are ACTIVE readers! Therefore, your students should read with a pencil in hand to be engaged at all times!

  • Have clear goals for their reading
  • Preview the text before reading, noticing the nonfiction text features
  • Activate prior knowledge
  • Make predictions
  • Use meaning, and expect the text to make sense
  • Monitor their reading ~ and ask, “Do I understand this?”
  • Make connections:  text to self, text to text, text to world
  • Create visual images
  • Use the text features (heading, captions, maps, etc.) actively and consciously.
  • Draw inferences and conclusions
  • Ask questions as they read
  • Read different kinds of informational texts differently
  • Skim and scan to recheck the information
  • Locate information
  • Adjust reading rate to match text demands
  • Make a plan when reading ~ take notes in margins, use a color-coded post-it-note system of interesting information, confusing parts, questions. . .
  • Identify essential ideas and words.
  • Shift strategies to match the purpose
  • Retell, summarize, synthesize
  • Use fix-up strategies: read on and go back, backtrack, context clues, make substitutions, and break unfamiliar words into parts.

Nonfiction Writing/Speaking Prompts

  • I learned. . .
  • I never knew. . .
  • I already knew that. . .
  • I was wrong to think. . .
  • I wonder why. . .
  • I still don’t know. . .
  • An important date is. . .
  • The confusing thing is. . .
  • ____ (nonfiction text feature) helped me explain. . .
  • I was surprised. . .
  • I also want to read. . .
  • The index helped me. . .
  • I like learning. . .
  • I would recommend this book to. . .
  • I would like to share my learning by. . .
  • Some interesting facts are. . .
  • I want to learn more about. . .
  • This book answered my questions about. . .

Copyright 06/02/2012

Edited on 04/19/2023

 Allen, Janet. Tools For Teaching. Stenhouse Publishers, 2004.

Hoyt, Linda. Make It Real. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2002.

www.essdack.org ~ Reading and Writing Consultant, Kristi Orcutt

Copyscape alerts me to duplicate content. Please respect my work.

Five Books

  • NONFICTION BOOKS
  • BEST NONFICTION 2023
  • Architecture
  • Art History
  • Design & Illustration
  • Fashion & Style
  • Modern and Contemporary Art
  • Photography
  • How to Invest
  • Behavioural Economics
  • Development Economics
  • Economic History
  • Financial Crisis
  • Globalization Books
  • World Economies
  • Climate Change Books
  • Environmental Ethics
  • The Best Cookbooks
  • Food & History of Food
  • Wine & Drinks
  • Death & Dying
  • Family & Relationships
  • Sex & Sexuality
  • American History
  • Ancient History (up to 500)
  • Modern History (1800-1945)
  • History of Science
  • Historical Figures
  • Military History
  • English Grammar & Usage
  • Books for Learning Languages
  • Linguistics
  • Best Biographies
  • Artists' Biographies
  • Classical Music & Opera
  • Film & Cinema
  • The Prehistoric World
  • Plants, Trees & Flowers
  • Ancient Philosophy
  • Ethics & Moral Philosophy
  • Great Philosophers
  • Social & Political Philosophy
  • Foreign Policy & International Relations
  • Human Rights
  • Mental Health
  • Neuroscience
  • Psychoanalysis
  • Psychology Research
  • Religious History Books
  • Maths & Statistics
  • Popular Science
  • Physics Books
  • Football (Soccer)
  • Sport & Sporting Culture
  • Artificial Intelligence/AI Books
  • Digital Age
  • History of Technology
  • FICTION BOOKS
  • BEST FICTION 2023
  • NEW Fiction
  • World Literature
  • Literary Criticism
  • Literary Figures
  • Classical Studies
  • Classic English Literature
  • American Literature
  • Comics & Graphic Novels
  • Fairy Tales & Mythology
  • Historical Fiction
  • Crime Novels
  • Science Fiction
  • Short Stories
  • South Africa
  • United States
  • Arctic & Antarctica
  • Afghanistan
  • Myanmar (Formerly Burma)
  • Netherlands
  • Kids Recommend Books for Kids
  • High School Teachers Recommendations
  • Ages Baby-2
  • Books for Teens and Young Adults
  • Best Kids Books of 2023
  • Best Books for Teens of 2023
  • Best Audiobooks for Kids
  • Prizewinning Kids' Books
  • Popular Series Books for Kids
  • Environment
  • Best Kids' Books of 2023
  • Political Novels
  • New Science Books
  • New Climate Books
  • New Psychology Books
  • New Philosophy Books
  • New Math Books
  • New Economics Books

New History Books

  • New Physics Books
  • New Memoirs
  • New Biography
  • New Literary Fiction
  • New World Literature
  • New Historical Fiction
  • THE BEST AUDIOBOOKS
  • Actors Read Great Books
  • Books Narrated by Their Authors
  • Best Audiobook Thrillers
  • Best History Audiobooks
  • Nobel Literature Prize
  • Booker Prize (fiction)
  • Baillie Gifford Prize (nonfiction)
  • Financial Times (nonfiction)
  • Wolfson Prize (history)
  • Royal Society (science)
  • Pushkin House Prize (Russia)
  • Walter Scott Prize (historical fiction)
  • Arthur C Clarke Prize (sci fi)
  • The Hugos (sci fi & fantasy)
  • Audie Awards (audiobooks)

Make Your Own List

Nonfiction Books

Nonfiction books to look out for in early 2024, recommended by sophie roell.

The Best Nonfiction

The Best Nonfiction

From the origins of sex to the effects of social media, from the invention of the wheel to the race against climate change, Five Books editor Sophie Roell gives an overview of the new nonfiction books appearing in January, February and March of 2024.

Nonfiction Books to Look Out for in Early 2024 - The Shortest History of Economics by Andrew Leigh

The Shortest History of Economics by Andrew Leigh

Nonfiction Books to Look Out for in Early 2024 - Maurice and Maralyn: A Whale, a Shipwreck, a Love Story by Sophie Elmhirst

Maurice and Maralyn: A Whale, a Shipwreck, a Love Story by Sophie Elmhirst

Nonfiction Books to Look Out for in Early 2024 - Vagabond Princess: The Great Adventures of Gulbadan by Ruby Lal

Vagabond Princess: The Great Adventures of Gulbadan by Ruby Lal

Nonfiction Books to Look Out for in Early 2024 - How the World Made the West: A 4,000-Year History by Josephine Quinn

How the World Made the West: A 4,000-Year History by Josephine Quinn

Nonfiction Books to Look Out for in Early 2024 - Third Millennium Thinking: Creating Sense in a World of Nonsense Saul Perlmutter, Robert MacCoun and John Campbell

Third Millennium Thinking: Creating Sense in a World of Nonsense Saul Perlmutter, Robert MacCoun and John Campbell

problem solution nonfiction books

1 The Shortest History of Economics by Andrew Leigh

2 maurice and maralyn: a whale, a shipwreck, a love story by sophie elmhirst, 3 vagabond princess: the great adventures of gulbadan by ruby lal, 4 how the world made the west: a 4,000-year history by josephine quinn, 5 third millennium thinking: creating sense in a world of nonsense saul perlmutter, robert maccoun and john campbell.

In January, I tend to still be looking at the best-of-the-year lists for my reading but in the last couple of weeks, I have started looking ahead again. As usual, while I try to give a flavour for what’s out there, my selections are inevitably going to be personal, and apologies in advance for all the excellent books I’ve missed out.

New in Nonfiction Series

I’ve got a bit of a weakness for nonfiction series, where an academic or other expert tries to encapsulate their entire field or subject in 100 or so pages. Few fields are more misunderstood by the layperson than economics. It’s not easy to give a quick overview, as it’s a very varied subject and academic economists tend to write articles with equations rather than books. In the excellent Shortest History of …series, Australian economist and politician Andrew Leigh has taken it on. The Shortest History of Economics is a delightful, easy-to-read overview of economics and even has an endorsement from Claudia Goldin (winner of the 2023 Nobel economics prize) at the beginning: “If you read just one book about economics, make it Andrew Leigh’s clear, insightful, remarkable — and short — work.”

In the same series, David Baker, whose field is ‘big history’, takes on The Shortest History of Sex , starting with the Big Bang . This is really a fascinating science book, a tale of the entire history (and a bit of the future) of humanity told through the lens of sex. Like On The Origin of Species, each chapter begins with a little summary of the main topics covered. If you’re on the prudish side (I’m afraid I am) the jokes can be a little jarring but given the subject matter, I can understand the author’s decision to go for it.

In Princeton University Press’s Ancient Wisdom for Modern Life series (which includes text in the original Latin or Greek facing the translation), there’s How to Be Healthy: An Ancient Guide to Wellness , about the ancient Greek physician Galen (129-c216). Medical knowledge has advanced quite a bit since the 3rd century, so the book is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, with the author and translator, Katherine Van Schaik, admitting she had to omit many of his better-known works. But we can still see the advice on (say) “Avoiding Distress” from this “careful physician” who offers “some ancient wisdom that we today might consider modern, were it not so old.”

In OUP’s excellent Very Short Introduction series , there are new books about French philosopher Simone Weil and Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky .

New in Biography

The early months of the year are grey and muddy in my corner of the world and it’s fun to dream of adventure in the year ahead. Maurice and Maralyn by Sophie Elmshirst is about an ordinary couple from Derby who set out to sail around the world in the early 1970s. The reason we know about them is that theirs turned into a survival story: their boat was sunk by a sperm whale and they were left adrift on a raft in the Pacific Ocean for 118 days. It’s an easy and engaging read: I started it one evening after dinner and stayed up to finish it just after midnight.

What’s particularly notable these few months is the number of biographies about historical figures and important thinkers. In We Are Free to Change the World Lyndsey Stonebridge takes on the political theorist Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) . Stonebridge uses a technique I love, which is making Arendt’s own words part of the text. You feel you are hearing not only Stonebridge’s take on her, but also Arendt’s own voice. Our philosophy editor, Nigel Warburton, calls We Are Free to Change the World “an excellent, well-written book that shows why Arendt is still an important and sometimes controversial thinker today.” It certainly has encouraged me to have another go at The Origins of Totalitarianism .

On the subject of political dystopias, Orwell biographer D.J. Taylor has a new book out about him: Who is Big Brother? A Reader’s Guide to George Orwel l. You’ll learn a lot about Orwell’s life and how it made its way into his books.

One book I enjoyed that’s out later this month is a biography of Gulbadan (1523-1603) by historian Ruby Lal. Gulbadan was the daughter of Babur, founder of the Mughal Empire , and the aunt of Akbar, sometimes called ‘the Great.’ Gulbadan was born in Kabul, ended up in Akbar’s harem in Agra, and eventually went on a trip to Saudi Arabia, to visit the holy places of Islam. Lal manages to recreate all this beautifully. My husband called me for dinner while I was reading it, and I said, ‘Wait! I’m just watching Gulbadan arriving in Medina.’ I had to explain I wasn’t watching TV, just reading a very vivid book.

Also hailing from central Asia are the main protagonists of The Genius of Their Age: Ibn Sina, Biruni and the Lost Enlightenment by S. Frederick Starr . It’s a dual biography of Ibn Sina (aka Avicenna) and Biruni, key figures in the flowering of science and philosophy that took place in the Islamic world in the Middle Ages. Both men were born in the 10th century in modern-day Uzbekistan. This is an important period for anyone interested in the history of science, a missing gap in Western curricula (at least in my day).

New in Biographical Series

One very readable book from Yale University Press’s Jewish Lives series is a biography of Alfred Dreyfus , the man at the centre of the Dreyfus Affair. It was a cause célèbre that rocked 19th-century France, but as historian Maurice Samuels points out in the introduction, not much attention has been paid to the life of the man most affected by it. If all you knew about Dreyfus was that he was a Jewish army officer who was wrongfully convicted of treason and imprisoned on Devil’s Island, this is a nice way to find out more (and if you’ve never heard of him at all, start with The Man on Devil’s Island or the historical thriller An Officer and a Spy ). In the same series, Ian Buruma takes on the life of Baruch Spinoza .

In another Yale series, Ancient Lives , there’s a new biography of the 2nd-century Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius , whose book, Meditations, is often recommended for those interested in the ancient philosophy of Stoicism . It’s by Donald Robertson, a cognitive behavioural psychotherapist and a firm believer that Stoicism has much to teach us in our daily lives.

Amongst the new history books out now or due out shortly, there are a number to choose from. If you like large-scale, broad history, there’s How the World Made the West: A 4,000-Year History by historian and archaeologist Josephine Quinn. The book opens in 2000 BCE  in the town of Byblos, in modern-day Lebanon, bustling as a result of the advent of open sea sailing (though Quinn also discusses the invention of the wheel on the Eurasian Steppe) and goes up to the beginnings of the age of exploration. It’s a story of exchanges—of goods and cultures. The unifying theme of the book is a bridling against the term ‘civilization’ as a way of understanding this history, especially the idea of a Western civilization whose values and ideals come down to us from ancient Greece.

As we like lists of ‘the best’ at Five Books, I’ll also mention The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World,   a new book by British historian Bettany Hughes. She traces where the idea of these ‘seven wonders’ came from, and then visits each of the sites. Hughes does a lot of TV documentaries, and that’s slightly the vibe of the book, you want to be there and see what she’s seeing.

World War II seems to be of perennial interest to readers, but events in Europe—whether it’s important battles or the Holocaust—seem to take precedence. Much less well covered is the war in Asia, including its aftermath. While many of us know about the Nuremberg trials, fewer know much about the prosecution of Japan’s leaders as war criminals after they lost the war. Gary Bass, a professor at Princeton and a great writer, takes this on in his new book, Judgment at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia . This is a very long, detailed book, for someone who really wants to understand the history of that period—which remains very much alive in East Asian politics today.

Also of note is the appearance, in English, of a book about Indonesia’s struggle for independence from the Netherlands after World War II: Revolusi: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World by David van Reybrouck.

Current Affairs

Much as I love history as escapism into the past, I do keep an eye out for books that shed light on some of the deeply worrying conflicts going on in the world today. One notable book for those trying to get a handle on the Middle East is a new book by Christopher Phillips, a professor of international relations at Queen Mary University of London. It’s called Battleground: 10 Conflicts that Explain the New Middle East .  It’s an accessible introduction to conflicts across the region, written, according to the author, for readers wanting to understand the complex reality of the Middle East and looking for a place to start. He explains that by conflict he means not just outright wars, but also fraught politics and region-wide disputes. He covers Syria, Libya, Yemen, Palestine, Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, Kurdistan and The Gulf as well as The Horn of Africa.

More new history books

New in Science

One of the most popular interviews on our site is about critical thinking. Third Millennium Thinking: Creating Sense in a World of Nonsense by Saul Perlmutter (a Nobel-prize winning astrophysicist), Robert MacCoun, (a social psychologist) and John Campbell (a philosopher) is a notable new addition to that list. According to Nigel Warburton,   it’s  “a clear, accessible and enlightening guide to the tools of thinking that make science work. It’s a really enjoyable read and a great book for anyone who wants to think more clearly about evidence, argument, reason and the need for a degree of intellectual humility.”

In a very different vein is a lovely book about the moon by science writer Rebecca Boyle: Our Moon: A Human History . She looks at the moon from all sorts of interesting angles: how it affected the outcome of battles, what it was like for the Apollo astronauts, etc.

For those concerned about what’s happening on Earth, data scientist Hannah Ritchie, head of research at Our World in Data , has a book out on climate change entitled Not the End of the World . Ritchie says she’s inspired by the late Swedish epidemiologist Hans Rosling (author of Factfulness ) and the book is very much in the vein of ‘we’ve achieved a lot, let’s not despair.’ It’s a climate-change pep talk, I suppose, but based on facts and data.

More new science books

Health Books

I’ve already mentioned the 3rd-century Greek physician Galen, but these days few people (if any) believe that human health consists of keeping the ‘four humours’ in balance. For those seeking more up-to-date health advice, there are also a couple of books written by 21st-century scientists available soon. Nobel Prize-winning molecular biologist Venki Ramakrishnan has a new book out on the science of ageing and our efforts to prolong our lives. It’s called Why We Die: The New Science of Ageing and the Quest for Immortality,   and has got rave blurbs from Bill Bryson and Stephen Fry , amongst others. Meanwhile, neuroscientist Charan Ranganath looks at the latest science of memory in Why We Remember — which will perhaps provide me with insight into why, now I’m in my 50s, I forget everything.

Another must-read, out in March, is The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness . It’s by psychologist Jonathan Haidt, author of one of my favourite books . Since 2010, rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide have risen sharply among teenagers around the developed world, and Haidt explores why. This is something that touches all of us: I live in rural Oxfordshire, but the bridge at the end of my road is currently closed after more than one person jumped off it. Instinctively, I blame it on social media, but look forward to reading a more nuanced analysis of what’s going on—as well as some possible solutions.

February 11, 2024

Five Books aims to keep its book recommendations and interviews up to date. If you are the interviewee and would like to update your choice of books (or even just what you say about them) please email us at [email protected]

Support Five Books

Five Books interviews are expensive to produce. If you've enjoyed this interview, please support us by donating a small amount .

Sophie Roell

Sophie Roell

Sophie Roell is editor and one of the founders of Five Books.

problem solution nonfiction books

Naomi Oreskes on The Politics of Climate Change

problem solution nonfiction books

Jonathan Keates on Great Letter Writers Books

problem solution nonfiction books

Sophie Roell on The Best Nonfiction Books of 2021

problem solution nonfiction books

Marc Favreau on The Best Nonfiction Books for Teens

problem solution nonfiction books

Peter Hessler on The Best Narrative Nonfiction

problem solution nonfiction books

Kathryn Hughes on The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2021 Baillie Gifford Prize Shortlist

problem solution nonfiction books

Madawi Al-Rasheed on The 2023 British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding

problem solution nonfiction books

Caroline Sanderson on The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2022 Baillie Gifford Prize Shortlist

problem solution nonfiction books

Fiammetta Rocco on The Best Nonfiction Books of 2018

problem solution nonfiction books

Elizabeth Taylor on The Best Biographies of 2023: The National Book Critics Circle Shortlist

problem solution nonfiction books

Patrick Wright on The 2021 British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding

problem solution nonfiction books

Stephanie Flanders on Best Nonfiction Books of 2016

problem solution nonfiction books

Frederick Studemann on The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2023 Baillie Gifford Prize Shortlist

Patrick wright on global cultural understanding: the 2020 nayef al-rodhan prize books, sophie roell on notable nonfiction of early summer 2023.

problem solution nonfiction books

Will Storr on Immersive Nonfiction

Sophie roell on award winning nonfiction books of 2022.

problem solution nonfiction books

Cory Doctorow on Chokepoint Capitalism Books

problem solution nonfiction books

David Edgerton on The Best Politics Books: the 2022 Orwell Prize for Political Writing

Sophie roell on editors’ picks: favourite nonfiction of 2018.

problem solution nonfiction books

James MacManus on The Best Books by War Correspondents

problem solution nonfiction books

Richard Ovenden on Libraries Books

problem solution nonfiction books

David Grann on The Best True Crime Books

Sophie roell on the best nonfiction books of 2020.

problem solution nonfiction books

Peter Bazalgette on Best Nonfiction Books of 2017

problem solution nonfiction books

Samira Shackle on The Best Narrative Nonfiction Books

problem solution nonfiction books

Martha Lane Fox on The 2023 Orwell Prize for Political Writing

problem solution nonfiction books

Jeffrey Wasserstrom on Chinese Life Stories

problem solution nonfiction books

Philippe Sands on The British Academy Book Prize: 2022 Shortlist

Sophie roell on the best nonfiction of the past quarter century: the baillie gifford prize winner of winners.

problem solution nonfiction books

Stig Abell on The Best Nonfiction Books of 2019

problem solution nonfiction books

Catherine Manegold on The Best Narrative Nonfiction

problem solution nonfiction books

Geoff Dyer on Unusual Histories

problem solution nonfiction books

Serhii Plokhy on Ukraine and Russia Books

problem solution nonfiction books

Cal Flyn on The Best Travel Books of 2023: The Stanford Travel Writing Awards

Sophie roell on notable nonfiction of fall 2023, sophie roell on award-winning nonfiction of 2023.

We ask experts to recommend the five best books in their subject and explain their selection in an interview.

This site has an archive of more than one thousand seven hundred interviews, or eight thousand book recommendations. We publish at least two new interviews per week.

Five Books participates in the Amazon Associate program and earns money from qualifying purchases.

© Five Books 2024

problem solution nonfiction books

Professional Development

Mentor texts: text structure.

One of the best ways to show students skills and strategies in action is to use a strong mentor text!  This is a text that is a strong piece of literature that can be analyzed and used for a variety of reasons.  Both students and teachers can use the text to teach and learn a variety of skills and identify examples of those skills in action!  If you type in ‘mentor texts’ in Google, you’ll find a ton of ideas, especially for fiction, but nonfiction – not so much!  I want to make sure teachers have a strong list of both fiction & nonfiction mentor texts to use when teaching.  Today, let’s take a look at a list of mentor texts , specifically picked out to help teach Nonfiction Text Structures!   Let’s take a look!

Mentor Texts Text Structure

(This post contains Amazon affiliate links.  This means that Amazon sends me a little pocket change, at no cost to you, if you purchase through on of these links.  This helps keep my site running and funds giveaways for you!)

Text Structure is one of the most important nonfiction concepts to teach!  It truly can be the lightbulb for many students who just don’t understand how nonfiction is written!  It helps to relate and bring together the facts, the organization, the purpose, and so much more about a single text!  I have some great Text Structure Tips and Tricks for you if you need any!

Mentor Texts for Descriptive Text Structure

Mentor Texts Text Structure

Mentor Texts for Cause & Effect Text Structure

Mentor Texts Text Structure

Mentor Texts for Compare & Contrast Text Structure

Mentor Texts Text Structure

Mentor Texts for Sequencing Text Structure

Mentor Texts Text Structure

Mentor Texts for Problem & Solution Text Structure

Mentor Texts Text Structure

I hope you found a new mentor text (or two) for you!  All of these titles are truly unique and can help bring the concept of text structure to light for students!  If you want to save these titles, just pin the image below!

https://cieraharristeaching.com/2018/01/get-most-out-of-teaching-nonfiction.html/

  • Read more about: Mentor Texts , Reading Comprehension

You might also like...

Picture Perfect Literacy Series

Sneak Peek into the Picture Perfect Literacy Series

Do you feel like new terms, trends, and programs are constantly being introduced to teachers? I know I do! Companies and organizations are always creating

Asking Questions

Tips for Teaching Asking Questions

Do you ever wish students participated more in class? I’m sure you do! Participation is a fantastic way to ensure students know the material. However,

Building Comprehension (BC) Club Member

Benefits of Being a Building Comprehension (BC) Hub Member

Do you ever get frustrated with all of the time, energy, and even MONEY that you spend to find the right resource or the right

problem solution nonfiction books

I’m a wife, a mommy of 3, blogger, and a full time teacher author and presenter. I love to read, shop, and spend time with my family! My hands are always busy, but my heart is so full!

Find what you need

Reading comprehension, mentor texts, classroom management, math ideas & activities, classroom organization, newsletter signup, teach comprehension confidently, and get the results you've always been looking for.

Download your FREE Ultimate Comprehension Toolkit for

  • A complete roadmap for teaching comprehension
  • Pre-assessments & data sheets to identify student needs
  • Engagement strategies, discussion cards, exit tickets, & MORE!

problem solution nonfiction books

Find What You Need

  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclosures
  • Shipping Policy
  • Refund & Returns Policy

Join the Community

Join me and thousands of other 2nd through 4th grade educators in a special Facebook group unlike any other!  It’s a fantastic place to collaborate, ask questions, find new and engaging ideas for your classroom, and even grab some exclusive freebies!  Hope to see you there!

Join the Newsletter

Privacy overview.

SmartParentingSkills.com

21 Good Picture Books to Teach Problem and Solution

problem solution nonfiction books

Mentor Text Picture Books to Teach Problem and Solution

problem solution nonfiction books

Problem Solved! by Jan Thomas When Rabbit sees his messy room, he learns that he has HIS OWN PROBLEM SOLVING PORCUPINE! Which seems good at first. But, it turns into a disaster. Because to clean up the blocks, the porcupine flushes them down the toilet. And to clean up his shirts, he feeds them to the goldfish. How can Rabbit get rid of his not-very-helpful problem-solving porcupine?

problem solution nonfiction books

A House in the Woods  by Inga Moore Little Pig’s den becomes filled with friends, but once Moose arrives, the den collapses. Oh, no! Problem. What will they do to find a solution? Together, the animals build a new house in the woods big enough to fit all the friends.

problem solution nonfiction books

Enigma  by Graeme Base Bertie needs to find the missing magic show props that have disappeared from his grandpa’s retirement home. Each performer tells him what’s missing. Readers help find the items in the illustrations so that Bertie can find the culprit. Like all his books, Base excels in his detailed illustrations.

problem solution nonfiction books

7 Ate 9: The Untold Story  by Tara Lazar, illustrated by Ross MacDonald 6 bangs on Private I’s door for help! Because there’s a rumor that 7 is eating other numbers because apparently, 7 ate 9. YIKES! But did 7 really eat 9? Pitch perfect tongue-in-cheek number and word humor will crack you up throughout this suspenseful, funny problem and solution story. (Also on: Best Picture Book Mysteries.)

problem solution nonfiction books

The Brownstone  by Paula Scher, illustrated by Stan Mack The Bear family is ready for hibernation but first, they need to figure out what to do about the noise problem. Their solution? All the animals work together to shift apartments so that everyone finds the best apartment for their specific needs. You’ll love the message and illustrations.

problem solution nonfiction books

Pigeon P.I.  by Meg McLaren What a unique and delightful mystery story! A little canary asks Pigeon P.I. (private investigator) to help her find her missing friends. Then the canary goes missing, too. It’s up to Pigeon to solve the missing bird mystery. The author writes in the style of the old detective shows– punchy with short sentences. The illustrator captures the details, giving kids clues to notice as they read.

problem solution nonfiction books

One Word from Sophia  by Jim Averbeck, illustrated by Yasmeen Ismail This picture book is a great way to teach kids summarizing and word choice as well as a problem-solution text structure! Sophia really wants a pet giraffe for her birthday. As a result, she sets out to convince her family, starting with her mother, a judge. However, Mother says that Sophia’s argument is too verbose. As a result, Sophie tries fewer words with Father. But he says her presentation is too effusive. Sophia continues with each family member until she reaches her last-ditch attempt and says the one word that works: PLEASE.

problem solution nonfiction books

No Boring Stories!  by Julie Falatko, illustrated by Charles Santoso When a cute little bunny tries to join a group of animal storytellers (mole, weevil, crab, and babirusa), the group doesn’t want to add her to their brainstorming group. As the animals continue their story plans with relatable characters, an inciting incident, rising action, climax, and…. Only the group gets stuck with the ending. That’s when bunny reveals that she likes making up weird (not boring) stories. The group realizes that the bunny has the perfect ending idea. Reluctantly, they agree that she can be part of the group. At least until a “ bunch of adorable frogs and puppies show up next week… ” This book shows plotting as well as the creative strengths of writers working together.

problem solution nonfiction books

That Fruit Is Mine!  by Anuska Allepuz This is a charming problem and solution story about learning to share and the power of working together. You’ll crack up watching the elephants’ many failed attempts to get delicious-looking fruit off a tree while simultaneously watching a tiny group of mice work together to get the yummy fruit, too. The problem is getting the fruit but only one animal group succeeds in a solution. Who do you think it will be? Great for prediction! (Also on: Picture Books That Teach Cooperation.)

problem solution picture book

Great, Now We’ve Got Barbarians!  by Jason Carter Eaton, illustrated by Mark Fearing Mom says that if the boy doesn’t clean his room, he’ll get pests . . . which the boy thinks aren’t all that bad, right? However, things go downhill when barbarian “pests” start arriving. Because they eat everything, use his toys to clean out their ears, and steal blankets and pillows. So there is only one thing to do — CLEAN up his room. It’s a predictable but funny solution with the perfect forgot-to-clean-up twist at the end.

problem solving picture books

Walrus in the Bathtub  by Deborah Underwood, illustrated by Matt Hunt The worst thing about this family’s new home is the walrus in the bathtub. And walrus songs are very, very loud. It’s a big problem. The family tries lots of clever things to get the walrus to leave the bathtub but with no success. So they decide to move. Again. That’s when the walrus shows them his list — “ How to Make Your New Family Feel Welcome ” — which, surprisingly, includes all the things that annoy the family. It turns out the walrus was just trying to be nice. As a result, the family stays with a few *new* rules. This story will make you want your own walrus in a bathtub.

problem solution nonfiction books

The Thingity-Jig by Kathleen Doherty, illustrated by Kristyna Litten Wordplay, problem-solving, and persistence! One day Bear finds a Thingity-Jig (aka. a couch), which he thinks is wonderful as a sit-on-it, jump-on-it thing.  He asks his friends to help him carry it home but they’re too fast asleep, so Bear figures out some ideas to do it himself. He makes a Rolly-Rumpity! Which is a pack-it-up, heap-it-up, load-it-up thing. That isn’t enough to move the Thingit-Jig so Bear makes something else — a Lifty-Uppity. And then, a Pushy-Poppity. And at daybreak, he arrives back at home where his friends are waking up, with his special Thingity-Jig. Bingity…Bing…Boing…Bear falls asleep.

problem solution nonfiction books

Someday is Now: Clara Luper and the 1958 Oklahoma City Sit-Ins  by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich Clara advocated for justice and equality during a time when Black people weren’t permitted the same rights as white people. As a teacher, she inspired her students to believe that change was possible. Clara and her students went to the Katz drugstore and asked to be served — even though the store didn’t serve black people. She and her students returned day after day despite people yelling and throwing food. Eventually, the Katz store relented and started to serve people of all races. Clara and her students finally could enjoy a Coke and a burger without trouble.

problem solution nonfiction books

Wangari’s Trees of Peace  by Jeannette Winter Based on the true story of Wangari Maathai, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, read how Wangari helped her country of Kenya whose forests were all but destroyed. She started planting trees which started a movement motivating other people to plant trees as well. This is an example of how narrative nonfiction book can also teach the plot structure of problem and solution.

problem solution nonfiction books

Battle Bunny   by Jon Scieszka and Mac Barnett, illustrated by Matt Myers When Alex gets a silly, sappy picture book called Birthday Bunny, he picks up a pencil and turns it into something he’d like to read: Battle Bunny. An adorable rabbit’s journey through the forest becomes a secret mission to unleash an evil plan–a plan that only Alex can stop. Not only does this mentor text model problem and solution, but also voice and revision.

problem solution nonfiction books

When Pigs Fly  by James Burke One day, an exuberant pig declares that he will fly. His sister observes with disbelief and horror as one attempt after another fails. The brother pig is so disappointed that he decides to give up. That’s when his sister comes up with an idea — something he hasn’t tried before that will help her brother fly — a pretend airplane. The pigs’ expressive illustrations are absolutely perfect as is the message of persistence despite failure.

Originally Posted Here

Super Easy Roasted Pumpkin Seed Recipe that Kids Will Eat

Study finds increase in mental health spending for children, adolescents since the beginning of pandemic, related articles.

problem solution nonfiction books

Description

This freebie is a great way to introduce your students to the problem and solution nonfiction text structure. Students will practice identifying this text structure in sentences, short paragraphs, and a longer text.

Students will complete activities that will help them develop a good foundation with problem and solution, making it easier for them to distinguish between this text structure and other nonfiction text structures.

This free resource includes:

  • a page where students are introduced to the problem and solution text structure and fill in a graphic organizer
  • two pages where students determine whether or not sentences have a problem and solution text structure or not
  • a cut and paste activity where students determine whether or not short paragraphs have a problem and solution text structure or not
  • a one page reading passage that follows a problem and solution text structure with questions

The complete Scaffolded, Nonfiction Text Structure Resource addresses 5 nonfiction text structures and provides plenty of additional activities for students to identify the text structure in a variety of different texts. It is designed for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students that are being introduced to the different text structures, but 6th or 7th grade students that are struggling with this skill could also benefit.

An answer key is included.

Questions & Answers

Kalena baker - teaching made practical.

  • We're hiring
  • Help & FAQ
  • Privacy policy
  • Student privacy
  • Terms of service
  • Tell us what you think

problem solution nonfiction books

DON’T MISS A THING! SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER

problem solution nonfiction books

  • November 28, 2021

Teaching Problem and Solution with Picture Books

Teaching problem and solution gets a little easier with these picture books. Each book has problem and solution scenarios built into the plot, some more obvious than others.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase anything through them, I will get a small referral fee and you will be supporting me and my blog at no extra cost to you, so thank you! You can find more information here .

Why Use Picture Books for Teaching Problem and Solution?

Understanding problem and solution helps your students develop problem-solving and creative thinking skills. Exploring picture books with problem and solution plots helps them see a problem being introduced, how the character(s) try to solve it and how they finally resolve the issue.

In picture books with problem and solution scenarios, your students will see characters who:

  • use knowledge to solve problems independently
  • predict outcomes
  • think things through
  • make good decisions
  • try new ways to solve problems
  • make mistakes and try again
  • recognize breakthroughs
  • use trial and error to find a solution

Discussion Questions For Teaching Problem and Solution

  • Describe the different ways the characters were effective problem-solvers.
  • How did [character] solve the problem? What strategies did they use?
  • Why do you think [character] was an effective problem solver?
  • Why did [character’s] idea work in the end? Did they think about how their decisions would affect the outcome and other characters?
  • Did [character] make good decisions? Is there anything they could have done differently?
  • Think of possible solutions for [character’s] problem.
  • Did [character] work independently to solve the problem or did they work collaboratively? Was this the best strategy?
  • Does a thinker have to be brave, a risk-taker….?
  • Did their decision making surprise you? Why or why not?
  • Was [character] creative in their thinking? Explain your answer.
  • How did [character’s] way of thinking impact the outcome of the story?

problem solution nonfiction books

Book Chaos? Go Digital, Get Organized!

Hit the button to save yourself from the piles of book ideas you have, never to be looked at again.

You have successfully joined our subscriber list.

Picture Books for Teaching Problem and Solution

Ada Twist, Scientist by Andrea Beaty

Ada Twist, Scientist by Andrea Beaty

Ada Twist scientific curiosity propels her to question, hypothesize, experiment, and unravel the world's mysteries, including one close to home. Ada Twist, Scientist fuels discussions around the power of curiosity, the spirit of inquiry, the pursuit of knowledge, and the importance of creative thinking.

Ada's Violin is a children's book that beautifully illuminates the power of recycling.

Ada's Violin: The Story of the Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay by Susan Hood

Ada Río dreams of playing the violin, but her financial circumstances prevent her from pursuing this aspiration. This changes with the arrival of an innovative music teacher who creates instruments from discarded rubbish. 

Paraguay's inspiring world-renowned Recycled Orchestra highlights the power of music, ingenuity, and the human spirit.

After the Fall (How Humpty Dumpty Got Back Up Again) by Dan Santat

After the Fall by Dan Santat

A fresh retelling of the classic Humpty Dumpty story told from the egg's perspective. Humpty Dumpty bravely faces his fear of heights, teaching us about courage, overcoming adversity, and the importance of self-esteem.

After the Fall promotes discussions around character traits, perspectives, and a growth mindset. It encourages students to understand and embrace their fears, foster adaptability, and celebrate resilience.

A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon

A Bad Case of the Stripes by David Shannon

Camilla Cream loves lima beans but won't eat them because her friends hate them. A mysterious illness causes her to become what others think she should be. Only when she embraces her true self does she recover.

A Bad Case of the Stripes serves as a reminder that individuality should be celebrated and that personal growth stems from self-acceptance and the courage to resist societal pressures.

Black Dog by Levi Pinfold

Black Dog by Levi Pinfold

Black Dog takes us to a family home where a large black dog grows in size and menace, causing fear among the family members. Yet, the smallest one shows immense courage and open-mindedness to discover the truth about the dog.

Engage your students in discussions about overcoming fears, taking risks, and not letting fear control our perception. Encourage them to conquer their fears and take on challenges bravely.

A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams

A Chair For My Mother by Vera B. Williams

A Chair for My Mother illuminates the power of love, family, and community even in the most challenging times. Rosa, her mother, and her grandmother lose their home to a devastating fire.

The book gives us a glimpse into poverty, the importance of saving money, the impact of community kindness and generosity, and the power of perseverance, even in the face of adversity.

Chalk by Bill Thomson​

Chalk by Bill Thomson

Three friends find a bag of magical chalk at the park on a rainy day – whatever they draw becomes real. A sun clears clouds, butterflies fly, and dinosaurs leap from the 2D realm. When a child's drawn dinosaur chases them, they must creatively resolve the problem.

Chalk promotes creativity, problem-solving, the power of imagination and consequences, teaching children that every action can have effects they must deal with.

Click, Clack, Moo Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin

Click, Clack, Moo Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin

When Farmer Brown's cows stumble upon a typewriter, they start typing letters demanding electric blankets. Things escalate quickly as the cows strike, and Duck is the mediator. But the peace doesn't last long when the ducks have their own demands!

Click, Clack, Moo story promotes dialogue about fair negotiations' importance, communication's power, and the essence of compromise.

Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin​

Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin

Dragons may love tacos but hate spicy salsa. A boy discovers this peculiarity and hosts a taco party for his dragon friends. The party takes an unexpected turn when the salsa, much to the dragons' dismay, turns out to be spicy, leading to a chaotic and fiery mess.

Dragons Love Tacos offers opportunities to discuss the concepts of problem-solving, cause and effect, and the importance of careful planning and reading labels!

Enemy Pie by Derek Munson

Enemy Pie by Derek Munson

When Jeremy Ross moves to town, a boy’s life changes for the worse. He is Jeremy’s enemy. Dad advises making an enemy pie, but it will only work if he spends the whole day with his enemy. They end up having so much fun the boy doesn’t need the pie. Use to discuss kindness, conflict resolution, bullying, and problem-solving.

Ernest, the Moose Who Doesn't Fit by Catherine Rayner

Ernest, the Moose Who Doesn't Fit by Catherine Rayner

Ernest the moose is so LARGE he can’t fit inside the book. Determined, he shimmies, shifts, and shuffles his body but he just won’t fit. With a bit of thought his friend, chipmunk, comes up with a solution. Reinforces themes of determination, problem-solving and creative thinking.

Fossil by Bill Thomson

Fossil by Bill Thomson

This is the second of two picture books with a problem and solution by Bill Thomson. A young boy and his dog stumble upon a fossil which springs to life when touched! The boy excitedly cracks open more rocks, revealing more living fossils. But the excitement quickly turns into terror when he discovers a pterodactyl, which swoops down and flies off with his dog.

Fossil encourages discussions on curiosity, discovery, the unexpected consequences of our actions and problem and solution. 

How the Ladies Stopped the Wind by Bruce McMillan

How the Ladies Stopped the Wind by Bruce McMillan

The wind in Iceland is so strong a group of women decide to fix the problem. They plant trees to limit its effects and overcome problems through problem-solving, cooperation and persistence.

Jabari Jumps by Gaia Cornwall

Jabari Jumps by Gaia Cornwall

Jabari resolves to jump off the diving board for the first time. Despite his determination, fear and uncertainty hold him back. But with his father's gentle encouragement, Jabari finds the courage to make the leap.

Jabari Jumps explores a growth mindset, courage, risk-taking, determination, and overcoming fears. It is also great for your students to make connections to Jabari's fear of trying something new.

Journey by Aaron Becker

Journey by Aaron Becker

A lonely girl discovers a magic red marker and creates a door that transports her into an enchanting world filled with wondrous landscapes and adventure. She witnesses an evil emperor capture a majestic bird. She outsmarts the emperor's army to free the bird. 

The girl's journey inspires courage in facing challenges, persistence in pursuing goals, and thinking outside the box to overcome obstacles.

King Bidgood's in the Bathtub by Audrey Wood

King Bidgood's in the Bathtub by Audrey Wood

This is the first of two picture books with a problem and solution by Audrey Wood. King Bidgood enjoys having a bath so much he won’t get out. His page calls upon the court for help. Nothing works, so while everyone is despairing of what to do the page plugs the plug! Use to teach sequencing, creative thinking, problem & solution and prediction.

Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes

Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes

Lilly adores her school, teacher, and purple plastic purse. Her enthusiasm for her purse leads her on an unexpected journey of self-discovery, teaching her important lessons about self-management, forgiveness, integrity, and self-reflection.

Through Lilly's experiences, readers learn the value of controlling their impulses and honesty. Lilly's experiences teach the importance of second chances, making amends, and learning from our actions.

The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear

The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear by Audrey Wood

This is the second of two picture books with a problem and solution by Audrey Wood. The narrator attempts to convince a little mouse to share a recently picked succulent strawberry. Worried about a big, hungry bear, the mouse employs various strategies, including disguising and locking away the fruit, to keep it safe.

The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear promotes discussions on sharing, problem-solving, creative thinking and cause and effect.

The Lumberjack’s Beard by Duncan Beedie

The Lumberjack’s Beard by Duncan Beedie

Jim chops down trees in the forest without considering the repercussions. His actions make many animals homeless, so Jim allows them to reside in his huge beard. He replants the trees and waits for them to grow so the animals can return to their natural habitats.

The Lumberjack's Beard encourages discussions about environmental conservation, cause and effect, and problem-solving and highlights how people can rectify mistakes.

The Marvellous Moon Map by Teresa Heapy

The Marvellous Moon Map by Teresa Heapy

Mouse wants to find the moon with his own moon map. His friend, Bear thinks it would be better to plan and organise the trip. Mouse heads off alone but ends up lost with his map that can’t help him. Luckily, Bear helps him out him and they discover something better than the moon. Reinforces themes of friendship, organisation, creative thinking and problem-solving.

Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters by John Steptoe

Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters by John Steptoe

Mufaro's two daughters react differently to the King's search for a wife – one is aggressive and selfish, the other kind and dignified. The king disguises himself to learn the true nature of both girls and chooses Nyasha, the kind and generous daughter, to be the queen. This African folktale promotes themes of jealousy, vanity and kindness.

Our Little Inventor by Sher Rill Ng

Our Little Inventor by Sher Rill Ng

Nell has an ingenious invention to solve the pollution problem in the Big City. She sets off on a journey to the city, far from where she lives. She finds the pollution is much worse than she expected. Nell is dismayed when city leaders mock her. With unexpected help and Nell’s determination, she shows her machine to the city. Promotes girls in STEM, pollution, determination, perseverance, critical thinking and problem-solving.

Outfoxed by Claudia Boldt

Outfoxed by Claudia Boldt

Harold, a fox, is challenged by his father to catch a chicken. He decides to follow his heart and helps the chicken escape. Reinforces themes of empathy, independence, problem-solving and creative thinking.

The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch

The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch

Princess Elizabeth is a resourceful young girl who must outsmart a dragon to save her prince while dressed in a humble paper bag. The Paper Bag Princess invites discussions about empowerment, courage, independence, and challenging traditional gender roles by illustrating the strength of character over appearance. It emphasises that real heroines can save the day with their wit and courage, regardless of appearance.

Phileas's Fortune: A Story about Self-Expression by Agnes de Lestrade

Phileas's Fortune: A Story about Self-Expression by Agnes de Lestrade

Large factories churn out beautiful, ugly and funny words. People purchase, then swallow the words to communicate. Not all words are equal and the cost of each word varies. Phileas catches three discarded, random words to express his love for Cybele. Reinforces themes of communication, perseverance, problem-solving, risk-taking and creative thinking.

Rainbow Weaver by Teodora del Acoris is a book about recycling.

Rainbow Weaver by Linda Elovitz Marshall

Ixchel, a young Mayan girl, is passionate about continuing her community's weaving tradition. Unable to use traditional materials, she innovatively uses colourful plastic bags, transforming waste into a woven rainbow fabric.

Rainbow Weaver sparks discussions on sustainability and recycling, empowering indigenous female characters, persistence and creative problem-solving.

Ralf by Jean Jullien

Ralf by Jean Jullien

Ralf is always getting under everyones feet no matter what hr does. One night he smells smoke and stretches his body around the house trying to wake the family. After being saved, the family accept Ralf for who he is even if he still gets in the way. Reinforces themes of acceptance, caring, courage and problem & solution.

Star in the Jar by Sam Hay

Star in the Jar by Sam Hay

A little boy finds a star and keeps it in a jar. He makes the decision to help the sad star get home., but wonders how to do this. He makes a star shape in the garden and the stars lift their little friend home.

Stuck by Oliver Jeffers

Stuck by Oliver Jeffers

This is the first of two picture books with a problem and solution by Oliver Jeffers. When Floyd's kite gets stuck in a tree, he throws his shoes in an attempt to free it. However, when that doesn't work, Floyd resorts to increasingly outrageous objects (even people!) to dislodge the kite.

Stuck ignites discussions on cause and effect, creative problem-solving strategies, persistence in the face of obstacles, resourcefulness and initiative and adaptability in new situations.

Swimmy by Leo Lionni

Swimmy by Leo Lionni

After almost being eaten by a big fish, Swimmy works together with a school of fish to frighten off the big tuna. Use to promote problem & solution, cooperation, courage and overcoming fear.

This Moose Belongs to Me by Oliver Jeffers

This Moose Belongs to Me by Oliver Jeffers

This is the second of two picture books with a problem and solution by Oliver Jeffers. Wilfred is an organised boy who lives his life by rules. He claims a wandering moose as his new pet and names him Marcel. The moose is not keen on Wilfred’s rules and meets an old lady who claims him as her own. Wilfred recognises Marcel’s independence and learns how to compromise.

Wangari Maathai by Franck Prevot

Wangari Maathai by Franck Prevot

The late Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai sparked a revolutionary movement in Africa to challenge deforestation. In a bold move, she championed African women to plant trees, ultimately helping cultivate lush farms and thriving communities. Maathai also provided seedlings to men, school children, and even soldiers, spurring further reforestation efforts and making a lasting impact.

When the Rain Comes by Alma Fullerton

When the Rain Comes by Alma Fullerton

In rural Sri Lanka, Malini helps plant the rice crop for the first time. The ox-cart arrives full of seedlings and the driver asks her to care for the ox. The skies darken and the monsoon rain falls, separating Malini from everyone. Rather than running for safety, she saves all the seeds from ruin. Use to teach responsibility, courage and problem & solution.

What are your favourite picture books for teaching problem and solution in the your classroom?

Get access to the FREE Resource Library

All the latest news, resources and updates direct to your inbox, 2 thoughts on “teaching problem and solution with picture books”.

As far as I might be concerned, the most awesome aspect of kids’ books is the significant statements that epitomize a whole book in a sentence or two. Nobody will at any point settle on the “best” quotes, however here are a portion of my top choices!

An amazing post with great tips as always. Anyone will find your post useful. Keep up the good work.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

Must-Read Picture Books about Sustainability and Positive Environmental Actions

Picture Books about Sustainability & Positive Environmental Actions

Inspiring Children’s Books about Pollution and a Healthy Planet

Inspiring Children’s Books about Pollution and a Healthy Planet

Inspiring Children’s Books about Recycling and Reducing Waste Blog Post FI

Inspiring Picture Books about Recycling and Reducing Waste

Explore Empathy and Thoughtfulness with Picture Books About Kindness

Explore Thoughtfulness with Picture Books About Kindness

Empowering Lessons from Picture Books About Bullying for the Classroom

Empowering Lessons from Picture Books About Bullying

lobal Maternal Tales: Picture Books About Mothers from Around the World

Maternal Tales: Picture Books About Mother from Around the World

  • Children's Library Lady
  • Site Design by Laine Sutherland Designs

Teaching Problem and Solution with Picture Books

  • Newsletters
  • Account Activating this button will toggle the display of additional content Account Sign out

The Loss of Things I Took for Granted

Ten years into my college teaching career, students stopped being able to read effectively..

Recent years have seen successive waves of book bans in Republican-controlled states, aimed at pulling any text with “woke” themes from classrooms and library shelves. Though the results sometimes seem farcical, as with the banning of Art Spiegelman’s Maus due to its inclusion of “cuss words” and explicit rodent nudity, the book-banning agenda is no laughing matter. Motivated by bigotry, it has already done demonstrable harm and promises to do more. But at the same time, the appropriate response is, in principle, simple. Named individuals have advanced explicit policies with clear goals and outcomes, and we can replace those individuals with people who want to reverse those policies. That is already beginning to happen in many places, and I hope those successes will continue until every banned book is restored.

If and when that happens, however, we will not be able to declare victory quite yet. Defeating the open conspiracy to deprive students of physical access to books will do little to counteract the more diffuse confluence of forces that are depriving students of the skills needed to meaningfully engage with those books in the first place. As a college educator, I am confronted daily with the results of that conspiracy-without-conspirators. I have been teaching in small liberal arts colleges for over 15 years now, and in the past five years, it’s as though someone flipped a switch. For most of my career, I assigned around 30 pages of reading per class meeting as a baseline expectation—sometimes scaling up for purely expository readings or pulling back for more difficult texts. (No human being can read 30 pages of Hegel in one sitting, for example.) Now students are intimidated by anything over 10 pages and seem to walk away from readings of as little as 20 pages with no real understanding. Even smart and motivated students struggle to do more with written texts than extract decontextualized take-aways. Considerable class time is taken up simply establishing what happened in a story or the basic steps of an argument—skills I used to be able to take for granted.

Since this development very directly affects my ability to do my job as I understand it, I talk about it a lot. And when I talk about it with nonacademics, certain predictable responses inevitably arise, all questioning the reality of the trend I describe. Hasn’t every generation felt that the younger cohort is going to hell in a handbasket? Haven’t professors always complained that educators at earlier levels are not adequately equipping their students? And haven’t students from time immemorial skipped the readings?

The response of my fellow academics, however, reassures me that I’m not simply indulging in intergenerational grousing. Anecdotally, I have literally never met a professor who did not share my experience. Professors are also discussing the issue in academic trade publications , from a variety of perspectives. What we almost all seem to agree on is that we are facing new obstacles in structuring and delivering our courses, requiring us to ratchet down expectations in the face of a ratcheting down of preparation. Yes, there were always students who skipped the readings, but we are in new territory when even highly motivated honors students struggle to grasp the basic argument of a 20-page article. Yes, professors never feel satisfied that high school teachers have done enough, but not every generation of professors has had to deal with the fallout of No Child Left Behind and Common Core. Finally, yes, every generation thinks the younger generation is failing to make the grade— except for the current cohort of professors, who are by and large more invested in their students’ success and mental health and more responsive to student needs than any group of educators in human history. We are not complaining about our students. We are complaining about what has been taken from them.

If we ask what has caused this change, there are some obvious culprits. The first is the same thing that has taken away almost everyone’s ability to focus—the ubiquitous smartphone. Even as a career academic who studies the Quran in Arabic for fun, I have noticed my reading endurance flagging. I once found myself boasting at a faculty meeting that I had read through my entire hourlong train ride without looking at my phone. My colleagues agreed this was a major feat, one they had not achieved recently. Even if I rarely attain that high level of focus, though, I am able to “turn it on” when demanded, for instance to plow through a big novel during a holiday break. That’s because I was able to develop and practice those skills of extended concentration and attentive reading before the intervention of the smartphone. For children who were raised with smartphones, by contrast, that foundation is missing. It is probably no coincidence that the iPhone itself, originally released in 2007, is approaching college age, meaning that professors are increasingly dealing with students who would have become addicted to the dopamine hit of the omnipresent screen long before they were introduced to the more subtle pleasures of the page.

The second go-to explanation is the massive disruption of school closures during COVID-19. There is still some debate about the necessity of those measures, but what is not up for debate any longer is the very real learning loss that students suffered at every level. The impact will inevitably continue to be felt for the next decade or more, until the last cohort affected by the mass “pivot to online” finally graduates. I doubt that the pandemic closures were the decisive factor in themselves, however. Not only did the marked decline in reading resilience start before the pandemic, but the students I am seeing would have already been in high school during the school closures. Hence they would be better equipped to get something out of the online format and, more importantly, their basic reading competence would have already been established.

Less discussed than these broader cultural trends over which educators have little control are the major changes in reading pedagogy that have occurred in recent decades—some motivated by the ever-increasing demand to “teach to the test” and some by fads coming out of schools of education. In the latter category is the widely discussed decline in phonics education in favor of the “balanced literacy” approach advocated by education expert Lucy Calkins (who has more recently come to accept the need for more phonics instruction). I started to see the results of this ill-advised change several years ago, when students abruptly stopped attempting to sound out unfamiliar words and instead paused until they recognized the whole word as a unit. (In a recent class session, a smart, capable student was caught short by the word circumstances when reading a text out loud.) The result of this vibes-based literacy is that students never attain genuine fluency in reading. Even aside from the impact of smartphones, their experience of reading is constantly interrupted by their intentionally cultivated inability to process unfamiliar words.

For all the flaws of the balanced literacy method, it was presumably implemented by people who thought it would help. It is hard to see a similar motivation in the growing trend toward assigning students only the kind of short passages that can be included in a standardized test. Due in part to changes driven by the infamous Common Core standards , teachers now have to fight to assign their students longer readings, much less entire books, because those activities won’t feed directly into students getting higher test scores, which leads to schools getting more funding. The emphasis on standardized tests was always a distraction at best, but we have reached the point where it is actively cannibalizing students’ educational experience—an outcome no one intended or planned, and for which there is no possible justification.

We can’t go back in time and do the pandemic differently at this point, nor is there any realistic path to putting the smartphone genie back in the bottle. (Though I will note that we as a society do at least attempt to keep other addictive products out of the hands of children.) But I have to think that we can, at the very least, stop actively preventing young people from developing the ability to follow extended narratives and arguments in the classroom. Regardless of their profession or ultimate educational level, they will need those skills. The world is a complicated place. People—their histories and identities, their institutions and work processes, their fears and desires—are simply too complex to be captured in a worksheet with a paragraph and some reading comprehension questions. Large-scale prose writing is the best medium we have for capturing that complexity, and the education system should not be in the business of keeping students from learning how to engage effectively with it.

This is a matter not of snobbery, but of basic justice. I recognize that not everyone centers their lives on books as much as a humanities professor does. I think they’re missing out, but they’re adults and they can choose how to spend their time. What’s happening with the current generation is not that they are simply choosing TikTok over Jane Austen. They are being deprived of the ability to choose—for no real reason or benefit. We can and must stop perpetrating this crime on our young people.

comscore beacon

IMAGES

  1. How to Teach Problem and Solution using a Nonfiction Picture Book

    problem solution nonfiction books

  2. 30 New and Notable Children's Books About Problem Solving

    problem solution nonfiction books

  3. problem solution nonfiction books

    problem solution nonfiction books

  4. How to Teach Problem and Solution using a Nonfiction Picture Book

    problem solution nonfiction books

  5. Problem & Solution -- Non-Fiction Text Structure Resource

    problem solution nonfiction books

  6. Picture Books to Teach Problem and Solution

    problem solution nonfiction books

VIDEO

  1. how to Discover your problem and the solutions

  2. The Problem With Modern Books

  3. My Top Nonfiction Book Recommendations I Read in 2023! #bookrecommendations #shorts #booktube

  4. How to Read Nonfiction Books Efficiently

COMMENTS

  1. 21 Good Picture Books to Teach Problem and Solution

    Mentor Text Picture Books to Teach Problem and Solution. Jabari Jumps by Gaia Cornwall. Jabari is ready to jump off the diving board. Mostly. His dad tells Jabari that he feels scared too, and sometimes after a deep breath and telling himself he is ready, the thing stops feeling scary and feels like a surprise instead.

  2. Mentor Texts for Informational Text Structures

    Description Nonfiction books that describe something, in no particular time order, fall under the description category. These books give lots of facts about a particular subject, like llamas, or bicycles, or Yellowstone Park! Here's a list of mentor texts with a descriptive text structure: Our Amazing World's Penguins National Geographic's Planets

  3. How to Read Nonfiction Books to Problem Solve

    Nonfiction books offer a variety of perspectives on a problem, and can provide solutions to problems that are difficult to solve. To get the most out of nonfiction books, it is important to read them in a way that allows you to apply the information to your own life. These books are often filled with information that can help solve problems.

  4. Books with a Clear Problem and Solution

    The Little Engine by Watty Piper is a classic book that features a clear problem and solution structure as the little engine helps the broken down engine climb over the mountain to deliver toys to all the boys and girls on the other side of the mountain.

  5. Non-Fiction Text Structure: Problem/Solution and Compare/Contrast

    Problem & Solution* - Problem and solution should be somewhat familiar to readers who have studied fiction texts based on a problem and solution text structure although problem and solution text structures with non-fiction can be a little less obvious.

  6. Nonfiction Problem & Solution Children's Book Collection

    Nonfiction Problem & Solution Collection Created by: Mrs. Collins, an Epic Teacher What do you notice about how the author setup this nonfiction book? Start Reading Books Endangered Butterflies Reducing Waste The Great Penguin Rescue: Saving the... Coral Reefs Matter Companion And Therapy Animals Helping Habitats Threat to the Bengal Tiger

  7. How to Teach Problem and Solution using a Nonfiction Picture Book

    Problem & Solution Picture Book. I'm sure you have heard of one of the most famous launches called Apollo 13. If not- watch the movie. It's freaking amazing. Anyways- the shuttle ends up exploding and pieces of it go out into space. The mission turns from being a lunar landing to a "get the boys home" mission. SPOILER ALERT- They get ...

  8. How Nonfiction Books Can Be Your Ultimate Problem-Solving Tools

    Nonfiction books can be powerful problem-solving tools that offer many benefits. They provide you with valuable insights, practical solutions, and new perspectives on various issues. By using nonfiction books as problem-solving tools, you enhance your critical thinking skills, gain knowledge, and improve your decision-making abilities ...

  9. The 29 Best and Most Anticipated Nonfiction Books of 2024

    The Best (and Most Anticipated) Nonfiction Books of 2024, So Far ... A remarkable volume—its 500-page length itself underscoring the author's commitment to the complexity of the problem ...

  10. Non-Fiction Text Features and Text Structure

    What are Text Features? Text features are to non-fiction what story elements are to fiction. Text features help the reader make sense of what they are reading and are the building blocks for text structure (see below). So what exactly are non-fiction text features? Text Features and Comprehension Text features go hand-in-hand with comprehension.

  11. Nonfiction Books for Teaching Reading Skills

    Nonfiction Book #1: One Plastic Bag. This beautifully illustrated text is perfect for teaching nonfiction problem and solution! The text is actually a literary nonfiction text based on the real life Isatou Ceesay and her recycling efforts in Gambia. Through the text the readers will find a very obvious problem that occurs.

  12. 10 Amazing Titles For Teaching Nonfiction Text Structures

    1. Each structure is organized in a special way. You can use the thinking maps as a guide on how that organization looks. 2. Before you read, preview the text to see if you can pick up on what structure the piece may follow. 3. During reading, look for the evidence. If you find conflicting evidence, then refer back to your chart.

  13. Problem Solution Books

    Showing 1-50 of 900 What Do You Do With a Problem? (Hardcover) by Kobi Yamada (Goodreads Author) (shelved 4 times as problem-solution) avg rating 4.40 — 5,580 ratings — published 2016 Want to Read Rate this book 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars Dragon Was Terrible (Hardcover) by Kelly DiPucchio

  14. Try This Classic Structure for Your Next Nonfiction Writing Project

    Writers who compose essays, articles, books know they have a problem to solve: they need structure. And they may struggle with structure due to lack of resources. Maybe no one has pointed out to them structure options. Or maybe they struggle to remain objective with their own material to see how it would best flow.

  15. Problem and Solution Books

    Problem and Solution Books. Showing 1-50 of 97. Harry the Dirty Dog (Harry the Dog) by. Gene Zion. (shelved 3 times as problem-and-solution) avg rating 4.20 — 54,996 ratings — published 1956. Want to Read. Rate this book.

  16. Problem and Solution Nonfiction Text Structure

    Problem and Solution Nonfiction Text Structure introduces students to this specific text structure in nonfiction writing. This unique lesson provides a more learn-by-doing experience for students. After several examples, they will be able to demonstrate what they know during the activity and practice portions of the lesson.

  17. Mentor Texts for Reading

    Read Alouds for Problem and Solution Where Does the Garbage Go? by Paul Showers When the Wolves Returned: Restoring Nature's Balance in Yellowstone by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent Miracle Mud by David A. Kelly A Place for Butterflies by Melissa Stewart Read Alouds for Compare and Contrast Teeth by Sneed B. Collard III Shark or Dolphin? How Do You Know?

  18. Nonfiction Text Structures & Features

    Problem-Solution. In the problem-solution text structure, the writer states a problem or poses a question followed by a solution or answer. This text has a sequence: first, the problem, and then the solution. The above information came from. . . Dymock, Susan, and Tom Nicholson. "High 5!" Strategies to Enhance Comprehension of Expository ...

  19. Nonfiction Books to Look Out for in Early 2024

    One book I enjoyed that's out later this month is a biography of Gulbadan (1523-1603) by historian Ruby Lal. Gulbadan was the daughter of Babur, founder of the Mughal Empire, and the aunt of Akbar, sometimes called 'the Great.'Gulbadan was born in Kabul, ended up in Akbar's harem in Agra, and eventually went on a trip to Saudi Arabia, to visit the holy places of Islam.

  20. Mentor Texts: Nonfiction Text Structure Picture Books

    One Grain Of Rice is a unique folktale that helps students see cause and effect in not just a nonfiction text! This is such an adorable tale that overlaps many unique concepts: folktales, math, and text structure! Come and read all about Rani and her clever plan to win back rice from the selfish Rajah!

  21. 21 Good Picture Books to Teach Problem and Solution

    admin October 5, 2023 Read mentor text picture books to teach problem and solution text structure. Understanding problem and solution improves comprehension and helps readers make informed predictions. (As well as helping children see the creative possibilities in problem-solving!)

  22. Problem and Solution Text Structure Book Collection on Epic

    Problem and Solution Text Structure Collection Created by: Mrs. Vass, an Epic Teacher Start Reading Books Companion And Therapy Animals Coral Reefs Matter Helping Habitats Threat to the Bengal Tiger Threat to the Giant Panda The Great Penguin Rescue: Saving the... Reducing Waste Endangered Butterflies UNICEF The Salvation Army

  23. PROBLEM & SOLUTION Children's Book Collection

    PROBLEM & SOLUTION Collection Created by: Ms. Olsen, an Epic Teacher Books Maestro Stu Saves the Zoo The Maltese Mummy (Chicagoland... The Drained Brains Caper (Chicagoland... #7 The Great Space Case: A Mystery... Chicagoland Detective Agency: A... #6 The Whispering Lake Ghosts: A... The Trouble With Trading Once Upon a Time

  24. Free Nonfiction Text Structures

    1 More from Kalena Baker - Teaching Made Practical Description This freebie is a great way to introduce your students to the problem and solution nonfiction text structure. Students will practice identifying this text structure in sentences, short paragraphs, and a longer text.

  25. Teaching Problem and Solution with Picture Books

    Exploring picture books with problem and solution plots helps them see a problem being introduced, how the character (s) try to solve it and how they finally resolve the issue. In picture books with problem and solution scenarios, your students will see characters who: use knowledge to solve problems independently. predict outcomes.

  26. Literacy crisis in college students: Essay from a professor on students

    Defeating the open conspiracy to deprive students of physical access to books will do little to counteract the more diffuse confluence of forces that are depriving students of the skills needed to ...