Present information in various forms. Showing that they know what they are reading takes many forms in fourth grade. Some children will be better at graphs, columns and rows, map and number reading than they are at straightforward word reading. Representing information in the form of time lines, diagrams, headings, subheadings and bullet point format may work for children who have difficulty reading paragraph after paragraph of text. The type of text or subject content that fourth-graders deal with may also be a problem, in particular for boys who appear to show a lot less patience for reading in general at this age than their female peers.
Bring the text to life. Nonfiction needs to be brought to life in the way that fiction is. New ideas often need to be introduced several times in different ways (for example, overhead projector images or audiobook on speakers) before students will grasp the method of identifying information that they can absorb. Nonfiction reading at this level has reached the point where it is vital to show students how to connect information that they have just read. One method is the Question & Answer, asking them to answer simple questions about the text. By teaching this skill, the Q&A can progress to skimming the text independently for key words, in order to summarize or theorize more elaborate or subjective answers.
Break it down. If you have to pick an emphasis for helping children of 9 to 10 years to learn to read, make it "read aloud and immediate recap." The verbal recap is the best way to check if students have understood the passage. By asking them to relate what happened, they often raise their own ideas and interpretations that may not have been so obvious. Forget focusing on reading to the children. At this stage, reading to them may encourage an interest in what you are reading about, but it does not necessarily follow that reading to children actually improves their own reading skills. Many parents get frustrated with how much time they have to listen to their own children struggling to read, causing stress to be communicated between listeners and readers. To prevent this from happening, ask them to read only two or three sentences in the beginning. Ask them one question on what they have read. Do this every day, and only when you notice improvement, increase the amount they are reading to you and the number of questions you ask. That way you can both cope with the process, and you can both feel the progress.
Keep it simple. Don't be tempted to race ahead. There is currently a lot of emphasis on getting children to read more challenging texts. The truth is this: If the child is having a problem reading, then giving him harder subjects or content to deal with will hardly solve it. Many teachers have found that repetition of the process with easier texts and less of it to read is far more effective than anything else. Big print, the occasional picture that relates the image to the text, a short paragraph. That's it.
Motivate your child. Struggling to read nonfiction can often make a child anxious about what she is doing. The best way to dissolve that anxiety is to show her text that she feels she can cope with. She can clearly see how long it is, and she can read what is put in front of her. Confidence building is crucial. Motivation is the way to make this happen. What is it the child would like to be able to do as a result of reading and answering questions correctly? Extra 5-minute recess? Going to the park after school? In the United Kingdom, motivation has been recognized and successfully implemented in a scheme that allowed specially trained dogs time to come into class and be "reading buddies." There was no judgment, criticism or laughing at the child's reading out loud, and the child got to pet the dog afterward. This might not be what is necessary for your child, but the idea remains the same: motivating and making the child feel that reading to learn is a worthwhile and satisfactory experience, regardless of the subject he is reading about.