ABSTRACT
This chapter considers three models of non-fiction learning: the skills model, the EXIT model and the language and learning model. Until comparatively recently the ‘skills’ model of reading and writing non-fiction held sway in schools. The importance of interaction, evaluation and communication in non-fiction reading and writing, which goes far beyond a ‘skills’ model, was recognized in the EXIT model; this was an outcome of the Nuffield funded Extending Literacy research project undertaken in the 1990s by David Wray and Maureen Lewis. Non-fiction texts are best placed in the context of other things that young children are doing – their experiences, encounters and activities. Too great an emphasis on ‘skills’ can lead to a mechanistic approach and deny children the help they need to be active in integrating knowledge coming from both first-hand and secondary sources.
