Websink Prep UK
Find a tutor Become a tutor
KS2 English textbook

Chapter 10: Reading non-fiction

  • Strand Reading
  • Level Year 4
  • Practice 96 questions with step-by-step solutions

National Curriculum for England, Key Stage 2 English, Year 4. Content: Books structured in different ways and for a range of purposes: contents, headings, sub-headings, captions and glossaries, Use dictionaries to check the meaning of words that have been read, in their sentence, Identify the main ideas drawn from more than one paragraph and summarise them, Retrieve and record information from non-fiction, using headings to find it, Infer from information in a text, with evidence, and identify its purpose and audience, Follow the conventions for discussion, and speak in a greater variety of situations.

Open Year 4 chapter

By the end of this chapter you will be able to

  • Name the parts of a non-fiction text, and say how each one helps the reader
  • Identify the purpose and the audience of a text, and the features that show them
  • Use a dictionary to choose the meaning of a word that fits its sentence
  • Find facts in several sections, using the headings, and record them in a table
  • Find the main idea of each paragraph, and write a short summary in your own words
  • Infer an idea from clues in a text, give evidence, and discuss it politely

You should already know

  • Finding a fact in a text and predicting from it (Chapter 8 of this book)
  • Alphabetical order and the spelling of words (Chapter 2 of this book)
  • Fronted adverbials and Standard English verb forms (Chapters 6 and 7 of this book)
  • Reading a poem or a play and its features (Chapter 9 of this book)

Where this leads

  • Writing stories and using the features of a text in your own writing (Chapter 11 of this book)
  • Writing non-fiction with headings, and editing it (Chapter 12 of this book)

Lessons in this chapter

  1. 10.1 How a non-fiction text is organised
  2. 10.2 Purpose and audience
  3. 10.3 Dictionaries: checking the meaning of a word
  4. 10.4 Finding and recording information in several sections
  5. 10.5 Main ideas and summarising a longer text
  6. 10.6 Inferring from information, and talking about a text
  7. Summary and key words
  8. Check-up and practice test questions

Read the whole chapter on one page (good for printing).

Practise with real exam questions

The DfE publishes every past KS2 test, with mark schemes, for free.

KS2 English past papers