1. Using THIEVES to Understand Nonfiction Text
Created by Kimberly Church, Literacy Coach, Broken Arrow Public Schools

2. THIEVES is an acronym that can help students identify important information to better understand the meaning of nonfiction text.

3. THIEVES Title Looking at the title, ask yourself:
What do I already know about
about this topic?
What does this topic have to
do with the preceding chapter?
Does the title express a point
of view?
What do I think I will be reading
about?

4. THIEVES Headings Looking at the headings, ask yourself:
What does this heading tell
me I will be reading about?
What is the topic of the
paragraph beneath it?
How can I turn this heading
into a question that is likely
to be answered in the text?

5. THIEVES Introduction Looking at the introduction, ask yourself:
Is there an opening paragraph,
perhaps italicized or bolded?
Does the first paragraph
introduce the chapter?
What does the introduction tell
me I will be reading about?
Do I know anything about this
topic already?

6. THIEVES Every FIRST sentence in a paragraph.
Read every first sentence, and ask yourself:
Based on the first sentence in
each paragraph, what do I think
this chapter is going to be about?

7. THIEVES Visuals and Vocabulary Looking at the visuals and vocabulary:
What can I learn from the captions
and the photos, drawings, maps,
charts, graphs?
Is there a list of vocabulary terms
or are there any words highlighted
in the text?
Can I tell them meanings of the
boldfaced words from the words
around them?

8. THIEVES End-of-chapter questions
After reading the end-of-chapter questions:
What do the questions ask?
What information do they earmark
as important?
What information do I learn from
the questions?
Let me keep in mind the end-of-
chapter questions so that I may
find it in my text and mark it.

9. THIEVES Summary After reading the summary: What do I understand and
recall about topics covered
in the summary?

10. THIEVES itle eadings ntroduction very first sentence
isuals and Vocabulary
nd-of-chapter questions
ummary