CCBC-Net Archives

book budgets

From: Dean Schneider <schneiderd_at_ensworth.com>
Date: Tue, 02 Feb 2010 09:24:56 -0600

Cushing Academy in Massachusetts apparently gave away all of their books an d went digital, the headmaster calling books an "outdated technology, like scrolls before books." My next "Dean's List" column (spring) is titled "Why Read Books Anymore?" and makes a case for the continued importance of book s despite low and declining book budgets and horror stories in the news.

As for nonfiction: In my 8th-grade classroom, we're in the midst of a Holoc aust unit that includes Susan Campbell Bartoletti's Hitler Youth. Now stude nts are choosing books from a big list that includes fiction and nonfiction and are heading into writing reports on Hitler's attack on Modern Art, a project rooted in E.L. Konigsburg's The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World and the great video The Rape of Europa. For this project, they will resear ch one of the artists in Konigsburg's novel. Their research will include bo oks and good Internet sources-so a mix of good literature and tech-based so urces. And they are learning to cite sources. I also read aloud good histor y picture books related to the theme, and poetry.

I'm always looking for ways to incorporate the latest best nonfiction in my classroom or to suggest it to other teachers. I teach English but include great nonfiction as great literature, not seeing it as just for history cla sses. This is pretty easy for such great titles as MARCHING FOR FREEDOM and CLAUDETTE COLVIN. I'm looking forward to Bartoletti's book on the Klan, co ming out this summer! My wife and I recently gave a talk to our faculty on the best books of 2009, and half the books we talked about were nonfiction.

Dean Schneider Ensworth School Nashville, Tennessee
Received on Tue 02 Feb 2010 09:24:56 AM CST