CCBC-Net Archives
RE:Nonfiction
- Contemporary messages sorted: [ by date ] [ by subject ] [ by author ]
From: Deborah Hopkinson <deborahhopkinson_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2010 09:25:40 -0700 (PDT)
I think these are important points. As an author of historical fiction a nd nonfiction I have become interested in the work of folks like Sam Wine burg who studies historical thinking.
History textbooks, for the most part, do not reflect the way real histo rians think: textbooks pivot on the notion that the way things are told is simply the way things were; they eliminate metadiscourse, where historian s intrude to argue for a certain view; they rarely cite primary materia l or references, and they speak in the an omniscient third-person. His torial thinking analyzes primary and secondary sources; draws inferences from data; and plunges deeply into historical contexts. The Pulitz er Prize winning A Midwife's Tale by Laurel Ulrich is a wonderful example o f this "anti-textbook."
I think historical context is a great place to start with younger student s. When I work with kids in schools we spend a lot of time on context and visual literacy: What do you think is going on here? What do y ou see that makes you think so? I've have had kids guess that the Emp ire State Building is anywhere from 10 to 5,000 years old! So we look at photos and start to analyze...Picture books (despite the NYT article) ar e really helpful for this...
A good website on this, which includes teacher resources, is http://histo ricalthinkingmatters.org/
Deborah Hopkinson www.deborahhopkinson.com
--- On Mon, 10/11/10, sully_at_sully-writer.com wrote
:
From: sully_at_sully-writer.com Subject: RE:
Nonfiction To: ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu Date: Monday, October 11, 2010, 6:12 AM
I agree wholeheartedly with Marc that nonfiction is the "anti-textbook." When I worked as a school librarian I always encouraged teachers to use nonfiction books in the lessons they were teaching, particularly in the are as of history, science, language arts, music, and art. Knowing how lim ited a classroom teacher's free time is, I would go so far as to select the books myself, check them out to under her name and personally deliver th em to the classroom. I found they were very appreciative and receptive to t he gesture. In a short time, I had many teachers coming to me with specific requests for books they could use in their lessons. Teachers do want these books as alternatives and supplements for their lessons because they reali ze that good nonfiction books do an exemplary job of introducing young peop le to subject-matter and their students respond enthusiastically to them.
Edward T. Sullivan, Rogue Librarian Author, The Ultimate Weapon: The Race to Develop the Atomic Bomb (Holiday House, 2007) Visit my web site, http://www.sully-writer.com Visit my blog, Rogue Librarian: All About Books and Reading http://sullywri ter.wordpress.com Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/sullywriter
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re:
Nonfiction From: bookmarch_at_aol.com Date: Mon, October 11, 2010 7:14 am To: pgardow@ecasd.k12.wi.us, ccbc-net@lists.wisc.edu
There has not been a big rush to respond to the initial question on nonfict ion,so I wonder if I may be indulged in slightly reframing it -- or at leas t mapping out the NF world as I see it? NF is poised in an unusual spot in the library. On the one hand it is an easy popular choice through middle school when books are lively, colorful, and match the interests of readers -- whether detectives, dinos, pirates, trucks, or, more recently, body func tions. Years ago Betty Carter pointed out that some of the most popular non fiction of all was How to Draw Horses -- and surely the modern equivalent b ooks that tell you how to draw Manga or Anime have their ardent fans. On th e other hand, though, nonfiction both gains and suffers from the fact that every single young person in America is exposed to nonfiction subjects ever y day -- in school. School cannibalizes nonfiction -- turning interesting a reas into textbook dullness, or -- increasingly -- database snippets. So nonfiction books, especially as they are ai med at upper middle grade an d high school, face the challenge that they need to deal with subjects teac hers teach (in the hope that a school might use them) and need to be as com pletely unlike the classroom text as possible (to engage the reading intere st of students). I would urge those of you who evaluate nonfiction to keep two key things in mind: nonfiction is literature (indeed this is recognized in the new National Core Standards) -- it is a form of writing designed no t just to engage the reader, but to inspire the reader to think, to questio n, to look at the world in new ways. And second, nonfiction books for young er readers are (or can be) very carefully designed and illustrated. As much care and thought often goes into the design and illustration of photo-illu strated nonfiction as the best picture book. The nonfiction we create has n othing in common with textbooks -- in fact it is the anti-textbook.
Maybe we should call nonfiction: heavily illustrated, beautifully designed, idea books. A mental challenge in a beautiful package.
Marc Aronson
Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2010 09:25:40 -0700 (PDT)
I think these are important points. As an author of historical fiction a nd nonfiction I have become interested in the work of folks like Sam Wine burg who studies historical thinking.
History textbooks, for the most part, do not reflect the way real histo rians think: textbooks pivot on the notion that the way things are told is simply the way things were; they eliminate metadiscourse, where historian s intrude to argue for a certain view; they rarely cite primary materia l or references, and they speak in the an omniscient third-person. His torial thinking analyzes primary and secondary sources; draws inferences from data; and plunges deeply into historical contexts. The Pulitz er Prize winning A Midwife's Tale by Laurel Ulrich is a wonderful example o f this "anti-textbook."
I think historical context is a great place to start with younger student s. When I work with kids in schools we spend a lot of time on context and visual literacy: What do you think is going on here? What do y ou see that makes you think so? I've have had kids guess that the Emp ire State Building is anywhere from 10 to 5,000 years old! So we look at photos and start to analyze...Picture books (despite the NYT article) ar e really helpful for this...
A good website on this, which includes teacher resources, is http://histo ricalthinkingmatters.org/
Deborah Hopkinson www.deborahhopkinson.com
--- On Mon, 10/11/10, sully_at_sully-writer.com wrote
:
From: sully_at_sully-writer.com Subject: RE:
Nonfiction To: ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu Date: Monday, October 11, 2010, 6:12 AM
I agree wholeheartedly with Marc that nonfiction is the "anti-textbook." When I worked as a school librarian I always encouraged teachers to use nonfiction books in the lessons they were teaching, particularly in the are as of history, science, language arts, music, and art. Knowing how lim ited a classroom teacher's free time is, I would go so far as to select the books myself, check them out to under her name and personally deliver th em to the classroom. I found they were very appreciative and receptive to t he gesture. In a short time, I had many teachers coming to me with specific requests for books they could use in their lessons. Teachers do want these books as alternatives and supplements for their lessons because they reali ze that good nonfiction books do an exemplary job of introducing young peop le to subject-matter and their students respond enthusiastically to them.
Edward T. Sullivan, Rogue Librarian Author, The Ultimate Weapon: The Race to Develop the Atomic Bomb (Holiday House, 2007) Visit my web site, http://www.sully-writer.com Visit my blog, Rogue Librarian: All About Books and Reading http://sullywri ter.wordpress.com Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/sullywriter
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re:
Nonfiction From: bookmarch_at_aol.com Date: Mon, October 11, 2010 7:14 am To: pgardow@ecasd.k12.wi.us, ccbc-net@lists.wisc.edu
There has not been a big rush to respond to the initial question on nonfict ion,so I wonder if I may be indulged in slightly reframing it -- or at leas t mapping out the NF world as I see it? NF is poised in an unusual spot in the library. On the one hand it is an easy popular choice through middle school when books are lively, colorful, and match the interests of readers -- whether detectives, dinos, pirates, trucks, or, more recently, body func tions. Years ago Betty Carter pointed out that some of the most popular non fiction of all was How to Draw Horses -- and surely the modern equivalent b ooks that tell you how to draw Manga or Anime have their ardent fans. On th e other hand, though, nonfiction both gains and suffers from the fact that every single young person in America is exposed to nonfiction subjects ever y day -- in school. School cannibalizes nonfiction -- turning interesting a reas into textbook dullness, or -- increasingly -- database snippets. So nonfiction books, especially as they are ai med at upper middle grade an d high school, face the challenge that they need to deal with subjects teac hers teach (in the hope that a school might use them) and need to be as com pletely unlike the classroom text as possible (to engage the reading intere st of students). I would urge those of you who evaluate nonfiction to keep two key things in mind: nonfiction is literature (indeed this is recognized in the new National Core Standards) -- it is a form of writing designed no t just to engage the reader, but to inspire the reader to think, to questio n, to look at the world in new ways. And second, nonfiction books for young er readers are (or can be) very carefully designed and illustrated. As much care and thought often goes into the design and illustration of photo-illu strated nonfiction as the best picture book. The nonfiction we create has n othing in common with textbooks -- in fact it is the anti-textbook.
Maybe we should call nonfiction: heavily illustrated, beautifully designed, idea books. A mental challenge in a beautiful package.
Marc Aronson
---Received on Mon 11 Oct 2010 09:25:40 AM CDT
