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Re: Non-Fiction: Enrichment, Engagment, and More
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From: Deborah Hopkinson <deborahhopkinson_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 06 Jun 2014 10:03:40 -0700 (PDT)
This is a great thread and I wanted to respond to Megan's question about what makes excellence in nonfiction. In addition to what others have said, I think nonfiction should model the academic standards young people will be expected to know and practice in high school and college. (Luckily, we've come a long way since those "orange biographies" that first got me interested in history.)
If we want students to be able to write papers in required English, History, Sociology, or Communication classes as undergraduates, it seems important to teach research and critical thinking skills, and provide models of sourcing and research along the way. Skills like sourcing or contextualization don't magically descend overnight on first year college students, nor does the ability to evaluate an electronic resource or secondary source. So one positive aspect of the CCSS focus on complex texts is the chance to use nonfiction to help build these skills over time -- starting in elementary school. And hopefully this will create new interest in all kinds of nonfiction.
Speaking of excellence, I'm fortunate to have an ARC of Candy Fleming's new book on the Romanovs sitting here waiting for me to read. There are 8 or 9 pages of bibliography and 19 pages of source notes. I wouldn't be surprised if her treatment of the subject is not only engaging for young readers, but holds it own -- and probably breaks new ground -- in the overall canon of work on the topic. And, while it is a documentary novel, the nonfiction aspects of Deborah Wiles's amazing Revolution could easily be used to inspire student research projects that make use of text, audio, and visual resources.
Deborah Hopkinson
http://www.deborahhopkinson.com/
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Received on Fri 06 Jun 2014 12:03:59 PM CDT
Date: Fri, 06 Jun 2014 10:03:40 -0700 (PDT)
This is a great thread and I wanted to respond to Megan's question about what makes excellence in nonfiction. In addition to what others have said, I think nonfiction should model the academic standards young people will be expected to know and practice in high school and college. (Luckily, we've come a long way since those "orange biographies" that first got me interested in history.)
If we want students to be able to write papers in required English, History, Sociology, or Communication classes as undergraduates, it seems important to teach research and critical thinking skills, and provide models of sourcing and research along the way. Skills like sourcing or contextualization don't magically descend overnight on first year college students, nor does the ability to evaluate an electronic resource or secondary source. So one positive aspect of the CCSS focus on complex texts is the chance to use nonfiction to help build these skills over time -- starting in elementary school. And hopefully this will create new interest in all kinds of nonfiction.
Speaking of excellence, I'm fortunate to have an ARC of Candy Fleming's new book on the Romanovs sitting here waiting for me to read. There are 8 or 9 pages of bibliography and 19 pages of source notes. I wouldn't be surprised if her treatment of the subject is not only engaging for young readers, but holds it own -- and probably breaks new ground -- in the overall canon of work on the topic. And, while it is a documentary novel, the nonfiction aspects of Deborah Wiles's amazing Revolution could easily be used to inspire student research projects that make use of text, audio, and visual resources.
Deborah Hopkinson
http://www.deborahhopkinson.com/
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Received on Fri 06 Jun 2014 12:03:59 PM CDT
