Nonfiction

I personally connected to this chapter because as a youth, I remember I hated reading or writing nonfiction because I was also wanting to read something "fun" or write something creative. I have since had to become better at nonfiction because of my schooling and because of my former job in PR and in the journalism field, and I have often learned that nonfiction can be an art and a craft as well as fiction, and can be just as interesting depending on the writer.

It is funny watching my students, because some are better at one or the other. If you have a creative mind, fiction can flow from your pen, but nonfiction can take a lot of work because you must fact check and interview constantly. For those not as creatively inclined, having an idea and somewhere to go, as well as cold hard facts, is much easier, while dreaming up a whole other world is daunting.

I read In Cold Blood a couple years ago and was so impressed I read all of Truman Capote's works (an excellent writer even if there might be some rumors about him fabricating part of it). It showed me that you can make nonfiction enjoyable (fun isn't really the right word since it was a murder, but interesting nonetheless) because it read like a murder mystery. Likewise, I have read history books that bored me to tears, and ones I couldn't put down, all because of the difference in writing style and information presented.

I also read the Chicken Soup books as well-I loved the Teenage one although now they have gone a bit overbored with everything from Cat Lovers to Gardeners. Many of my students choose to read these when they have silent reading. What they love about this is they are being able to related to something that actually happened-it isn't fiction, and the stories are short and told in an engaging, conversational tone.

What I took away from this chapter was that it is important to remind kids they read everyday, not just fiction in English class, but news in the paper, magazines, or internet, or things people post of facebook or myspace. The questions for nonfiction books were helpful on p. 464 as well as all of the nonfiction book lists. The last section on text structure was good because we don't always think of teaching that when teaching nonfiction; we mostly focus on content only.

Our group is going to read Freedom Writers, a story about something I think every English teacher wishes they could secretly do-go work in an inner city and get kids to write. Stay posted.