Chapter 9: Non-Fiction

Doing research reports in elementary was not fun.  The internet did not exist yet so resources were limited.  I used books from the library or I used the encyclopedia set my Dad had purchased for us.  Just as we had discussed in class, I had to play with the words in the information provided so that I would not be plagiarizing.  Now, we have an abundance of resources and teachers are providing new ways to present what their students have read or researched.

In reading Non-fiction and Boys, I can remember as a child that my older brother loved reading non-fiction books and still loves reading them.  My brother's boys are the same way, they love reading and researching non-fiction subjects, but unlike the slide information, they love to read all types of books. 

I like the idea of using graphic organizers to record information that students gather from reading non-fiction books.  It makes it a lot easier to organize and put information together than it is to write notes and/or highlight information. 

I would really like to utilize drama in support of responding to non-fiction.  I think the teachers as well as the students will enjoy seeing and doing the personal interviews.  I believe students would put more of an effort to present their information and at the same time will have a lot of fun with it.

I found a website where it lists several non-fiction books as well as the authors' profiles, you can view this site at http://www.childrensbookguild.org/. This site lists Guild winners for all non-fiction books.

How Things Work

Ever wonder what happens inside your DVD player, or your refrigerator?  Well, come on, grab a  screwdriver and ...WAIT!

There’s an easier way.  Turn a page and open a flap on Amy Hansen’s new book How Things Work. The book explores the workings of everything from televisions and microwaves to helicopters and submarines.

Age level: 8-16
Published in 2006

Letters from a Slave Boy

Like his mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother before him, Joseph Jacobs was born into slavery. Now he lives with his great-grandmother and sister in North Carolina, but he has not seen his mother for more than seven years.

Unbeknownst to Joseph, his mother, Harriet, has been hiding from her owner in the attic of the house that Joseph lives in. But when Harriet’s hiding place is in danger of being revealed, she is forced to flee north to safety only moments after being reunited with her family.

In this companion novel to Letters from a Slave Girl, Joseph’s stirring quest for freedom and identity is told through letters imagined by the author. Based on the real-life stories of Harriet and Joseph Jacobs, Letters from a Slave Boy is set against the backdrop of some of the most exciting and turbulent times in American history.

Fabulous Fishes - Ages 2-6

Fabulous Fishes come in all sorts of interesting shapes, sizes and colors and many of them do amazing things as well. Can you imagine…

Fish that leap and glide?

Fish that crawl on land?

Fish that flash lights?

They're all real!

Fabulous Fishes introduces young readers to both exotic and familiar fishes and the underwater world they call home in simple, rhyming text and brightly colored illustrations. An afterword identifies each animal and tells a little about it and where it lives.

Favorite Fiction Books

I would have to say that my favorite fiction book is the "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe."  It was written by C.S. Lewis (1898–1963), a well known Christian writer.  I remember reading this book when I was a child.  I could not put the book down because its captivating.  Your imagination runs wild with the book's characters and events.  After reading the book, I saw the original movie and I was so excited to see how the characters I had imagined in the book were portrayed.  Then a few years ago, I was at the theater and I saw the previews to the remake of "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," and I remember thinking to myself....why does this story line sound so familiar?  I finally realized it was that same book I read as a child and loved so much. 

The book is about four children Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy.  Lucy finds a whole new world through a wardrobe closet by accident when she was playing hide and seek with her brothers and sister.  The magical land and fantasy world Lucy finds is called Narnia.  You won't be able to put the book down once you start it!  At least, I couldn't. 

You can find more information out C.S. Lewis and his stories at http://www.cslewis.com/. 

I have also enjoyed reading "Playing with Boys" and "The Dirty Girls Social Club," by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez.  I really enjoyed the characters Valdes creates in her books.  Each character is different from the other, but it makes each character interesting and the story line a whole lot better.  Valdes writes about each character separately in their own chapter and you can't wait to read the following chapter to see what is going to happen next. I will hopefully be buying another of her books soon and I can't wait to read it.  Here is a website to get more information about the author and her books, http://www.lasbmw.com/.

Author: I found Megan McDonald on a website called http://www.kidsreads.com/.  The website is neat and useful.  It's for teachers, librarians, parents and students.  McDonald has a series of Judy Moody books.  I have listed one of her Judy Moody books below.

When school starts, Judy Moody is not all that excited. In fact, she's in a bad mood just thinking about it. But when her teacher assigns each of the students to make a collage about themselves, she thinks this could be pretty interesting. She starts gathering pictures and things that she can use to show what she wants to be (a doctor) and her favorite hobby (collecting all kinds of things). The project is going pretty well, until she has to come up with "a favorite pet," and "a club you belong to." Next thing you know, Judy Moody is the proud owner of a Venus Flytrap and a member of the T. P. Club (and you'll never guess what the T.P. stands for!)

Enjoy the antics and adventures of Judy Moody as she finds her collage project, and her life, going from bad to worse. Is she just unlucky, or is it all in the way you look at things?

Ages 6-10

Picture Books

When I thought of picture books, I thought children books with minimal text and beautiful pictures.  After reading this chapter I learned that picture books are not only for young readers, but for everyone.  I also learned that 1) picture books were generally 32 pages long; 2) picture books are a form and not a genre and can be categorized into any genre; 3) picture stories date back to when early humans left their stories on the walls of caves; and 4) the word "illustration" originates from the Latin verb meaning 'to light up,' to illuminate. 

Picture books are the end product of a creative marriage between the author who creates the story and the illustrator who interprets the writing into art.  The illustrator has to 'light up' or illuminate the author's story.   The illistrator has to incorporate line, color, shape, texture, and design and/or composition into the pictures to influence a response from the reader.  Writers are expected to write quality books within limited space.  If the writer wants to produce a good book the writer has to make sure that the characters, plot, setting, prose, figurative language, leads, dialogue, understatements, and voice they use in their book work together.

I really liked the ideas given to incorporate picture books into the classroom.  I especially like the wordless picture book idea where the students are allowed to make up their stories according to the illustrations.  I believe students would love doing this activity.

I decided to return to the Jacketflap website I had previously found to search for both an author and an illustrator.  I found Belle Yang and I read several of her reviews and many stated they loved her stories and beautiful illustrations. 

It’s a long way from Taiwan to San Francisco, but Hannah’s family has made the journey because they want to make America their home. In America, Baba tells his daughter, people are free to say what they think, and children can grow up to be whatever they choose. As Hannah takes a new name, starts a new school, learns a new language, and adjusts to a new way of life, they all wait — and hope — for the arrival of the green cards that will assure they are finally home to stay.

Reading Level Ages 4-8

# of Pages 32

                                     

Mei-Mei and Di-Di are head-over-heels in love with their new doves. Like devoted parents, the siblings tenderly nurture Butterfly and Squeaky as they grow from chicks to fledglings to birds. But when Mei-Mei and Di-Di arrive home to find that the doves have disappeared, their young hearts break into a thousand pieces and they run away, determined to reclaim their beloved birds. Will Mei-Mei and Di-Di return home with the doves before they break their own parent's hearts?

Reading Level Ages 4-8

# of Pages 32

Ch. 6 - The Path of Needles or Pins Little Red Riding Hood

Traditional literature is a written form of stories that were originally oral stories.  I decided to read Terri Windlings's The Path of Needles or Pins: Little Red Riding Hood.  According to Windlings, the oral version of Little Red Riding Hood was called The Grandmother's Story.  This oral story was shaped by the rural traditions of France from the Middle Ages onward. The girl in The Grandmother's Story does not wear her famous red hooded cloak and she is not rescued by the hunter.  Christopher Perrault added the red hooded cloak and Brothers Grimm added the hunter.  Authors over time rewrite traditionl literature to set the story in conemporary times.  The version of Little Red Riding Hood that we grew up reading warned little girls of the dangers of being disobedient.  The oral version of The Grandmother's Story is quite gruesome and provocative for young childern to even read.  As I kept reading Windling's story and the information Windling used from scholars, I learned some interesting things.

The oral version of this story has cannibalism and the werewolf makes the girl strip naked before she gets into bed.  As we all know, these elements are not in the story of Little Red Riding Hood that we know today. In the oral version, the werewolf asks the girl which path she will take to her grandmother's house, the Path of Needles or the Path of Pins?  The girl chooses the Path of Pins.  In 1995, Yvonne Verdier studied the folklore, traditions, and rituals of rural women in remote areas of France.  She found that when girls reached the age of fifteen, this was some type of ceremonial entry into the age group that signified their arrival into maidenhood.  This meant they were allowed to have sweethearts and go to dances.  The needle on the other hand implies sexual maturity.  Verdier found that needles were viewed as a sexual symbol and that in some parts of Europe, prostitutes wore needles on their sleeves to advertise their profession. Windling suggests that the girl is trying to grow up too quickly when she decides for the Path of Needles. 

Another interesting fact I learned was that the forest is seen as a "common dwelling for wise-women, witches, herbalists, and other femmes sauvage."  This suggests that the grandmother was most likely a witch of some sort.  Verdier sees the cannibalism in the oral story as a "sacrifical act, a physcial incorporation of the grandmother by her granddaughter," as well as symbolic, because of the "necessity of the female biological transformation by which the young eliminate the old in their own lifetime.  Mothers will be replaced by their daughters and the circle will be closed with the arrival of their childern's children."  Reading the part of the oral story where the girl eats parts of her grandmother was pretty gross and disturbing for me.

At the end of the story, the werewolf is drowned by the laundresses who helped the girl escape.  Verdier says that the laundresses played a double role in the oral story.  The first being they rescured the girl by allowing her to pass and the second being that they helped kill the werewolf by drowning him.   This is consistent to the laundresses' role in the village life is to assist in "passages" of helping in childbirth and helping people to die. 

After reading Windling's story I can now see why "traditional literture was not necessarily created for children."  It is very interesting to see how The Grandmother's Story evolved into The Little Red Riding Hood. 

Chapter 6 discussed traditional literture so I found two authors who have written Native American traditional literature.  Their books are listed below.

Cohlene, T. (1991). Little Firefly: An Algonquian legend. (4-6).

A retelling of the Algonquian Indian legend of how a young girl, badly mistreated by her sisters, becomes the bride of the great hunter known as the Invisible One. Includes information on the history and customs of the Algonquian Indians. 

Bruchac, J. & Ross, G. (1996). The girl who married the moon: Tales from Native North America. (5-6)

A companion volume to Bruchac’s Flying with the Eagle, Racing the Great Bear, this anthology focuses on the role of women in traditional Indian cultures. Culled from 16 Native North American cultures, these traditional tribal tales dwell on the time in a young girl’s life when she discovers she is becoming a woman.

Chapter 5: Poetry

Poetry...I am not a big fan of it, nor did I get excited when it was ever discussed.  For some reason I could never get into it, nor could I understand what the poet was talking about.  Needless to say, I dreaded reading poems in English class, even worse, writing it!  If I did not understand it, how could I write it? 

My 3rd grade teacher Ms. Gilbert would read Shel Silverstein's "Where the Sidewalk Ends."  I think that was the only time I can say I enjoyed poetry.  The poems were so much fun and I enjoyed listening and reading his books. 

In Chapter 5, Looking Back Into your History with Poetry, I read the very first sentence, "Before you can generate enthusiasm for poetry in your students, you need to love it yourself."  I thought, "Great, how am I supposed to do that!"  As I continued to read, I felt as if they were speaking of my experiences with poetry and not just mine, many people who feel the same way about this genre.  Now that I think about it, I believe that maybe my teacher's may have not had "an enthusiasm" for poetry and/or may have chosen poetry that was too sophisticated for us.  I have viewed poetry as a cryptic work puzzle (like the book states).  I've read poems over and over thinking if I kept reading it I would understand it.  When the teacher asked the class what we got from it, I never raised my hand because I had no clue.  I would usually just listen to my classmates' opinions.  Sometimes they got it and other times they were off and I didn't feel too bad for not understanding it.  Like I mentioned before, I don't like writing poems and it could also be that my previous teachers didn't lay the groundwork for writing poetry or provide that support I needed.  I am not saying that my teachers were horrible because I didn't enjoy poetry, I am just realizing that maybe they too did not enjoy it.  If they didn't enjoy it, it may have a lot to do with how I was taught and the experiences I had.

I feel an obligation to change the experiences I had for my future students.  The books mentions that, "We need to change our approach" and to do this, we as teachers need to create an environment where children have positive experiences with poetry like using words in fun and interesting ways.  Poet Constance Levy suggested the we "take time to read lots of good poetry written especially for children."  By doing this, we as teachers will share our discoveries with our students and in turn this will "ignite our love" of poetry and will nuture our students' responses to poetry. 

Since this chapter was on poetry, I decided to find some childern's authors that write it.  I found a website called http://www.poetry4kids.com/.  This website has a lot of activities for kids to do and may help them enjoy reading and writing it.  Author Ken Nesbitt is the creator of this site and here are two books of his poetry books. 

Meet the misbehaving robots, not-so-smart dogs, and angry vegetables who feature in Kenn Nesbitt's hilarious collection of clever wordplay that is sure to keep kids laughing and loving poetry all year long.

Don't Ever Bite Your Sister


Don't ever bite your sister.
Don't kick her in the shin.
Don't slap your sister silly
and don't sock her on the chin.


Don't tape a "Kick Me" poster
upon your sister's back.
Don't take your stinky socks off
and then put them in her pack.


Don't purchase plastic spiders
and place them on her head.
Don't leave your rubber rattlesnake
inside your sister's bed.


Don't do this to your sister
for, if you ever do,
I'm pretty sure she may do something
even worse to you.

Get ready to laugh as you discover the wonderfully zany poetry of Kenn Nesbitt! You'll read about the world's fastest bicycle and meanest pirate ever. You'll meet a marching band of musical ants, and a dragon who can't blow out his birthday candles. You'll learn how not to play with your food, and why you can't bring a camel to school. Children and adults alike will want to read these poems again and again.