Sorry, it has taken me some time to compile and organize these, but here is the hit
that I promised.
Diane Gallagher-Hayashi
Teacher-Librarian
Stelly's School
SD 63 (Saanich)
BC, Canada
daichan@shaw.ca
Diane_Hayashi@sd63.bc.ca
We used to have an English teacher who assigned a different Dewey Span ecach
month. Students could pick whichever book they wanted to read from that
section. It seemed to work well. Today, though, given the different lengths
of nonfiction books I would probably assign students to read at least a
specified number of pages from whichever book they choose. Otherwise they'll
all want the thinnest book in the assigned section.
When I was teaching English, I used to do a Lit Circle unit--4 to 6 students
reading the same book and getting together each week to have a semi-structured
discussion--using a combination of fiction and non-fiction; specifically Into Thin
Air, Catcher in the Rye, She's Come Undone, The Power of One, and one or two others
(Gr. 11 class). I did not work with the teacher-librarian (I didn't realize what a
valuable resource she was!), but as prep for the discussion, some of the students
in each group had to research something--author's background, a topic related to a
theme in the book, etc.-- so the unit could easily be enhanced into something more
collaborative.
Another good book for boys (Gr. 10-11) that I'd definitely use is Jack Gantos'
"Hole in my life".
I'm not quite sure what you are looking for but we use non-fiction books as
part of our reading awards scheme with Y7 and 8 pupils (11-13 years). For
the first award, they have to read one fiction and one non-fiction book. For
the second award, they have to read a biography or autobiography and for the
subsequent awards (based on genres) they have to reada fiction and
non-fiction book in the sme genre (e.g. war or families). They also have to
read poetry.
AS far as research in English goes, we run units on life in Shakespeare's
time (Y7), the Titanic (Y7) and in Y9 they have to debate controversial
issues such as abortion, child labour, drugs legalisation and animal rights.
This work is mainly researched on the Internet so I use it to show how to
evaluate web sites and discuss bias with the students.
We do backgrounders for a variety of novel/literature studies - e.g. Animal
Farm gr. 10/ Shakespeare - Elizabethan Era / Anglo-Saxons (Lit. 12) / Potlatch
and First Nations (gr. 8) Disasters - grade 8 (Dog of Pompeii) Wolves
and "most reviled animals" (grade 9) / Autism (Curious Incident of the Dog in
the Night-Time.
We generally do a mythology unit in grade 8 as well.
We look at censorship and freedom to read in grade 10.
When I did my English student teaching, one of the department's required
units was to read A Night To Remember, the non-fiction account of the
sinking of the Titanic. Besides generic reading comprehension questions and
discussions, I don't remember exactly what we did while reading, but I know
that it segued into a research project and presentation focusing on other
famous disasters.
There is an excellent publication by Carel Press called "Search and Discover".
www.carelpress.co.uk
My English teachers rarely darken my door and true collaborative planning has yet
to occur. However, I have hosted classes for the occasional unit on Shakespeare's
England and the Globe Theatre, and right now students from one class are coming to
me in dribs and drabs for help with a poetry unit that would have made a really
good collaborative lesson. (I'll approach the teacher once she's back from knee
surgery and suggest we re-work it for second semester.) They choose a poet,
research a biography, chose one or two of his or her poems, and then write a poem
themselves in the poet's style.
One of our English teachers does a great project at the end of The Hobbit where
either alone or in pairs, the kids create their own newspapers for the Hollow. I
teach them how to use Publisher and Foto Canvas for it, and the results are just
great.
Historical backgrounds of the time, and thematic explorations are other
possibiliites. (Aparteid for Cry the Beloved Country, racism for To Kill a
Mockingbird, gang violence for The Outsiders).
Truman Capote's In Cold Blood is a good nonfiction choice.
I've got around this problem of reading through getting in what I call
"faction" books. Being a scientist myself I am not a great fan of reading fiction
unless it
has some concrete basis. Hence I find it easier to read biographies, stories about
real events etc. We put any books that don't have an index into our fiction room.
I try to
encourage fiction reading in any research in a non fiction area and explain how it
helps
with description. Could the English research projects therefor be "Event" or
"Location"
based. They could research the topic and look at the authors who had written about
it (we
have a number of faction books written by journalists for example or compilations of
journalists looking at the same event from different viewpoints).This could combine
"fiction" and
"non fiction resources" to give boys a choice.
how about biographies?
The closest thing I can think of is what I did with my 6th graders a couple of
years ago. I had multiple copies of different biographies and I had my students
wander around the room and chose 3 of the books they would like to read. I then
put then into reading groups with one of their choices.
Maybe what your teachers could do, would be find a selection of books on a
particular topic or author and let their students choose from them..
Horrible Histories (same author, different topics) Does the author write the same
way/format for all his books?
. Selection of sporting (or other topic) biographies (choose 2 or 3 about the
same person and compare coverage) Compare a biography with an autobiography
. Read a biography on an artist and then a book about his/her work
. Read some books written at different times and see how the
coverage/language has changed. (Biography of a native American, history of the
treatment, and how the representation of them has changed from 50 years ago to
now-- political correctness,etc )
The fourth grade teacher at our school did an acrdostic lesson with
> non-fiction books. For example if the book was on Bears the child would
> have to write 4 traits, thing learned etc. from the book:
> Because they
> E
> As they grow
> Red bears
> S.
Forgive the pre-amble but in England with the National Curriculum most English
units are grouped under 1 of the following Assignment / Reading Types:
# Imagine, Explore, Entertain ie creative in the sense of fiction, poetry and
drama, plus myths and legends etc
# Inform, Explain, Describe - Literary non-fiction falls neatly into this
section
# Persuade, Argue, Advise
# Analyse, Review, Comment
When creating new Programmes of Study we try to consider its purpose under the
above and the material students would be expected to research / read. As an English
teacher I have done this with 'Creatures', a unit for students aged 11 - 13yrs that
combined non-fiction, fiction & poetry. It ranged from mythical beasts such as
dragons to students creating a Pet Care leaflet / Endangered species poster /
leaflet.
For older students, would you be looking at Literary non-fiction?
# Autobiographies - can compare real & fictional
# Biographies
# Autobiographical writing such as Gerald Durrell, James Herriot
# Diaries
# Reportage - this can be used to link with creative / literature work, eg
Tennyson's 'Charge of the Light Brigade' was a response to the Times newspaper
report of the battle.
# Travel writing
# Essays
# Genres such as humorous prose collections
Plus Media such as information leaflets / web sites / newspaper / magazine articles
etc. The difficulty would be ensuring a range of such material. Or could you link
it with a novel on the same broad topic / genre?
On another tack entirely, how about looking at ways to encourage boys to read
fiction? Our boys' reading has increased over the past 2 years with the
introduction of the KS3 Reading Challenge. Altho' I devised it and fund it, it is
operated via the English Department. I know we are still dependant on the
individual teachers for making it 'work' but it does offer students incentives for
their private reading. We now have boys reserving books other than the Simpsons and
asking me to purchase specific titles. Our Principal was one over when he heard
boys in the corridor discussing books and recommending authors.
I am a middle school reading teacher, but I have started a file
of materials surrounding the book Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True
Story About Brain Science by John Fleischman. It is about a man who had a
metal rod
driven through his skull. He survived but was never the same.
Within the last week there was a news story about a man who had
a nail driven into his head by a nail gun, and I also found a similar
new story about a man who had 6 nails in his head from a nail gun.
With the rash of motorcycle accidents each summer, I thought this
would be engaging reading for students, and there good articles and
books available about current brain research that would yield
material at various levels.
Another book that I think would be engaging is Snowbound: the tragic
story of the Donner Party by David Lavender and two books by Jim
Murphy--Blizzard! and The Great Fire. You could surely find similar
types of book about Canada. I have read Mrs. Mike (historical fiction)
about 5-6 times in my lifetime, and it still captures my imagination
(don't own a copy of it or remember the authors. I like to pair fiction
and non-fiction texts and Farley Mowat comes to mind as a versatile
author.
I have also found that 8th graders are receptive to newspaper articles
which can lead to great topics. I did some investigations of the video game
industry because so many boys think they want to design and program
video games. I worked off the topics submitted by students and then did
research to find suitable reading materials. For my own reading I have
found non-fiction more to my liking recently. Just thought of a few
other favorites: Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, In the Heart of the Sea
by Nathaniel Philbrick, and Close to Shore by ? (shark attacks on the east
coast summer of 1917). For me it's the subject matter that fascinates and
the possibility of learning about something new.
Diane Hayashi
Teacher-librarian
Stelly's School
Saanich School District (63)
Saanichton, British Columbia
Diane_Hayashi@sd63.bc.ca
daichan@shaw.ca
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to
read." Groucho Marx
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