Chapter 10: Nonfiction

Literature that is nonfiction captures the minds of students today.  Books that are nonfiction allow students to learn more then just opening up a text book.  These books are engaging and filled with facts.  This is what nonfiction books are; books that consist of biographies and information.  It can be about someones life, a subject in school, cultures around the world, or exploration of new things.  There are different ways to evaluate and select a nonfiction books.  Two ways is to put them in categories depending on what you are interested in or learning about.  According to a research done by Duke University with the primary grades, lack of exposure to nonfiction at an early age has lasting effects throughout school.  This is because children are not provided with the instruction on how to read nonfiction texts early in school will not have the necessary strategies for content area reading that helps students later on in school.

I am excited about using nonfiction in my classroom for many reasons.  The first being that I will not be a worksheet/textbook kind of teacher.  Yes, I know that there will be times when I will have to be that way, but when it is up to me we will be working in many different kinds of books.  I have already borrowed some ideas from fellow teachers on how to use nonfiction in my room.  One thing I know I will do is take a trip around the United States.  Here we will use different books about the regions we are learning about in class to discuss landmarks that are in that region.  For this particular unit we will need tons of nonfiction books.