Date: 10-03-2005 19:08
Author: Mischnick, Dianna <[email protected]>
Subject Re: Nonfiction inquiry
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I can so relate to your son's interest in sharks. As I was reading your article, the first thing that came to mind was my son's writing in 3rd grade. They created a book with several different genres. Non-fiction was by far his best genre because he was so interested in the Tasmanian Devil of Australia. He wrote in such detail and it was hard not to catch his enthusiasm for the subject.
As far as using non-fiction in my classroom, I have to admit I have been pretty hit or miss before this year. My Kindergarteners have a hard time listening for long periods of time and I would lose them in certain non-fiction books. However, I took the Children's Lit course this summer and a module covered non-fiction. It suggested a totally different approach to non-fiction for younger students. For instance, read only what interests them. You do not have to read a non-fiction book cover to cover. I have chosen to read just the picture captions in several of our books, then go back to pages they asked questions on and read in more detail. We aren't writing yet per se about non-fiction, unless you include color words, but we are reading much more non-fiction this year.
I think you nailed it when you talked about finding what interests them. I would keep books and books about all different animals and fish and sharks and dinosaurs in my classroom to encourage your kids to seek out what interests them. Then they can write in their science journals about those interests. Good luck!
Forum: Session 6: Journal Article #2
Date: 10-09-2005 13:50
Author: Mischnick, Dianna <[email protected]>
Subject Re: To Tonya from Dianna
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I, too, have the "Diary of a Worm" in my classroom and have really felt so much better when we take non-fiction in segments, especially with the little ones. What we want to do now is provide them with a foundation to build on, not teach them everything there is to know about worms or whatever the nonfictioni topic is. Of course, there are those little guys that will demand more and we can happily provide it!