Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Chapter 10: Nonfiction: Biographies and Informational Books


We all know and understand that this world we live in is full of mystery and wonder. Reading takes you places and expands your knowledge on so many things. One things I like about reading is that there is a variety of books out there about many people who have explored the world and give wonderful advice to those in need of lots of information.  Nonfiction books are just that; they consist of biographies and informational books that revolve around the social and scientific world. Nonfiction books offer so many diverse opportunities for learners to become successful in the classroom, as well as outside the classroom. Nonfiction books also address children’s interests, social network, and the many questions that were never answered.
In many instances, Multicultural Nonfiction has the affects as it does with Nonfiction. It brings children together to read some of the most important pieces of literature, especially, having them exposed to different cultures and to learn about their own. Diversity is really all that matters- we need to get along everywhere we go. It encompasses a true nature of respect and awareness for themselves and those around them. Building rewarding relationships through books encourages children to continue reading and expanding their acceptance toward other countries.
Biographies are far most the interesting since in involves the person’s hardships, success, and failures. It brings closeness to the reader, as they too might relate to protagonists experiences. Biographies are made to be for one purpose, that which includes someone’s life written by someone else- it’s a human life in its course to life endeavors.  It also involves discoveries and explorations within their lives. *Biographies today conduct extensive research, including visiting original site and studying original material and the selecting those details that balance fact, meaning, and significance. Biographies must “show rather than just tell… illuminate an aspect or point of view about the subject’s life, thereby giving it either pattern or meaning” (The Joy of Children’s Literature, p.170, 274)*.  Children read biographies for the same reasons as adults do, and that is to see how other people have lived and dealt with problems- it's a great way to relate and find inner peace or at least some kind of balance. As everything falls into place, Biographies also fall into place within three categories: authentic, fictionalized, and autobiographies.
  • ·      Authentic biographies are of course, true nonfiction. It uses facts such as letters, diaries such as Anne Frank, and interviews such as The Secret. These authentic biographies can range from an entire life to only one event or period in time in the subject’s life.
  • ·      Fictionalized Biography/Biographical Fiction are presented in dialogue form and has secondary characters, and actions that are also present in the biological fiction.
  • ·      Autobiographies and Memoirs is when the author writes about his or her own life. A memoir is a true story about a certain time of event in the author’s life given by the same present author.


Biographies are so diverse and I want to definitely include them in my classroom one day. There are so many Biographical subjects that I know my students will take advantage of such as:
  • ·      Discovery and Exploration
  • ·      Political leaders and Social Activists
  • ·      Artists and Authors
  • ·      People who have Persevered


All of these subjects matter and all could expose children to the world of differences and teaching them how to become accepting is very crucial to me.
            Another good source for learning is of course the Informational books that are great for children’s little brains. Children absorb many things and I want to take advantage of that and teach them all there is to know. Being able to provide them with important additional resources is like gift giving to me. Informational books never go out of date- so many facts about the future, present, and past worlds.  Informational books consist of text structure, which means it gives information, explains, describes, or persuades. In entails concept books, picture books, photographic essays, internet websites, journals, and diaries, how-to-books, field guides, newspaper articles, brochures, pamphlets, maps, and reference books.
            Exposing children to nonfiction books is very important as I mentioned earlier. The lack of exposure to nonfiction books at an early age has lasting affects into primary, intermediate, middle and high school. Children who are not provided with instruction on how to read nonfiction texts early in school will not have the necessary strategies for content area reading that predominates later in school (The Joys of Children’s Literature, p. 284). Exposing children will increase their access to informational text, increase the time working on informational text in instructional activities, they’ll learn comprehension strategies and will create opportunities to use informational text for other authentic purposes. This is very impressive and by implementing nonfiction books in my lessons, I know I will help my students become explorers of their own world and I will encourage them to never stop looking.

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