When I started doing presentations about putting the RIT standards into practice, this was the point where I had to sheepishly grin and say, “I got nothin’.” For months, this standard had me stumped.
Then my friend, writer and school librarian Sam Kane,
forwarded me a link to this article
in Booklist. It discusses how Common
Core categorizes text types (expository, persuasive, procedural, narrative) and
recommends recently-published science books in each category.
My book, A Place for Bats, was included in
the persuasive category. I was stunned. I didn’t think I was trying to persuade
anyone of anything. I was merely laying out the facts and letting the reader
decide. But then I thought about it a little more.
Do I want people
to protect bats and their environments? Yes.
By the end of the book, are kids
going to understand that? Well . . . yes.
Are they going to take action? Maybe. Maybe not.
Then I remembered that pesky CCSS ELA RIT #6, grade 3. “Students
should be able to distinguish their own point of view from that of the
author of a text.”
Um, duh! I had written six books perfect for this standards
and I hadn’t even realized it.
See why this post is perfecrt for a day
dedicated to fools?
Anyhow, after having that startling moment of
insight, it became much easier to pick out other books that would work well for
this standard. Besides all my A Place for . . . books, I recommend:
City Chickens by Christine Heppermann
Write On, Mercy: The Secret Life of Mercy Otis Warren by Gretchen
Woelfle
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