This system divides the wide world of
nonfiction into 5 categories—active, browseable, traditional, expository
literature, and narrative. You can read more about it in an article I wrote for SLJ.
Even though many children’s book publishers
are currently focused on narrative nonfiction—books that tell a true story or
convey an experience, these books are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes
to great nonfiction for kids. In fact, four of the five categories in my
classification system have an expository writing style. These books explain,
describe, or inform.
Studies show that roughly 40 percent of
elementary students prefer expository nonfiction, while another 30 percent
enjoy expository and narrative writing (fiction and nonfiction) equally.
Research also shows that about 40 percent of the books elementary students
check out of the school library to read for pleasure are expository
nonfiction.
Since expository nonfiction is the type of text
students will be asked to write most frequently in school and in their future
careers, it makes sense for educators, writers, and publishers to understand
the key characteristics of finely-crafted expository writing and provide
students with mentor texts that exemplify those traits.
That’s why, for the next few Mondays, I’ll be
sharing posts with book recommendations and suggestions for teaching students
to craft high-quality expository nonfiction—informational writing that sings.
As I’ve written here, to create finely-crafted nonfiction, it’s
critically important to choose a focused topic. One of the best ways to do that
is by starting with a question, so, next week, I’ll continue this blog series
by discussing ways to help students formulate and keep track of questions.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment