At the end of February, school librarian Tom Bober
tagged me on Twitter so I could see the great activity his students were doing
to think more deeply about the 5 Kinds of Nonfiction in general and Active
Nonfiction in particular. I knew other educators would want to give Tom’s idea
a try, so I asked him to write a blog post.
When I received Tom's piece a couple of days ago, I was
delighted because not only is it a powerful activity, it’s something that upper
elementary students can easily do at home—right now. Thanks, Tom!
I am a fan of Melissa’s 5 Kinds of Nonfiction as a way to help students
think about and share the nonfiction they like to read and write. I’m also a
believer in using historical documents as jumping-off points. When I was able to combine them in a recent lesson, the
learning was powerful.
After reading Gilbert Ford’s book, How the Cookie Crumbled, I
became interested in the original chocolate chip cookie recipe by Ruth
Wakefield and other cookie recipes from the time. Looking at their structure,
the recipes were presented very differently from recipes we work with today. I
thought it would be an interesting exploration for my students.
We began with an excerpt from Ford’s book. As I passed around a 1937
cookbook with the original chocolate chip cookie recipe, we brainstormed what
ingredients are common in many baking recipes. As students shared their
background knowledge, I helped to organize their comments.
Flour, sugar, and butter were common. Baking soda, baking powder, and
yeast were used to help baked items rise. Vanilla, zest, and almond were used
for flavors. We labeled “wet” and “dry” ingredients. We listed what we
described as “fillers” like chocolate chips or candies.
Then we looked at cookbooks that were on the shelves in our library. I
asked the students how all of that information was shared and organized in
these recipes. Students pointed out elements that they see in much of the
active nonfiction they read:
—Numbered step-by-step directions
—Photos showing what steps look like
—Lists of items needed (in cookbooks, typically supplies and
ingredients)
Then I shared several cookie recipes that appeared in newspapers in the
early 1900s. I found them by doing a simple search in Chronicling America, a database of more than 16 million digitized and
searchable pages of American newspapers dating from 1789 to 1963. My search
included the years 1900 to 1920 using the keywords “cookie recipe.” Search results
show thumbnails of the newspaper pages with keywords highlighted.
After each student had chosen one recipe, I asked, “How is this recipe
structurally different from the ones you might see today?” They pointed back to
the list we had created. Most of the historical recipes didn’t have
identifiable steps. None had photos. The ingredients were included in the
directions, but not listed at the beginning.
Then I gave the students a challenge: Take the recipe from 100 years
ago and re-write it to look more like a recipe we would see today—more like active
nonfiction. Some worked in pairs or small groups. Others decided to tackle the
challenge on their own.
The students quickly realized that there were no supplies listed. They
had to determine what those would be through the actions described in the
recipe and by using current cookbooks for clues. Other problems were not so
easily solved. Some ingredients didn’t have measured amounts. One recipe didn’t
provide an oven temperature.
Noticing those missing bits of information (even if there were no
apparent answers) showed me that the students recognized the importance of
those details in the current active nonfiction cookbooks they were using as
mentor texts. It also revealed their understanding of the structure and
organization of that type of nonfiction. It certainly is an experience that we
will revisit in the library.