Nonfiction

Hello everyone, I am excited to post this blog about practices and strategies to improve reading of Informational texts. The post will discuss the best ways to select juvenile biographies and informational books. Then again, we will discuss the hashtag #ownvoice, and we will discuss the difference between narrative and expository informational books. 

Let us start by watching this video of Mc Graw Hill Education. The video shows Dr. Fisher explaining the importance of balancing narrative and informational text. 

Biographies (The word biography defines itself: bio = life, graph = something that is written.)

According to Young, Bryan, Jacobs, and Tunnell (2019), biographies commonly described people with outstanding personalities, careers, or accomplishments. Many experts believe that children will not read biographies unless they look and read like a novel. If you decide to include biographies within your classroom library, an easy way to classify, organize and identify them is by the determinant that made the person famous.

° Scientists and Inventors

°Political Leaders

°Artist

°Sport Heroes

°Explorers

°People who overcame adversity 

°Villians

If you want to improve the reading of biographies within your classroom, you need to answer the following questions before selecting a biography text. Is the biography accurate and authentic?  Is the subject of the biography interesting for children?  Is the subject presented as a real human being?  Does the author’s writing engage readers, so they are eager to keep reading?  Do the illustrations help the reader understand the social context in which the subject lived? (Young, Bryan, Jacobs, & Tunnell, 2019, p. 197).

Biographies are considered nonfiction books, and we cannot overlook authenticity. A way to measure authenticity is by finding biographies that avoid making blatant personal judgments. Then again, to make a biography interesting for children, you need to present the person as a real human. For example, a good biography shows a person making common mistakes and facing struggles that readers understand. Then, the person overcomes adversity to succeed. Finally, as I had mentioned within other posts, illustrations have a crucial role in all texts. For biographies, they are used to create both personal and social contexts. The connections help children understand and relate to the life, work, and personality of the person (Young, Bryan, Jacobs, & Tunnell, 2019).

#OwnVoices

In 2015, Corinne Duyvis created the hashtag #ownvoices to signify the need for authors to share the same marginalized situation or identity with the hero. Authors who write outside their experience might not be able to reach the feelings and emotions we need. Rodarme notes that when we desire diverse books, this diversity “must come from diverse authors.” (Young, Bryan, Jacobs, & Tunnell, 2019).

(#OwnVoices Book)

Narrative and Informational Texts

Narrative nonfiction tells a true story or a sequence of events and has a distinct beginning, middle, and end. Narrative informational books have great appeal to fiction lovers because these books combine real characters and settings, a narrative arc with rising tension, and a climax (Young, Bryan, Jacobs, & Tunnell, 2019). Expository nonfiction informs or explains and is written in an informative text structure. According to Young, Bryan, Jacobs, and Tunnell (2019), the most common expository structures are cause and effect, compare and contrast, description, problem and solution, question and answer, and sequence. 

Then again Young, Bryan, Jacobs, and Tunnell (2019) mentioned, when evaluating informational books, teachers and librarians consider the five A’s: (1) authority of the author; (2) accuracy of the text content; (3) appropriateness of the book for its intended audience; (4) literary artistry; and (5) appearance: 

Authority of the author: talks about how qualified is the author who wrote the book.

Accuracy of the text content: comes from the back matter where acknowledgments, author and illustrator notes, bibliography, further reading, and timelines help verify the authenticity of the information in the book. 

Appropriateness of the book for its intended audience: are appropriate to their intended audiences. They do not talk down to readers but are strong in delivering complex concepts.

Artistry: contain pleasant information presented through the use of narrative devices like alliteration, similes and metaphors, onomatopoeia, repetition, and others.

Appearance: attractive presentation of knowledge can mean the distinction between text students will select rather than discard.

Thank you,  I hope that the information presented helps you understand nonfiction books for children better. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, feel free to comment!  

References 

Young, T., Bryan, G., Jacobs, J., & Tunnell, M. (2019). Children’s Literature, Briefly (7th ed.). Boston, U.S.: Pearson.