Earth's Point of View

by Laura Gehl

Get your class thinking about writing fun, humorous nonfiction with Stacy McAnulty’s Earth: My First 4.54 Billion Years (illustrated by David Litchfield).

After you read Earth out loud, here are some ideas for getting your students writing:

1)    Earth is written in first person, from Earth’s point of view. Think of an object in your classroom. Write about the school day from the point of view of that object. Make sure to show your object’s personality in your writing…is the object shy? A know-it-all? Silly? Vain?

2)    Earth tells the life story of our planet. Whose life story would you like to tell? Pick a person, object, or animal in your life, and write a short autobiography. (Hint: before you start writing, you will need to decide what are the most important events and details to share…you can’t include everything, or your story will be too long and boring!)

3)    At the end of the book Earth, author Stacy McAnulty has a funny note addressed to an “alien visitor.” What if an alien visited Earth and it was YOUR job to teach that alien everything important about our planet? Write a speech, make a pamphlet or poster, draw a cartoon…use your creativity to show what facts you would tell the alien visitor about Earth, and how you would make those facts seem interesting to your audience!

www.lauragehl.com

Jim the Wonder Dog--Writing About Pets

guest post by Marty Rhodes Figley

My newest book, Jim the Wonder Dog, is about a Depression Era Llewellin setter that many believed was either a genius or possessed of clairvoyant skills. This hunting dog predicted seven Kentucky Derby winners, the winners of the 1936 World Series and presidential race. He could also take direction in foreign languages (Italian, French, German, Spanish), shorthand, and Morse code—and recognized both colors and musical instruments. After a thorough examination by veterinarian scientists at the University of Missouri the mystery of Jim remained.  No one could ever figure out how he did those things. 

In the back of my book I have an extensive discussion of oral history. We have a much better understanding of Jim the Wonder Dog and the town where he lived because of the oral history created by the Marshall, Missouri Chamber of Commerce and the Missouri Valley College. In 1997, those two organizations conducted video interviews of people who had known Jim when they were children or young adults. Their recollections have details about Jim and Marshall, Missouri that would otherwise have been lost to time.

Classroom discussion: Discuss what an oral history is, its strengths and weaknesses.

Oral histories capture a moment in history that might have otherwise been lost.

In the case of my book, these personal stories, from people who are no longer with us, about their experiences with an amazing dog they could not forget, let history come alive. Their enthusiasm and love for Jim the Wonder Dog are apparent, as is their obvious enjoyment in having an opportunity to give their honest account of their treasured memories of Jim from so long ago.

Some disadvantages of oral history are: The person who is giving the firsthand account might not have been able to observe everything that happened or his perspective might have tainted what he saw. That person also might not have made an accurate observation because of his location, the surrounding circumstances (such as darkness, rain, or smoke), or his personal circumstances (such as excitement, sleepiness, or poor eyesight).  Finally, that person might not remember accurately.  Memories can fade with time or be influenced by hearing other accounts of the same event. 

Your students can make history come alive by creating their own oral histories by interviewing family members.

It’s important to conduct the interview in an informed manner.

Ask questions one at a time.

Give time for an answer before you ask the next question.

Try to ask questions that can’t just be answered with a yes or no.  Get more detailed responses.

Be a good listener.

Here are some questions  students could ask family members about their experiences with pets.  

Did you have pets when you were growing up?

How old were you when you got your first pet?

What kind of animal was it?

Where did you get it?

Who named it?

Who took care of the family pet?

Where did your pet sleep?

How did your pet show you love?

Did any of your pets have special talents?

What was the most interesting thing your pet did?

Did you feel your pet understood you? Why?

Did you have a favorite pet?

If so, why was this pet your favorite?

What did your favorite pet look like?

Did you ever have more than one pet at the same time?

If so, did they get along?

Bio: Marty Rhodes Figley is the author of several picture books including Emily and Carlo, Santa’s Underwear, Saving the Liberty Bell, and The Schoolchildren’s Blizzard. She grew up in Missouri and now lives in Virginia with her husband and Airedale terrier. She is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College where she earned a bachelor's degree in American Studies. Besides writing for kids Marty enjoys making pies and playing the guitar. Visit Marty online at /http://www.martyrhodesfigley.com/

Dramatic Histories & The "Write" Stuff

by Jacqueline Jules

“If we can’t agree on anything, how can we stay one country?”

“But we could have even bigger problems, if we break apart.”

In my book, Unite or Die: How Thirteen States Became a Nation, the students of the imaginary school of Forest Lake Elementary perform a play about the 1787 Constitutional Convention. It is a story which unfolds during a very hot summer in Philadelphia at Independence Hall. Fifty-Five delegates argued bitterly over representation in Congress and at one point, it looked like the convention would break apart. Benjamin Franklin called for prayer and it was said that George Washington looked as glum as he did during the dark days at Valley Forge. The stakes were high. The fledging country was on the brink of collapse. If the delegates had not come up with a compromise, America would not be the nation of fifty states it is today.

The conflicts and compromises of the Constitutional Convention provide a wealth of material for theatrical performance. For a short version of Unite or Die: How Thirteen States Became a Nation, please check out the Reader’s Theater available at this link.

American history is filled with dramatic moments suitable for reader’s theater. And online resources at The National Archives offer primary documents for your students to research and write their own dramatic sketches. Here are some writing ideas with corresponding links.

Idea # 1: The National Archives has a copy of Eleanor Roosevelt’s famous resignation from the Daughters of the American Revolution over their refusal to hold a concert with Marian Anderson at Constitution Hall. A letter in response from the DAR is also available at this link along with information about the historic concert on Easter Sunday in 1939 when Marian Anderson sang to a crowd of 75,000 people at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.  After examining these primary documents, students could write a radio play with characters playing the part of Mrs. Roosevelt, the DAR president, and Marian Anderson. Reactions from the press and the public could be included.

Idea #2: Transcripts of the Lunar Orbit of Apollo 8 in 1968 are also available online at The National Archives . Students could write an interview with the astronauts describing what they saw and how they felt based on these eyewitness documents.

Idea #3: Susan B. Anthony surprised the registrar in Rochester, New York when she showed up demanding to vote in the 1872 presidential election. The National Archives has primary documents of the hearing which took place after her arrest. Students could re-enact Susan B. Anthony’s historic arrest based on those transcripts.

The Library of Congress also has wonderful resources for primary research. Creating a dramatic sketch based on historical documents is an exciting way to combine research and writing skills.

https://www.archivesfoundation.org/event/write-stuff/

A great opportunity for enhancing those skills will be available at a free literary festival called THE “WRITE” STUFF which will take place at The National Archives this summer on July 7 and 8, 2017. 

On July 7^th, students  will have the opportunity to hear a panel of nonfiction authors including John Hendrix, Syl Sobel, Susan Campbell Bartoletti, Tonya Bolden, and myself. Afterwards, students can choose a hands-on workshop with an author of their choice. Information to register is available here.

On July 8, there will be a family literacy, writing, and research festival with featured authors and illustrators including Marty Rhodes Figley, Diane Kidd, Janet Macreery and others. 

Take advantage of these programming and online resources. Enrich your summer with nonfiction writing and research! 

Encouraging Nonfiction Writing in School

Guest Post by Moira Rose Donohue

When I was a kid, I read fiction with two very limited exceptions: I read books about dogs and ballet. As an adult, it was pretty much the same story. So when I started writing for children, naturally I wrote only fiction.  Then, a number of years ago, I was asked to write a series of nonfiction books about civil rights figures in Virginia.  Hmmm.  I didn’t think there would be a lot of dogs or ballerinas involved. And it sounded a little like homework. 

I thought about it for a while. I didn’t mind the research. In fact, I was ready to learn new things. But it was the thought of note taking on small white index cards, one thought and source to a card, made me feel faint. I absolutely hated doing that in school. But fortunately, before I said, “NO,” I had an epiphany: I can take notes in a way that works for me.

I realize that piles of index cards with one or two lines on each one may be a great organizational tool for some. But for me, a visual learner, that stack, with all that wasted space, is totally overwhelming. If I could take notes in my tiny handwriting, on colored legal pads, with page numbers in the margins, I would be much happier. Then I could star things that I liked, use pink highlighter on facts I wanted to be sure to include and annotate others with cross-references. I could even color code things. It worked. In fact, I kept writing nonfiction and I haven’t looked back.

Writing nonfiction teaches the writer so much. So why not encourage your students to write nonfiction?

GETTING STARTED: Before setting children to the task of writing nonfiction, it’s important to have them read nonfiction. Next, pick topics that they can research easily. Writing about animals is a good starting place, because animals, in general, are less mired in conflicting information. Then consider moving into cultural and biographical subjects. I would suggest that you save history, especially long-ago history, for later, as it is hardest area in which to verify facts.

RESEARCH: This is a great time to teach children that not everything they read is true. It’s not about finding three sources that say the same thing anymore, like when I was a kid. And not all internet sites are reliable. Finally, sometimes it’s a question of saying “experts differ.”

NOTETAKING: Obviously it is crucial to keep track of where a particular bit of information comes from. But it doesn’t have to be done on white index cards. I would suggest providing children with several options.

OUTLINING: It’s a good idea to ask students to outline their stories, but only in a general way to give the story some structure. Then comes the really fun part. A writer I really respect told me that when you are researching a topic and come across something that makes you say, “Wow!” include it in your story. If it surprises you, it will surprise others as well. I encourage you to share this idea with your students. And then let them put pencil to paper!

  

BIO: Moira Rose Donohue has written over 20 nonfiction books for children.  The Invasion of Normandy from North Star Editions came out in January 2017. Dog on a Bike from National Geographic was released in February 2017. Moira offers a school program called "Writing Interesting Nonfiction" that she loves to present to elementary schools. And she still loves dogs and ballerinas. Visit  www.moirarosedonohue.net     

Explaining Unfamiliar Words, Concepts, and Facts

Guest Post by Laurie Wallmark

Whether your students are writing fiction or nonfiction, there might be an unfamiliar word, concept, or fact that needs additional explanation. This might be anything from a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fact to a sports move, a fantasy world setting to an alien language. Here’s a writing exercise to help your students think about the many techniques available in their writer’s toolbox that will help.

First, as a group exercise, have your students imagine they’re writing a story about a little boy with asthma. Explain that not everyone knows about this disease. Ask for suggestions of how this could be explained in the story.

Here are some possible techniques:

·       Simplify the definition – it’s a disease where you have trouble breathing

·       Give an analogy – it’s like trying to breath through a straw

·       Show an action – describe a character having an asthma attack

·       Offer an example – character can mention famous people who have asthma

·       Show in the narrative – the text explains what asthma is

·       Use a question & answer – have another character asks about the disease

As an example, you can read my book Ada Byron Lovelace and the Thinking Machine and point out how even difficult concepts can be explained using appropriate text techniques. Ada Byron Lovelace was the world’s first computer programmer. In order to appreciate her groundbreaking achievement, the reader needs to understand the concept of an algorithm. Some of the techniques I used to explain this were:

·       Give a definition – “A set of steps that are followed in order to solve a mathematical problem or to complete a computer process.”

·       Simplify the definition – “Ada decided to create an algorithm, a set of mathematical instructions.”

·       Show an action – “Ada broke the problem into a series of simple steps.”

·       Use an example – “The machine could follow these instructions and solve a complex math problem, one difficult to figure out by hand.”

Now it’s time for the students to do a writing exercise on their own. Have them think of an unfamiliar word, concept, or fact they might need to explain in a story. If they’re having trouble coming up with anything, you can give suggestions such as: cultural or religious traditions, sports terms, or hobby activities. Challenge them to write five or more ways to give an explanation to their reader. At the end of the exercise, have them share their techniques with the class. Have the students discuss which techniques they think work better.

BIO: Laurie Wallmark writes picture books and middle-grades, poetry and prose, fiction and nonfiction. She has an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from VCFA. When not writing, Laurie teaches computer science at Raritan Valley Community College, both to students on campus and in prison. Her debut picture book, Ada Byron Lovelace and the Thinking Machine, received four starred trade reviews (Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and School Library Journal) and several national awards, including Outstanding Science Trade Book. Visit http://www.lauriewallmark.com/

Writing Connections with Marc Tyler Nobleman

by Mary Quattlebaum

The Power of Words.  Students have heard that phrase so often that it sounds like a cliché.  Marc Tyler Nobleman not only brings that phrase to life in two riveting biographies, but he also shows how the biographies themselves helped to right a wrong.  In a Kids Post interview for the Washington Post, Nobleman talks about the research and writing process for Boys of Steel and Bill the Boy Wonder, his biographies, respectively, of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, creators of Superman, and of Bill Finger, who co-created Batman with Bob Kane.  Finger never received credit for his work until recently, thanks in large part to information uncovered by Nobleman.

Nobleman travels frequently to give presentations and writing workshops, and he has found that, from India to Indiana, people know about Superman and Batman.  These superheroes tap into the human hunger for tales of good vs. evil.

Below are a few writing prompts for the classroom or for individual writers ages 8 and up.   Nobleman’s blog Noblemania.blogspot.com is a trove of historic photos, comic book art, quotes and cool stuff.

CREATE YOUR OWN SUPERHERO:  Ask students to read Bill the Boy Wonder and to look at one or two Batman comic books.  

Classroom Discussion: How did Bill Finger help to create Batman?  What traits, nicknames or pieces of costume did Bill add?  Ask students why they think that superheroes and superhero comic books are so popular, around the world.

Fight or Find Peace:  In most comic books, the superheroes use physical force when they fight.  Are there other ways of being powerful besides physical force?  Other ways of fighting back?  As a class, brainstorm a list of people (historic or contemporary) who were powerful without using physical force or violence.

Classroom Writing:  Have students brainstorm attributes for their own superhero.  For example, what is the hero’s super power?  How and when does the hero wield it?  Is there a secret identity or costume?  Who is the hero’s worst enemy and what are the enemy’s attributes?  How and why did the hero become a hero and the bad guy a bad guy?  What makes the superhero weak?  What makes the villain weak?  (Remember, neither hero nor villain need be human.  Either or both can be animals, objects, plants, germs, etc.)

Starting Strong:  Begin a story about how your hero and villain meet for the first time.  Think about who, what, when, where, and how.  What brings them together and when and where? What happens?  How do they fight?  See if students can figure out at least one way that the superhero fights the villain in a non-violent/nonphysical way.  What happens then?

Examining Art:  Choose a panel or two from a comic book and show students how the illustrator showed a close up or an aerial view, for example.   Ask them what makes these different views interesting and why the illustrator may have chosen to show that.  Ask them to do one part of their story as a comic book panel, showing a close-up or an aerial view.  How did that help them to think about their story in a different way?

www.maryquattlebaum.com

FICTION VS NONFICTION: REAL OR IMAGINARY?

guest blog by Karen Deans

My two books, Playing to Win and Swing Sisters, are picture book biographies based on the lives of some remarkable women who defied racist and sexist barriers to become champions and superstars in their respective fields. They are written for children who are beginning to identify the differences between fiction and non-fiction writing. I often explain to students that my books are nonfiction, and based on real people and events that actually happened in the past. I talk about the importance of research, because non-fiction depends on it. Fiction, on the other hand, is a story that comes from the author’s imagination. It may require research, too, but it can be as fantastical as an author wants it to be.

Here are some classroom activities that will help develop and deepen an understanding of fiction and nonfiction writing.  Have fun!

1. Create a classroom chart: Make two columns with headings: Fiction and Nonfiction. Ask students to brainstorm words that relate to each heading and write them in the correct column. Fiction: poetry, pretend, imaginary, fantasy, talking animals, etc. Nonfiction: facts, biography, history, index, bibliography, etc.

Create a duplicate chart and brainstorm books they have read or will be reading in class. Add them to the new chart in the correct column. Have students describe elements from the first chart that were found in the books they mention. For example, Swing Sisters is both non-fiction and biography. While it doesn’t have an index, it has a bibliography. It is based on facts and not something imagined by the author.

2. Share a Story: Have the children write (or tell) a brief story, either from their imagination or from factual events. Then take turns reading them aloud and let the class determine if they are fiction or nonfiction. Sometimes it is obvious, but sometimes it is not. A fantasy story about a spaceship will obviously be identified as fiction. But someone describing a vacation to the beach might be creating something from her or his imagination. Discuss the elements that lead to their conclusion.

3. Historical Fiction Fun: For older children, depending on their ability, ask them to identify a real event from history, such as the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Ask them to write some factual elements from this event, answering the basic who, what, why, when and where prompts. Next, have them create a character, maybe a cat that sneaks into the room chasing a mouse. What happens next? Does a desk turn over? Is there laughter? Maybe a servant spills a pail of water and shrieks before climbing on top of a chair. How do the real elements mix with the imagined ones?

Karen Deans is a writer, painter and owner of a decorative art business, WoodenTile.com. She has written two picture books for Holiday House, including Swing Sisters: The Story of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, which came out in March. She has worked as head scenic painter for the children’s theater Adventure Theatre MTC. This work has taken her to Broadway, as set painter for a musical adaptation of the children’s book Three Little Birds, based on the music of Bob Marley. She is the mother of three grown children and lives with her husband and kitty in Bethesda, MD. Visit her at www.karendeans.com

SUSAN L. ROTH: A SPECIAL COLLABORATION IN MISSOURI

Susan L. Roth, the award winning author and illustrator of 45 books including Hands Around the Library, Parrots Over Puerto Rico, and The Mangrove Tree was recently a part of an amazing writing program in Blue Springs, Missouri. In a guest blog, she shares her experiences at Pencil Tips Writing Workshop.  

A summer school writing program involving 900 students was created and initiated by the Deputy Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction, for the entire Blue Springs R-IV School District (Dr. Annette Seago), later working together with Liz Nealon, co-creator and publisher of StarWalk Kids Media, the E-publisher of many of my books.

The participating children, from grades K-8, were required to write a non-fiction work for an all-program competition. Separate winners were to be chosen respectively, one from each of these three separate age groups: kindergarten-2^nd grade, 3rd-5th, and 6th-8th.

All children were then exposed extensively to age-appropriate non-fiction books, and especially, after I had agreed to participate, to ones I had written and/or illustrated. My part in this project was to help to choose the final winner in the 3^rd-5^th category, and then to illustrate the winner’s book for eventual e-publication.

The writing teachers amazingly sifted through every single one of the 900 entries. They selected five first cut winners for me (and my publisher) to read. Our job was to choose the one that would be best for me to illustrate and for the publisher to publish. 

The plan: to make a REAL BOOK happen.

All five selections were surprisingly excellent, each diverse in subject and style, and each interesting. With difficulty, we finally chose PLANTS AND ANIMALS, written by a 9-year-old named Violetta. This one, we agreed, was perfect for the project. The publisher notified the program coordinators and they, our winner, Violetta, who was ecstatic.

Warning: This is not, everyone admits, a project designed for equal opportunities for each of the 900 children. But it was so successful with its one-to-one design, that I, as well as the others, feel we need to take advantage of the happening and work to find a way to broaden the wonderful experience.

In the attractive library at Daniel Young Elementary School in Blue Springs, Missouri, Violetta and I sat at one of the several library tables for about four hours without getting up! Two writing teachers were also in attendance. Together Violetta and I explored the way to illustrate a non-fiction text, one step at a time.

Together we:

1-read and re-read the text;

2-we divided the text into pages;

3-we made a quick storyboard;

4-we corrected the storyboard;

5-we made a tiny dummy to make sure that our pagination was correct (it wasn’t, we corrected it);

6-we made a small, but precisely proportional-to-the-book-size dummy, and numbered its pages. We cut the text into pieces, and taped each piece to its proper page;

7-we discussed possible images and sketched several possibilities on separate papers;

8-we sketched our ideas directly into the real dummy. Sometimes we disagreed. We talked out our different approaches until we reached agreement. Each of us did this without feeling that one of us was ever dominating the project.

And at that point this amazing 9-year-old child, who had been sitting still for almost four straight hours with a stranger she just met, jumped up and confessed that she HAD to run a little. And she flew from one end of the library to the other again and again until she was out of breath. Then she flopped back down in her chair, renewed.

We went back to work for a bit after that, refining the drawings, but mostly just admiring what we had accomplished together, and then school was dismissed and Violetta was out the door.

And I was swept away to my hotel where I was to create the first page of art to present at the ceremonies on Wednesday.

I must admit that before I went to work with Violetta my feelings about this project were a little mixed. Certainly it is not revolutionary to feel that the children themselves should have created their own illustrations for their own books. Actually, I raised my concerns as soon as I arrived at Daniel Young School. But, I was told, this was not our project this time, even though it might be, another time. THIS summer program in Blue Springs R-14 School District was for WRITING.

And all the children DID write. Their writing efforts were taken very seriously by the official mentors. The participants were individually named and each was individually awarded with a special writing medal and a special certificate at the ceremony on Wednesday. All their writings were exhibited on tables set out in the hallways of the school. Most of the parents came to the ceremony so that there was a good audience for all.

I thought all of this was wonderful. But none of this was my takeaway.

The extraordinary thing that happened was the adult to adult collaboration, one to one, between Violetta and myself as we were sitting together quietly for all those adult hours in the library. It was a genuine collaboration, and our 62 year age difference (who’s counting and none of your business, besides) did not enter into the equation.

Could the other 899 kids ever have a similar experience? Would I, ever in a million years, be capable of repeating this lovely interval another 899 times? NO! is the quick and true answer.

But, the two dedicated and gifted writing teachers who silently witnessed this amazing, lovely teaching event, and I, are all determined to figure out a way to do this (or maybe at least something LIKE this) for more children, more often.

We are starting with a proposed Skype session, scheduled for July, to coincide with an annual writing teachers symposium also to be held in Blue Springs, Missouri.

My most important job is going to be to try to analyze the magic that took place. I hope to be able to transmit the taste of the moment. Our collective goal is to figure out a way that eventually the children themselves will be able to reproduce the one on one exchange, with each participant wearing his own hat: that would be the writer, writing, and the illustrator, illustrating, but with each, LISTENING, and each THINKING, and each COLLABORATING, each, working towards their mutual common goal, TOGETHER.

I suppose this is what is happening, internally, when one is both the writer and the illustrator as I usually am, but somehow, with the two individuals working together the process becomes all the more exciting.

The amazing, happy alliance, the give and take, the discussion and the execution by the two different people, TOGETHER, was all so very special. I hope that this report can convey a little of our shared excitement, and that perhaps it can inspire future experiments, with intense involvement, one on one, but completely together.

As for our own experiment, I’m sure that our day was one that Violetta will hold dear forever. Surely I will as well.

 Susan L. Roth

P. S. I am presently working on completing the rest of the art for Violetta’s book. It will be published as soon as I finish, by StarWalk Kids Media. Please look for it! Fan mail cheerfully accepted.

Writing Nonfiction--Look for the Superstar Moment

Guest Post by Moira Rose Donohue

Sometimes it can be hard for students to read nonfiction—and even harder to write it.  But nonfiction can be fun to both read and write if the author strives for the “superstar moment.”

I have written a number of educational biographies and two books for National Geographic that tell amazing but true animal stories.  And I have learned a simple, but helpful, lesson. After I finish my research, I identify the rock star moment.  Then I draft a general outline, making sure that somewhere between two-thirds and three-quarters of the way through the book, I will hit that big moment. 

For example, if I am writing about Vasco Núñez de Balboa, I need to make sure that his superstar moment—being the first European to see the Pacific Ocean from the New World—is the climax of the story.  Likewise, if I am writing about a kangaroo that rescues his injured owner, that has to happen towards the end of the story.  And if I am telling you about my summer vacation, I need to build up to the best part of it—the day I learned to swim alone.

This may sound a bit simplistic, but it’s a rule that gets easily forgotten when pencil hits paper.  Why?  Most nonfiction writers have learned a tremendous amount about the subject of their report or book.  They want to share it, so they cram in all kinds of data and lose the sense of story and climax that holds the reader’s interest.  That means that bits of information, even really fun ones like a dramatic fight with another explorer over a girl, have to be jettisoned if they don’t advance the story towards the superstar moment.

Next time you assign a biography writing project, or even a “What I Did This Summer” essay, remind your young writers to identify the “superstar moment” and edit their stories so that they take the reader up the mountain to superstardom.  Hopefully that will put them on the road to superstar writing.

BIO: Moira Rose Donohue is the author of Parrot Genius from National Geographic; 13 biographies from State Standards Publishing; and Alfie the Apostrophe and Penny and the Punctuation Bee from Albert Whitman.  Coming soon-- another explorer biography (de Soto) and Kangaroo to the Rescue from National Geographic in Spring, 2015!

GETTING THE RESEARCH RIGHT

GUEST POST by Catherine Reef

I don’t recall the issue we were debating. It was too long ago, and now it hardly matters. But an idea had been raised in my college sociology class that provoked some heated discussion. At one point a student read a passage from our textbook to support his opinion. The instructor listened and then asked us all, “Do you think the book is right?”

I sat up a little straighter. What was that? Was she suggesting the book might be wrong? The book, that esteemed authority—words printed in black ink and bound in a hard cover—wrong? While the rest of the class argued on, I pondered this startling notion.

As you may have guessed, the most important lesson I learned in Sociology 101 was to be a critical reader. It is one that has served me well as a writer of nonfiction, because again and again in my research I have encountered books that were wrong. I have learned to question, to track down original sources, and to weigh the printed evidence.

I could show how this healthy skepticism has paid off by citing examples from the research that went into nearly every one of my books, including The Brontë Sisters. More than one writer has adopted an authoritative tone, for instance, to write that in 1855 Charlotte Brontë died of tuberculosis, the disease that took the lives of at least four of her five siblings. But how did these authors know this? The answer is that they didn’t; not really. They saw it in another secondary source or jumped to a conclusion after glancing at the facts. The reader or researcher who bothers to investigate Charlotte’s case finds that the cause of her death is uncertain. Her death certificate states that she died of phthisis, a wasting away, but was it due to consumption, as these writers assume, or to the severe intestinal illness that had been plaguing her for weeks? Some authors declare that Charlotte, who was recently married at the time of her death, was pregnant. Charlotte Brontë herself believed this was true, if only because of the severe nausea she was experiencing. Did she actually die of morning sickness, though? It must be noted that the foul water in the Brontës’ village of Haworth was known to carry disease, and a longtime family servant had sickened and died in a similar way only a short time before. So did Charlotte succumb to waterborne contamination? These are all questions I cannot answer. As her biographer, I saw only one way to be honest with my readers and fair to my subject: I described how Charlotte died, but I offered no diagnosis.

So, yes, books can contain factual errors; they can also be wrong, or at least untrustworthy, when it comes to words placed inside quotation marks. Here’s what happens: one writer paraphrases something a subject wrote or said. A second writer repeats the statement word for word and attributes it not to the writer who did the paraphrasing, but to the well-known man or woman whose words were paraphrased in the first place. At some point, as more writers repeat them, the words become enshrined in quotation marks. Content to cite in their endnotes some other secondary source, these writers never check whether the words were ever uttered.

I encountered one of these suspicious quotations when the time came to write about Anne Brontë’s novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Published in 1848, this book was ahead of its time in its frank depiction of alcohol abuse and marital discord. At one point in the narrative, the distraught wife, Helen Huntingdon, bolts her bedroom door against her husband and refuses to let him enter. Now, I am sure such things happened in England in the 1840s, but no one spoke of them above a whisper, and certainly no one wrote of them in a novel. A wife denying her husband access to her bed? Shocking!

“The slamming of Helen Huntingdon’s bedroom door against her husband reverberated through Victorian England,” proclaimed a writer of a later generation, May Sinclair. Or did she? This great quotation appears in a number of critical works, but not one lists a source. Literary detective that I am, I tracked down Sinclair’s actual words in her 1913 book The Three Brontës. And what Sinclair wrote is this: “The slamming of that bedroom door fairly resounds through the emptiness of Anne’s novel.” The second quote is less dramatic than the first, but it is accurate, and it is the one I included in my book, properly sourced. Thus I made a small correction to literary history, but a satisfying one.

Fortunately for us all, authors get their facts right more often than not. Nevertheless, students can be better writers of nonfiction—which is what they are when writing reports or essays—if they read critically. Where did the author get her facts? Check the notes and bibliography. Does he cite primary sources, and is it possible to track them down? Students may not have access to a research library, but many older texts are available online. Do the words “perhaps,” “might have,” and “must have” crop up too often? These are signals that the author is speculating. Students need not be in college to learn to question what they read and to cite printed sources with care.

Because once doubt has been cast on part of a nonfiction work, the rest becomes suspect. We want our readers to trust what we write.

 

   BIO: Catherine Reef has written more than forty nonfiction books for young people and adults, among them The Bronte Sisters: The Brief Lives of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne and Leonard Bernstein and American Music. Her work has earned her the Sydney Taylor Award and the Joan G. Sugarman Children's Book Award as well as Golden Kite and Jefferson Cup Honors. A graduate of Washington State University, she lives in College Park, Maryland. Visit her online at http://catherinereef.com/index.html

MAKE A SPLASH:OCEAN RESEARCH AND WRITING FUN

guest post by Alison Formento

When I write for magazines or newspapers I must fact check all information I include in an article or essay. I conduct interviews and research whatever topic I’m writing about and it’s no different when I write my nature picture books. My books are considered literary non-fiction. There are fictional elements in my stories in which the trees, bees, or seas talk, but every fact shared has been thoroughly researched and verified by scientists and experts, such as apiarists (beekeepers) for my book These Bees Count! and oceanographers for These Seas Count!

My new picture book These Seas Count! was an exciting book to research since our world’s oceans and seas are fascinating and a vital part of keeping our Earth healthy. Scientists have guessed that there are perhaps a million yet-to-be discovered marine life forms. A million! We know so many amazing sea facts such as there are phytoplankton too small to see which help make our air breathable and there are whales the length of several school buses who can communicate in their own language, but imagine what else we don't know yet about marine life. Our oceans and seas are a place of mystery and wonder and we must care for them as we would a garden in our own backyard.

In my research, I discovered underwater coral called Sea Fan and used that as the name for the boat in These Seas Count! Here’s a way students can use research to make a splash in their own writing.

1. Students draw an ocean, beach, and sky scene. Drawing a scene can help inspire creative thinking, especially for those students who may have a hard time getting started on a writing project.

2. Free-write names of sea life that make the beach or ocean its home. Example, write “Whale” in the water part of the picture or “Gull” in the sky part of the picture. The goal is to fill the page with as many of these words as possible to use in drafting an essay.

3. Research books, magazines, educational websites, and ocean links to find a sea creature that you’ve never heard of before, such as the new Zombie Worm recently discovered in the Antarctic Ocean. There are links to several wonderful educational ocean websites on the Educator’s Guide for These Seas Count! (found on my website) including this one: http://oceana.org/en/explore/marine-wildlife.

4. List at least five facts on one new sea creature. Include this new creature on drawing.

5. Use ocean drawing to inspire writing. How does that new creature, like the Sea Fan or Zombie Worm interact with other creatures on the ocean drawing?

6. Write about this creature using the five facts discovered through research. Share information as if writing for someone who has never been to the ocean.

7. Make a splash using personal knowledge of the ocean, along with newly discovered facts, to draft an essay that is both interesting and fun to research, to write, and to read.

Alison Formento is the author of This Tree Counts!, This Tree, 1, 2, 3, These Bees Count!, and These Seas Count! For more about Alison visit her website: www.alisonashleyformento.com

AND DON’T COPY THIS, EITHER!

by Jane Harrington

In my last post I gaily embraced the creativity of cutting and pasting summer scraps into journals to spur original writing at the start of a school year, and now, two months into the fall semester, I’m on a tirade against cut-and-paste. Must be the influence of another political season: I’ve become a flip-flopper.

I now teach in a college, so tend to feel that the issues facing the students in my current classrooms are far different than those that faced the young writers of classrooms past. Jacqueline Jules’ October post, though, contained several bits of advice that I have to admit I took right to my 18-plus-year-old students. I have a problem with plagiarism in my freshman composition classrooms. And the more I talk to colleagues, the more I see that it is of epidemic proportions. Jacqueline is right to be embracing it in the way she is, and it gives me hope that the conversation will continue to be had in these places where it so needs to be—in elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, and around the kitchen table at home. So, in hopes of inspiring just that, I’d like to add a few things to Jacqueline’s list of ideas to encourage the avoidance of copying the words of others:

·        Celebrate Voice! If young writers learn that personal expression is all about the uniqueness of the words they use—not only when writing poetry or other “creative” pieces, but when putting together reports or even text messages—perhaps they will take more ownership over their writing, and offer more respect to the people behind the words they read on the screen of a computer or in a book. Spending some time reading aloud and positively responding to the various ways students express similar ideas might be a step to instilling pride in personal voices.

·        Minimize Distractions! Not only does the zap-zap-zapping of computer games have a deleterious effect on brain development, as studies are now showing, the constant barrage of electronic media presents some very basic problems: it steals time from our children, and breaks their concentration. My students have to write the first essays of their college careers on the topic of plagiarism, and the ones who take the “true confessions” approach will invariably say they got into a habit of plagiarizing because of a lack of time. Some students even go so far as to villanize their cellphones for interrupting them all the time. Who owns whom? I want to ask these students. Clearly, our children need some help with this.

·        Catch Them! Sounds harsh, but I have to say that the freshmen who hit the wall on this—who sit in my office crying because they’re afraid of the possible repercussions—are the ones who embrace a new way of learning, change the way they study, and become exemplars of our honor code. They tell me, invariably, that no one taught them that it was wrong to turn in writing assignments made up of disparate sentences and paragraphs cut from Internet sources and patched into strange narrative quilts. In fact, most say they were rewarded with good grades in high school. When we see odd shifts in voice in our students’ writing, we should actively try to find the explanation. Drop phrases into Google, and you’ll see that Wikipedia and About.com will pop up quite a bit. Put an “F” on that paper, and meet with the student. Because once he or she arrives on a college campus, that’s an offense that can result in expulsion. Catching this habit early on, and dealing with it bluntly enough to instill a bit of fear, is a good tact. Why do I think so? Because that’s exactly what my students say would have helped them.

www.janeharrington.com