Back to Chapter 6: Nonfiction Writing in the Real World

Every time I read this chapter, new teaching ideas bombard my brain. One of the sections of this chapter that grabbed my attention was Nature All Around Us on page 146. Unfortunately, I don't have  Where I Live by Eileen Spinelli, but I have another book that I think would motivate students to wonder, explore, and examine their everyday world.  The book is Outside Your Window: A First Book of Nature by Nicola Davies. I was thinking this would be a great mentor text to revisit frequently throughout the year. And because it is a book of poetry, I can pick and choose selections that fit what I might be teaching. I can visualize students taking pictures of what is outside their classroom windows or taking walks around the school to see what they can notice and recording their noticings in their writer's notebook. Actually, in the past, I've done poetry walks with groups of kids with great success. But I think adding this book as a mentor text would make it a much richer learning experience--sort of like a writing marathon for elementary students.

Late to the Party

So I waded through my spam folder and finally found the invitation to join our shared blog about Nonfiction Mentor Texts by Dorfman and Cappelli. I will admit that I haven't read as much as I had planned. In fact, I haven't touched the book in a few weeks. I initially spent some time perusing the table of contents wondering why I hadn't reached for this book sooner. Toward the end of the school year, I did some crisis reading from Chapter 6: Nonfiction Writing in the Real World. The section on Using Interviews to Create Family Histories caught my eye. One of the snippets included in the book was from a 2nd grader named Matthew. He wrote about how he thought his fingers were the best part of himself. I loved this snippet because it matched my thinking about my model lesson on having kids write about their hands.

The best part of me is my fingers. They are made of German skin. My fingers have a little hair on them. They get lots of cuts. My fingers love to hold my pencil and write all day. They love writing the answers to math questions with my pencil. My fingers remember gripping the ball I threw for the first time. After that I felt so good. My fingers wish to be playing Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite in front of a huge audience. When I was done they would clap so loud it would hurt my ears. The best part of me is my fingers.  Matthew, Grade 2  (p. 150 from Nonfiction Mentor Texts by Dorfman and Cappelli.)