True Story!

Two things stood out to me in reading Aronson's essays about nonfiction. The first is the immense variety of nonfiction forms. This point was reinforced when I read Hannah's blog. Too often, we tend to think of nonfiction as a monolithic category of "true stuff." But in reality, nonfiction encompasses personal essays, memoir, journalism, literary nonfiction, creative nonfiction, and historical nonfiction. It appears in comic form (Maus and Persepolis, for example) and it can be lengthy or brief.

Connected with this point was my realization that nonfiction is basically the same as "primary source material." In other words, if I use a newspaper story in connection with a piece of fiction to help students get a better understanding of the time period in which a story is set...I am incorporating nonfiction texts into the class. If I teach the poetry of the Shoah (ie, I Never Saw Another Butterfly) I am not only teaching poetry. I am also teaching nonfiction, becaue those poems, as primary source material, can be read as nonfiction texts, in the sense that we can read them with the intention of learning something about their authors.

This was a major revelation for me. Nonfiction exists in places I never thought it did! Thinking about nonfiction, not just as history book texts, but also in terms of primary source material opens up a whole new world of teaching possibilities for me. In particular, I can think of ways to pair personal essays, poetry, and news articles with fiction to give greater depth to both the fiction AND the nonfiction.

I was also interested in Aronson's assertion that boys read nonfiction to learn how to do things. This got me thinking about "hands on" ways to use nonfiction in class. What about reading instructions and building something using them? And then having students write their own instructions for their classmates to follow? I think this kind of synthesis between reading, writing, and practical application could be powerful, not just for boys, but for any student who enjoys knowing how school applies to real life.

Multi-Voice Response to Maus

Our book club read Maus for our non-fiction selection. To respond to the text, we created a multi-voice poem. Will wrote from the perspective of Arty, the narrator of Maus, son of a survivor. Frances wrote from the perspective of the survivors. I wrote from the perspective of those who died.

We'll read our whole poem aloud during class, but for now, here is my portion. The big spaces indicate pauses where someone else is "speaking."

Survival
Maybe some aren’t meant to
survive, yet
You did.

Was I not special enough, not strong enough, not lucky enough?

Don’t forget me.


Don’t forget
Hitler’s Germany

Don’t forget

the lost children

All the daughters and the sons

Don’t feel guilty for being spared


Survive for those who died.

Pieces of me and all the others


Keep the memories of us alive

The babies, the parents, the old and young

Everyone you ever knew
And even those you never did

Help us survive
Keep our stories alive

The price is only your soul