LSSL 5385 Textbook Reflections Chapter 12 Nonfiction

Nonfiction is an umbrella term because it includes narrative and expository approaches. It also includes biography, autobiography, and memoir as well. There is not one template to nonfiction there is a wide variety of texts that fall under the umbrella of nonfiction. Nonfiction books come in different styles, formats, and genres. Nonfiction is half or over half of your library. There is a certain criteria when you are evaluating nonfiction books.What are the qualifications of the author. You can check an author's website to see what they are qualified in. You can also look at the back of the book and also see the author's qualifications. Also look at the author’s notes. That is where you can see the amount of research that the authors used to write their books. James Cross Gibbions is a very well know author for young adult nonfiction. Next are the facts accurate. Are the fact that the author including in the book research based. Is the book correctly cited with provable references. What is the purpose and scope of the book. What is the book conveying to the reader. What information is the reader going to receive from the book. Is the book divided into chronological order. Is the book set in a certain point in time.How does the organization of the book assist readers in locating information. Is the table of content a resource for the reader to find the information they are looking for. Are the titles of the chapters or headings organize the information in a purposeful way. The organization of the book is important sometimes the books can have to much information and can be difficult for the reader to find the information that they are looking for. Does the  index allow the reader to find specific information for uses of research. Visualshelp elaborate the text but it also allows the reader to break the text intochunks. The visuals assist the readability of the book. Nonfiction books alsoinclude photographs that help the reader absorb the information from the book.Also charts and graphs help keep the interest of the reader.

The second half of the chapter focused on questions to ask students about nonfiction. The questions were on different levels are far as difficulty. Also some of the questions were very abstract in thinking and it would be difficult for students who weren’t in that developmental stage. The questions would have to be scaffold and model before they would be able to complete them independently. The question that I really liked was, If you had a chance to interview the authors of this book , what would you ask them? This would be a great question to ask them before they read the book and this would allow them to practice notetaking skills while reading the book.

         Nonfiction books are a very critical when teaching students to become proficient at information literacy. It is very important skill that students will need to be proficient in when entering college. This is the part of the job that allows you to students. Nonfiction books will be read and needed for research in the middle and highschool grades. Collaborating with teachers who will be teaching the research process with guide them through nonfiction books. As a librarian I will be the professional that will them through reading and referncing nonfiction text and or novels.