Article review # 2

write each paragraph and what is needed for each paragraph from the article(please read it all in details since the professor want us to concentrate on the deep details and mention it in our critique as it is mentioned in the rubric, so be specific to use every single part needed from the article please). and the other file is the article itself.

the kinds of nonfiction passages that appear on such tests.

Yet, sadly, too often nonfiction books are undervalued, underused,

and oversimplified.

Undervalued

As an adolescent I enjoyed fiction.

I was eager to read stories about

people I thought were just like me

and to revel in the choices they

made and the experiences they felt.

Yet, as an adult I find myself attracted

to nonfiction. Why? I want

to know more. I am older now, and

I read books eager to learn about

the lives of others—real people in

real circumstances who have made

real choices.

I want to know things: What

was Hitler really like? And what

motivated him? Who really discovered

penicillin? Or gunpowder?

Or dreamed of the mechanics of

flying? Or nuclear weapons? Or

America? Who made the computer

commonplace? And what really

made Lincoln great? Just how

many people died in the Civil War?

And the Vietnam War? What were

the real reasons we lost Vietnam?

How did Martin Luther King Jr.

become so much larger than life?

And what made him tick? Who

was Maria Montessori, and what

prompted her to speak out about

women’s rights and biological urges

and fears when others were consigning

women to the kitchen and

the nursery? And what about astronaut

Sally Ride? And Supreme

Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor?

And Shirley Chisholm, the

first African American ever to run

for president of the United States in

a time when few women, let alone

black women, ran for any office?

How valuable it would be for

young men and women to read

nonfiction works and to experience

the lives of others who have made

a difference in the public arena.

And what could be better than a

nonfiction work for young people

to learn of the public lives of unconventional

and heroic figures—

both male and female?

Still, as valued as nonfiction

books are, the great books, as I

learned from my secondary teachers,

were the classics—written by

Hemingway, Steinbeck, Twain—

and not nonfiction works, and certainly

not books that looked like

they belonged on elementary school

shelves. Somehow, a book with pictures

was not valuable enough to

share in class.

Underused

Young people should be encouraged

to appreciate the wealth of

wonderful nonfiction books that

grace library and bookstore shelves

and, equally importantly, they

should be instructed on how to use

such material. They should know

what a glossary is. An index. A

timeline. A primary source. A secondary

source. A photograph. An

artist’s rendering. How two books

on the same subject differ in content,

tone, style. Why would someone

write a book about a famous

person? How does that happen?

Who chooses the topic? The author?

The editor? The publisher?

And what is an editor? How does

an editor differ from an author?

What does a publisher do?

If the idea of education is to develop

young people into critical

thinkers, why not start at the

source? Instead of assigning research

papers, would it not be better if students

simply went to the library,

found a book on Mark Twain—say,

Geoffrey C. Ward and Dayton Duncan’s

Mark Twain: An Illustrated Biography

(New York: Knopf, 2001),

based on Ken Burns’s acclaimed

PBS documentary—and then shared

the book with the class? Wouldn’t

that save hours of copying, rewriting,

rewording, word processing,

and redefining—for the simple purpose

of a teacher’s saying, “Well, at

least now they have an idea of how

to do a research report. After all,

they do need this for college”?

If we want students to use the

information they find in their research,

we must encourage students

to share the usefulness of

their findings.

Oversimplified

Good books are good books no

matter what the genre. And good

nonfiction books—books that define

their subject matter in clear,

descriptive, and straightforward

prose—are as valuable as any other

work of art. Young people should

know this.

They should know that good

nonfiction books—even ones that

lack photos, fancy graphics, or easyto-

access tables and charts—are

valuable and contribute significantly

to the body of knowledge

that defines the human endeavor.

Often, these books are the first that

people turn to when they need good

information quickly and easily.

As a teacher educator, I tell my

prospective elementary and secondary

teachers that an elementary

school library—complete with

well-stocked and well-written nonfiction

titles—is often the best

place to start to find information.

Doing a report on the presidents?

Or sea life? Or maybe planning a

visit to a faraway place or somewhere

nearer to home? Books

geared toward young readers are

jam-packed with good information

and, more importantly, they

highlight the important stuff first,

92 November 2003

Nonfiction Books in the Classroom: Undervalued, Underused, and OversimplifiedColumnHead/Subtitle

94 November 2003

Nonfiction Books in the Classroom: Undervalued, Underused, and Oversimplified

Yet, don’t we love to browse?

Don’t we love to skim the pages of

our favorite coffee-table book, glancing

at familiar pictures, skimming

over tedious passages, and honing in

on items that capture our interest? I

know I do. And I encourage my education

students to do the same.

So, teachers—instead of relegating

nonfiction books to term papers,

let us bring them to the forefront

of the class and share these

books with glee and gusto. For,

when used well, they make good

teaching simple and easy.

Jeffrey Kaplan, associate professor of educational studies at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, is a former editor of

the book reviews and the current editor of the “Research Connections” column of The ALAN Review.

English Education Programs Meet NCATE

and NCTE Teacher Preparation Guidelines

The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) has adopted the NCTE guidelines,

now called program standards, for undergraduate programs for teacher education in English Language Arts

for middle/junior and senior high schools. These program standards were derived from NCTE’s Guidelines for

the Preparation of Teachers of English Language Arts. Institutions seeking NCATE accreditation are required to

submit program review documents showing how their programs meet the NCTE program standards. The

Council’s program review process is carried out by over 100 reviewers. All are members of NCTE and CEE

(Conference on English Education) who have attended program review training workshops. The NCTE review

program is directed by Charles Duke, Appalachian State University, with Sandra E. Gibbs at NCTE headquarters.

Since our last listing, the forty-six institutions below have submitted program review documents

that show their English education programs to be nationally recognized by the NCTE/NCATE

Program Standards.

Alaska: University of Alaska-Fairbanks; Arkansas: Arkansas State University-State University, John Brown

University-Siloam Springs, Lyon College-Batesville, Southern Arkansas University-Magnolia, University of

Arkansas-Little Rock (Combined 6–12/Undergraduate), University of Central Arkansas-Conway; Colorado:

University of Colorado-Boulder, University of Northern Colorado-Greeley; Delaware: University of Delaware-

Newark (Combined 6–12/Undergraduate); Illinois: Augustana College-Rock Island; Louisiana: Southeastern

Louisiana University-Hammond, Southern University-New Orleans (Combined 6–12/Undergraduate), Xavier

University-New Orleans; Maryland: University of Maryland/Eastern Shore-Princess Anne; Massachusetts: University

of Massachusetts-Lowell, Westfield State College; Mississippi: University of Southern Mississippi-

Hattiesburg; Missouri: Harris-Stowe State College-St. Louis, University of Missouri-Columbia (Middle School

5–9/Undergraduate, Senior High 9–12/Undergraduate); Nevada: University of Nevada-Las Vegas; New Hampshire:

Plymouth State College; New York: Herbert H. Lehman College-Bronx (Middle School-Junior

High/Graduate), The Sage Colleges-Troy, State University of New York-Fredonia, State University of New York-

New Paltz (Combined 6–12/Undergraduate, Combined 6–12/Graduate), Syracuse University (Combined

7–12/Graduate), University of Rochester; North Carolina: Western Carolina University-Cullowhee (Senior

High/Undergraduate); Ohio: Otterbein College-Westerville (Senior High/Undergraduate), University of Dayton

(Combined 7–12/Undergraduate, Combined 7–12/Graduate), University of Toledo (Combined 7–12/

Undergraduate, Combined 7–12/Graduate); Pennsylvania: Indiana University of Pennsylvania (Combined

6–12/Undergraduate), Lock Haven University; South Carolina: Newberry College, University of South Carolina-

Columbia (Combined 7–12/Graduate-Basic MAT, Combined 7–12/Graduate-MAT), Winthrop University-Rock

Hill (Combined 7–12/Undergraduate, Senior High/Graduate); Tennessee: Vanderbilt University/Peabody

College-Nashville (Combined 6–12/Undergraduate, Combined 6–12/Graduate); Texas: University of North

Texas-Denton (Combined 6–12/Undergraduate, Combined 6–12/Postbaccalaureate); Utah: Southern Utah

University-Cedar City; Virginia: George Mason University-Fairfax, Old Dominion University-Norfolk, St. Paul’s

College-Lawrenceville; West Virginia: Bethany College (Middle School-Junior High/Undergraduate, Senior

High/Undergraduate), Marshall University-Huntington (Middle School-Junior High/Undergraduate, Combined

6–12/Undergraduate), West Virginia Wesleyan College-Buckhannon.

For more information on NCTE’s participation in the program review process, write to Sandra E. Gibbs,

Associate Executive Director, NCTE, 1111 West Kenyon Road, Urbana, Illinois 61801.