The Nonfiction Minute: A Teacher's Best Friend

First, let me give a big congratulations to Michelle H. who won the CWIM giveaway!  I know you will enjoy it.  

You know, it isn’t often that something truly innovative comes along in education or publishing.  But when it does, look out!  My post today is about one such unique project called The Nonfiction Minute  (NFM).   Check out the website at www.nonfictionminute.com

Each school day on The Nonfiction Minute website, a fascinating 400-word nonfiction article is published.  Each article is written by one of two dozen award-winning nonfiction authors.  The articles cover subjects that are as different as each author and include topics in history, sports, popular culture, space, math, government, music, and everything in-between.   Related photographs accompany each article.  NFM articles can be used to teach content, as well as reading and writing.

But, wait, there’s more. 

Every Nonfiction Minute has an audio file of the author reading his or her own article.  In this way, young readers or struggling readers can listen as they read along.   This feature allows the NFM to work across all age groups from primary grades through adulthood.   

But wait, there’s more.

The Nonfiction Minute is FREE!  That’s right ladies and gents, FREE. 

This revolutionary idea is produced by a group of nonfiction authors known as iNK Think Tank.  Each article is written by a professional nonfiction author, then edited by a top-tier professional nonfiction editor, Jean Reynolds.

To be fair, I must declare my disclaimer:  I am a member of iNK Think Tank, and I write for The Nonfiction Minute.  However, the few articles I’ve written are a small part of the 170 Nonfiction Minutes that will appear in the line-up this school year.  I’m part of an ever-growing audience of NFM readers.  Every day, the articles written by my fellow authors fascinate me.  They capture the imagination of the reader with expertly crafted text in only 400 words.      

Vicki Cobb, award-winning author and founder of iNK Think Tank says:

"The Nonfiction Minute illustrates a variety of voices.   Authors are not homogeneous.  Readers will get to know each author as they read the article then hear the author speak.  This too is a learning experience as it demonstrates to students how various authors look at the facts and filter what to use.  Kids will see there is a big difference between what they read in a textbook and what they read in The Nonfiction Minute."  

This is the second school year for the NFM.  Since the beginning there have been around 300,000 page views, from 90,000 unique visitors.  Readership is growing fast as more teachers find out about the NFM.  At present, there are around 1200 page views per day.  

Responding to the needs of teachers who commented they would love to have advance notice of the coming week’s topics on the NFM, Authors on Call provided a way to do just that.  Now teachers can receive an email on Thursday of the previous week that lists the article topics for the next week.  This way, teachers have time to plan how they can incorporate NFM into their teaching plans.  To sign up for advance notice, teachers simply sign up through the website to receive the email--which is, again, FREE.

Great teachers all across America are finding ways to use the NFM with their students.  Here are two examples from teachers I know in Arkansas that demonstrate how one article can be used in a variety of ways.  These two teachers used a recent NFM I wrote titled “The Near-Death Experience of Football.”  The article deals with the deadly 1905 football season when America considered banning the game, and President Teddy Roosevelt called coaches to a meeting in hopes of saving football.   The same article, two different teachers, two different age groups:   

   

Melissa L., a media specialist in a tiny rural school, explained how she used this NFM with her 5^th grade students:   

"I have a big screen tv at the front of my library (got it before we began purchasing Smart Boards) which is connected to my computer.  So I pull up the website at the beginning of each period along with any other peripheral webpages on info that I think may come into our discussion afterwards (for instance, this week I pulled up what the Ivy League Schools are on Wikipedia and we looked at their names and the years they were founded as well as Google images of football uniforms around the early 1900's - which led to a discussion of the dangers of even SIMPLE injuries in the days before "modern medicine.").  I also pull up a tab with a page for the author that has an image of the books that he/she has written - to introduce the kids to that person before we begin the Nonfiction Minute.  Then I turn up my audio and enlarge the words on my screen as big as I can so that at least the closest ones can read along (as I scroll) while the author reads aloud.  When done I then close that screen and have the discussion with questions about what we just listened to and learned - and any peripheral discussion (as I just mentioned).  In all it takes 5-10 minutes at the beginning of class."

The next example is from Cassandra S., an 8^th grade English teacher:  

"I'm using this article and another one like it to discuss Teddy Roosevelt's involvement with saving football (leading to a discussion and writing prompt about presidents exerting personal preferences into national policies) which will then lead us to discussing Andrew Jackson's controversial decisions upon election and again...accountability for presidents and their personal motives. (This second portion is to supplement my struggling readers in the American History class while focusing on argumentative writing in mine)."

What I love about the above samples is that each teacher used the same NFM and found creative, effective ways to use it that fit the needs of her students.  Perhaps best of all, these amazing teachers guided their students in a way that encouraged them to use critical thinking skills.

Gone are the days when nonfiction equals boring.  Finally, nonfiction texts are available that are fun, fascinating, and free.  We the authors of The Nonfiction Minute hope great teachers around the country will use our work to promote a passion for learning. 

So, spread the word about this truly innovative project. 

Teachers and students will enjoy every minute.   

Carla Killough McClafferty 

Wednesday Writing Workout: RIP and LIVELY Writing!

I confess: I read obituary notices.

Daily.
And I’ve been doing so since I was ten.
Somewhat morbid, right?
And me, a happy-go-lucky Sagittarius.

But I so love learning any person’s story, who they are and what makes them tick, and that’s what a beautifully-crafted death notice offers: a mini-biography that tells the world a certain someone was indeed here.

I first read obituaries in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Next in the Chicago Daily News.
Now in the Chicago Tribune.
And I learned to write them – which is no easy task, I might add, while earning my Journalism Degree in the Annenberg School of Communication.

A successful obit shares the necessary and expected details: the deceased’s name, hometown, birth date, place of birth, family members (including pets), education, professional affiliations; often the cause of death is included.  The named recipients of any donations speak loudly. I treasure the occasional closing phrase that asks the world to remember and honor the deceased’s spirit by paying kindness forward, or wearing a smile, or never giving up.

One of my long-ago favorite obits bore the headline “Walter Thomas: Worked Hard All His Life.”

Another referred to the deceased as a true Woman of Valor.
I love when adjectives such as cherished, devoted, adored, special modify nouns such as wife, father, grandmother, sister, cousin, friend.

Kiddos laugh when I tell them I found my character Howie Fingerhut’s name in the obits.

Or that I discovered the hero of the picture book biography I’m revising while reading the description of a certain woman’s great-great-great grandfather and the town he built in Illinois.
I’ve been known to share an obit photo and the deceased’s name with workshop students as a brainstorming exercise:  “Who might this person have been?” I ask them.  “Why was his death noted in the newspaper?”

I was already working up this Wednesday Writing Workout when I read how last week’s colorful Sun Herald obit of 80-year-old Harry Weathersby Stamps of Long Beach, Mississippi went viral and captured the world.
Readers agreed: it was his daughters’ lively writing.

“He had a life-long love affair with deviled eggs, Lane cakes, boiled peanuts, Vienna (Vi-e-na) sausages on saltines, his homemade canned fig preserves, pork chops, turnip greens, and buttermilk served in martini glasses garnished with cornbread.”

“He excelled at growing camellias, rebuilding houses after hurricanes, rocking, eradicating mole crickets from his front yard, composting pine needles, living within his means, outsmarting squirrels, never losing a game of competitive sickness, and reading any history book he could get his hands on.”

“Harry took fashion cues from no one. His signature every day look was all his: a plain pocketed T-shirt designed by the fashion house Fruit of the Loom, his black-label elastic waist shorts worn above the navel and sold exclusively at the Sam's on Highway 49, and a pair of old school Wallabees (who can even remember where he got those?)..."

Whether you knew him or not, there Harry was, in all his splendor, alive on the page.
The words oozed grace, honor, respect, love.

Read the obituary in its entirety, as it appeared in the Sun Herald.

Note the nouns, the verbs and the well-chosen concrete details and how they define this man, encapsulate his life, capture his essence and celebrate his uniqueness.

Of course, Harry Stamps’ daughters knew and loved him.  They were privy to his story.

Which brings me to today’s Wednesday Writing Workout.

 

Writing an Obituary Notice

     (1)   Choose your obit’s subject

The Hero/Heroine from your current novel, picture book or biography?
The character who stands in your Hero’s/Heroine's way?

Someone you love, living or dead?

                                                  A pet?
                                                  A favorite toy?
                                                  An imaginary friend?
                                               
                                                Even yourself! (See @Legacy)

(2)  Think about your subject, from birth to death (real or imagined).
Who and what defined him/her/it?
What was in his/her/its heart, gut, soul, head?
Who was in your subject's life – daily, long-ago, every now-and-then?
How would you encapsulate his/her/its life?
What nouns, verbs and details convey your subject’s essence?

In other words:
How do you want the world to remember him/her/it?
How would your subject want to be remembered?

Think traits, adventures, hopes and dreams,
accomplishments, victories,
successes and failures,
loves and hates,
the people in their lives.
 
(3)  Include the requisite details – birth, hometown, career(s), family, etc. (again, real or imagined), even burial plans.

(4)   Order your details however you choose.

(5)  Visit @Legacy for even more ideas and sample obits.

(6)   Remember: you’re telling someone’s story in an abbreviated fashion – someone you know, likely someone you care about.  
What Five to Ten Things must be included so the World comes to know and remember your subject?

Happy lively writing!

Esther Hershenhorn

P.S.
Don't forget to enter our latest Book Giveaway Contest!
You could win an autographed copy of Michelle Markel’s and Melissa Sweet’s Brace Girl: Clara and the Shirwaist Makers’ Strike of 1909 (Balzer and Bray)