Modern Non-Fiction...

[frae]

Each year we have to do a project for flex hours and we are presented with a list of options for this. Anyway there was not anything on it this year that went with what I teach now so I joined the group that had a few of my friends. They are looking for suggestions for 12th graders to read and would prefer non-fiction ideas. This is for the non-honors kids and will be taught the 2nd semester of their senior year so something that might interest them would be best, but not something that the school board will never approve. I have a few ideas, but thought you guys might have something better. Thanks.

[Fresno Bob]

Anything by michael lewis or jon krakauer like into the wild or into thin air

[joncarlos]

Anything by michael lewis or jon krakauer like into the wild or into thin air

Yeah, how about The Blind Side? If these are kids that wouldn't have read it on their own, they might be interested.

Or maybe some Malcom Gladwell? Outliers or Tipping Point? I think that stuff is pretty relatable.

Let the Great World Spin, The Ridiculous Race, maybe one of the AJ Jacobs books like The Know It All?

[The Dane]

Saw the thread title and two names popped into my head, Krakauer and Lewis. I've taught Into the Wild and it went over marvelously. The kids really dig it. And it poses such great questions. At the end of the unit, I simply asked if McCandless was crazy or not and they went off for two days. It generated some of the best papers I've ever got. The other great discussion that comes up from both Lewis and Krakauer is the concept of "creative non-fiction" which isn't really a new form, but is growing in popularity and acceptance. Before this recent spate of books, you really have to go back to Truman Capote and In Cold Blood, which is really the classic of the genre and another work that gets the kids interested, although darkly so. When I taught it, I brought in the Journalism teacher, who was a reporter for many years, and we listened to him rail about it. It was awesome hearing that perspective.

I've used both The Blind Side and Moneyball in class, but never as whole class novels, because several girls just get uninterested in the overwhelming sports talk. I've also used Freakonomics which was wildly popular, but the school won't buy more books and we have too few to use whole-class, so that is out for the time being.

[frae]

Thanks guys. The first half of this 12th grade class is brit lit and the 2nd half is what we are developing. So far in the last 2 years they have added Into the Wild as a required text and that has gone well. I had Tipping Point on my list and In Cold Blood, but appreciate all these ideas. Thanks.

[DMT]

I'll second Freakonomics.

[Gregg]

If there is a movie of the book does it help or hinder teachers for a project like this?

[frae]

If there is a movie of the book does it help or hinder teachers for a project like this?

Well if there is a movie the kids that refuse to read no matter what will likely watch the movie so they have a chance on quizes and might be able to answer something during discussion. I don't know if this is good or bad, but it probably improves the odds of them at least knowing what the story was.

I like Freakanomics, but I think they want something that isn't broken up into short stories like that but I will put it on the list.

[The Dane]

Know that Freakonomics is based, to what degree is debatable, on faulty facts and shoddy investigation. That series has been giving collective boners to Friedman adherents since 2005 but is full of holes in the data. Many of the claims in the book(s) are wholly unsupported.

Taken as a work of chuckle-worthy fiction, it's fine. Just make sure to view every single claim in the book with an extremely critical eye.

This is what makes it such a great book to teach. Read the book, read the criticism, make your own decisions. It's a gem for teaching critical thinking.

[DMT]

Know that Freakonomics is based, to what degree is debatable, on faulty facts and shoddy investigation. That series has been giving collective boners to Friedman adherents since 2005 but is full of holes in the data. Many of the claims in the book(s) are wholly unsupported.

Taken as a work of chuckle-worthy fiction, it's fine. Just make sure to view every single claim in the book with an extremely critical eye.

Gimme a break. His work in Freakonomics largely came from articles that had been published in peer-reviewed journals. Most of the criticisms have been of his later work in Superfreakonomics and his blog.

[The Dane]

Well if there is a movie the kids that refuse to read no matter what will likely watch the movie so they have a chance on quizes and might be able to answer something during discussion. I don't know if this is good or bad, but it probably improves the odds of them at least knowing what the story was.

On the whole, I think it's better that there is a movie. First, you have the option to include it in your curriculum which can be helpful and break up the monotony sometimes. But, also, it can really help some kids who aren't going to read anyway at least be able to participate in discussions and generate some work. There is a bit of a pedagogical debate here. Should kids that don't read everything you give them fail, even if they can demonstrate the ability to write a reasonable paper on a book they have not read? Or are we only grading the end product and we don't care how they got there, as long as they weren't cheating? I tend to be in the latter group. I want my kids to read and I do my damnedest to persuade them to read, but some kids just WILL NOT read class texts no matter how much you cajole or threaten. I have a hard time failing a kid who, otherwise, does fine work. I try to fix what I can and leave the rest. If he can leave my class having an appreciation for English and understand that there is cool stuff in books, I fine with that. He'll become a reader if it was meant to be. I just don't want to scare him off. Films can help here, a little.

[The Dane]

Seems like it would be easier to study something that wasn't rife with half truths or outright lies in the first place.

Easier? No. If you are trying to get kids to memorize a list of facts, then what you say is absolutely true. Provide them with facts and grade them on how well they can remember them. This is big in Texas.

If you are trying to get kids to think critically, to generate opinions of their own that are based in things they read and can point to, to teach them how to find evidence to refute something they read, then a book like Freakonomics is perfect. Same with Into the Wild, which is more narrative in its structure. Krakauer takes A LOT of liberties with McCandless's story, fills in the gaps with interesting speculation colored to look like it is exactly what happened. Into the Wild is no less factual, no less accurate, than Freakonomics. It's just that the inaccuracies are a little tougher to find, perhaps. This is the nature of creative non-fiction, and the very reason why it rubs some people the wrong way. It is essentially admitted that there is no such thing as unbiased reporting. It is ALL biased, in one way or another. So, let's just embrace the bias, make clear our agenda and tell a good story, and then we can make our educated decisions for ourselves.

That is what I want my students to be able to do. Facts, honestly, don't mean as much as understanding WHY the author made those decisions and WHY it makes you feel the way you do when you read their work.

[swampdragon]

I am still going with - The Boy who Harnessed the Wind- WIlliam Kamkwamba

http://www.amazon.com/The-Boy-Who-Ha...ref=pd_sim_b_3

I had a few exceptional 8th graders read it for extra credit and then we discussed it over lunch (there are some book club questions out there) but teachers can write better curriculum.

The lessons learned about famine/poverty and sustenance farming were mind boggling to them. Some of them liked the more technical engineering aspects but the differences in cultures and their life outweighed those ideas.

Twinkie,Deconstructed by Steve Ettinger is quite interesting and talks about food science and processing
http://www.amazon.com/Twinkie-Decons...ywords=twinkie
I am going to reread it and see if it would work for students.

I do like the Krakauer books too.

[DMT]

I guess. I usually prefer my non fiction to be factual. Some of the criticisms get pretty deep into socioeconomic theory, which is pretty thick stuff even for someone like myself who has an MBA. There isn't one preeminent criticism, to my knowledge, but rather a collection of refutations from a variety of different experts. The Freakonomics nonsense regarding climate change and, especially, solar power is pretty brutal reading but the facts aren't neatly laid out in one document ("the criticism") to refer to but rather in a multitude of scholarly journals and refutations posted both online and in print.

Seems like it would be easier to study something that wasn't rife with half truths or outright lies in the first place.

The climate change stuff was in Superfreakonomics.

I'm not trying to say Freakonomics is flawless but you are arguing as if none of it has any basis in reality and offer a much stronger criticism than is warranted regarding the legitimacy of the arguments he made. For example, his most well-known studies were the ones that linked legalized abortion to the drop in crime-rate. Not only were his original articles published in prestigious peer-reviewed journals like The Quarterly Journal of Economics but so were critiques of his methodologies as well as his rebuttals to those criticisms. Having read them all, I was convinced that his methodologies were sound and the main criticisms were coming from parties that did not approve of his position that legalized abortion has generated positive effects in our society. Given your views on abortion, I'm honestly surprised you are so strongly lined up against him.

[Mithrandir]

How about something pertaining to the Founding Fathers of America.