Nonfiction Reading Response

Nonfiction Reflection - answer these questions in your notebook:

1. What are some notable nonfiction texts that you have read since the beginning of the year (articles, books, and/or videos)?
2. What have you learned and realized about reading nonfiction?
3. What are your goals for reading more nonfiction? What texts do you want to read? What topics would you like to know more about? 

From now on, one of your monthly reading responses will be on nonfiction. 

One format for the nonfiction reading response:

Part I. Write a summary: What does the author want me to know? What is the main idea of each section and of the article overall? Who and what is the article mainly about? Write a brief 4-5 sentence summary of the article. Afterward, write down 3-5 quotations that best support the author’s main idea and that you might want to use in writing later on.

Tips for writing summaries:

- summarize each section in 1-2 sentences

- use your own words; you do not need to include quotations

- be concise; you need to condense the information

- look back at the text and circle words you can use in your summary

- use sentence starters such as:

• According to…
• The author states/shows/explains/reports/informs/demonstrates…
• The author wants me to know…
• Based on…
• This article taught me…
• This article shows me…
• One example of… another example of…

Sample Summary

Jeffrey Gettleman, the author of “Armed and Underage”, wants the reader to know that in countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East, children under the age of 18 are forced to fight in armies often lead by warlords who care about nothing but stealing resources and having power. These leaders are able to manipulate children because they are separated from their families, are hungry and impoverished, and obedient; they will obey commands without complaining. Even though some commanders who recruited children are now facing criminal charges and UNICEF and other groups are trying demobilization programs, the lawlessness that is part of the reality of child soldiers continues to spread and children continue to be exploited and forced to kill.

Part II. Analyzing Author’s Purpose and Craft

Experienced researchers realize that nonfiction is not the truth, but someone’s perspective on the truth. We have to be alert to the author’s biases, the validity of texts and how an author may manipulate our emotions.

• What does the author want me to feel and think? What are my inferences, thoughts, opinions, and feelings? How does the author convey his message (writing techniques)?
• Evaluate the author’s purpose and bias (unfair judgment of a particular subject).
• Does the author use “loaded” words that are highly opinionated?
• Who is quoted in the article? What do their perspectives add to the articles? Whose perspectives are missing or misrepresented? Why?

When responding to and elaborating on excerpts in the text, introduce and provide context for quotations. Use transitions and signal phrases such as:

• One example that shows…
• Name, profession or brief description, (ex. Ishmael Beah, former child soldier, states…) states/asserts/implies/believes/ that…
• For elaborating on the text, use sentence starters such as:
• This shows/proves/demonstrates/illustrates…
• This part of the text makes me think/wonder/feel…
• The author wants the reader to…
• The author shows bias by…
• Also, in addition, another…

Part III. Synthesize or make sense of what you have noticed so far, and make conclusions.

• How has this article changed your thinking?
• How does it compare and contrast to your life and the world in general?
• What does the text make you question and wonder? What would you like to further research?
• Use sentence starters such as:
• After reading this article, I have realized/concluded/decided/recognized/come to understand…
• This article has made me appreciate/acknowledge…
• This reminds me of/makes me think…
• This is similar/different from…

Here are two student mentor texts:

Nonfiction blog post "Selling A New Generation On Guns" by Mike McINTIRE

The article “Selling New Generations On Guns” the main idea is about how the firearms industry has recently poured thousands of dollars into a campaign to ensure its future by getting guns into the hands of more, and younger children. In this article Mike McINTIRE talks about how the industry’s strategies include “giving firearms, ammunition and cash to youth groups; weakening state restrictions on hunting by young children; marketing an affordable military-style rifle for junior shooters and sponsoring semiautomatic-handgun competitions for youths; and developing a target shooting video game that promotes brand-name weapons, with links to the web sites of their makers.”  McINTIRE goes on to talk about how some people say that it is a good thing to introduce kids to guns. Some even said that teaching kids how to handle guns helps them learn some life skills like responsibility, ethics and citizenship. Finally he talks about how the NRA for decades has given grants for youth shooting programs, mostly to Boy Scout councils and 4-H groups.

In this article the I think that the author wants you to feel informed and a little shocked. I mean thinking about this situation logically makes me feel outraged. How dare these people be encouraging young children to use guns especially because of what recently happened in Newtown. The author does a good job of sort of expressing his own opinions secretly in the article. He is able to do this because throughout the whole article he is giving facts about this issue and how the firearms industry is trying to get young people to use guns, but then at the very last line of the article he puts in a quote from the director of undergraduate studies in child and adolescent mental health at New York University saying “There are lots of ways to teach responsibility to a kid, you don’t need a gun to do it.” Because this is the last line of the article, it allows you to really think about the information you were just given, and it gives you time to realize how incredibly ridiculous the whole idea of giving young kids guns is. 

After reading this article my opinions about guns and gun control have stayed the same but also gotten bigger and stronger. Every time I think about guns in this country and about what happened in Newtown I get so angry there are no words to describe. After what happened couldn’t these people have a little more decency??? It just infuriates me. I mean why in the world would you want to introduce guns to kids? It’s so dangerous and unnecessary. There is already too much violence in this world, do we really want or need young children knowing how to use a handgun? The NRA is so small minded. Although after what happened at Newtown they didn’t make a statement until a little after the fact, do you want to know why? It was probably so they wouldn’t look bad. The idea of children having guns seems crazy to me. It’s oh yeah my child doesn’t know how to ride a bike yet but he knows how to operate a gun. Children in this day in age are already growing up faster and faster do we really need to add guns to the mix? People think it will teach kids responsibility? How in the world would it do that? In my opinion teaching kids how to be good citizens is talking to them having them read things learn things, not handing them guns. People are acting like guns aren’t a big deal but they are a huge deal. The firearms industry is making it seem like guns are fun. They even hold competitions for it. In reality guns aren’t fun and games. They are dangerous weapons used to kill that should not be in the hands of a young child. 

Article: "As Pollution Worsens in China, Solutions Succumb to Infighting"

Author: Edward Wong

 
    In China, the pollution has gotten so bad that the country's citys are addled with smog. Citizens are forced to wear surgical masks and sometimes even gas masks if it gets that bad. The name for the main problem that is threatening the environment and people's lives is noxious air (A nonmetallic element that constitutes nearly four-fifths of the air by volume, occurring as a colorless, odorless, almost inert diatomic gas - credits to http://www.thefreedictionary.com/). This is something that top government officials have just now "been forced to openly acknowledge..." It can immensely effect China and the rest of the world, gas slowly creeping from China further and further into other countries. 
    One of the biggest problems is that the oil companies aren't at all attempting to stop the growing amount of pollution caused bytheir oil. Trucks and buses are the main cause for the pollution but "the oil companies have delayed for years an improvement in the diesel fuel those vehicles burn. As a result, the sulfur levels of diesel in China are at least 23 times that of the United States." This is crazy! If the reason for the pollution in China (the oil companies) isn't doing anything to stop what they've caused, then it is up to the people to do something, and that probably won't happen, and if it ever did happen, it would be when the pollution gets so bad that half the population is gone - only then would humans realize what they've done and what they have to do, but by then, will it be too late?
    This is a very serious problem that must be looked over more and had something done about. If China is doing this bad, then what about the other nations? What is happening there, and will it get worse? If these oil companies don't take a stand, then the people will have to, someone is going to have to stand up and get these people to work to stop this growing problem. I'm scared, very scared to see where this will lead to, but feel that it will come, and it is close, because if we don't do something, we will regret it.