Nonfiction Writers Dig Deep: 50 Award-winning Authors Share the Secret of Engaging Writing is bursting with ideas and insights from many of today’s leading nonfiction authors. Ideally, educators will have a chance to read all the essays. But because time is such a precious commodity, teachers should also feel free to dip in and out of the essays in a way that meets their interests and needs. To make this process easier, each chapter features a Teacher Timesaver Table that includes helpful information about the essays and the books each author writes.
By consulting this table, educators can quickly discover the grade level(s) that each author writes for, the format of their books—picture book (PB) or long form (LF)—and the content area the books address. The table also includes a brief summary of each essay. This table will help teachers identify the best two or three essays to accompany a particular lesson.
The authors’ ideas and experiences described in each essay can enrich reading and writing instruction in a variety of ways.
1. While students often think about the people behind the fiction books they read, they generally don’t think about nonfiction writers in the same way. The essays in this anthology will give young readers a chance to hear the authors’ voices and understand their motivation for writing particular books.
2. During an author study, the essays can help students feel more connected to the writer.
3. When using children’s books featured in the anthology as mentor texts in writing workshop, the essays can bring a new dimension to lessons that focus on nonfiction craft moves and revision. By revealing how professional writers think, the essays can help demystify the writing process for students.
There are so many options for using this one-of-a-kind resource!