Today I have the privilege of speaking to educators at the The Write to Learn Conference in Osage Beach, Missouri. Below are the digital handouts for attendees of my second session, “Drawing Information-Lovers into Fiction and Vice Versa.”
Handouts for Pam Withers’ presentation:
“Drawing Info-Lovers into Fiction and Vice Versa”
Fiction includes the letters I, N, F & O
(© February 2018)
Assignments for getting the fiction/nonfiction connection
(Consider allowing drawings or skits as part of response)
- Assign students to pair fiction/nonfiction books in large Ziplock bags, maybe for a specific fellow student. For instance, Tracker’s Canyon (novel) and (Canyoneering: Beginning to Advanced Techniques).
- Identify a true (or based on truth) story that has been turned into a movie: What are the differences between the book and the movie?
- Assign students a book on a topic in which they have expertise (e.g. ballet, soccer). What did the author get wrong? Advice for improving?
- Info-gathering for fiction-writing practice: Have students pair up. One takes on the role of “expert” (on whatever topic he/she chooses, such as pet care or ballet or soccer), and one takes on the role of “interviewer.” Require the interviewer (on turn No. 1) to ask his expert, “Describe some of the 5 senses you experience in your activity.” Then the interviewer writes a fictional paragraph with the info gained. Have the two swap roles and repeat. Applaud heavy use of dialogue, action, pictures and lively oral reading, not just heavily descriptive writing.
- Have students “fact check” info within a novel. For instance, a snakebite made a character ill. Is that type of snake really poisonous?
- Read a novelist’s acknowledgments, locate a source mentioned, and identify information in the novel that resulted. Maybe even interview the author re his/her research.
- Better yet, have students go to my website, pamwithers.com, click on “books,” then select a novel of interest, click on its title, and finally click on the line “Click here to learn the story behind the book!” This info illustrates how much research and information-gathering a fiction-writer often needs to do to create authentic fiction.
- Have fiction and nonfiction teams compete to brainstorm ideas for coaxing each other over (via new book jackets, library book placement, plot summary artwork, etc.) to the “other side.”
Three types of learners
Auditory: 40% of school population, primarily female
“Tell me” (fine with classroom lecture style)
Kinesthetic: 25% of school population, primarily male
“Let me touch/feel/experience” (field trips, labs, skits, touchable props)
Visual: “Show me” (diagrams, charts, pics, films, to-do lists, assignment logs)
Source: https://www.familyeducation.com/school/multiple-intelligences/learning-styles-visual-auditory-kinesthetic
Discussion points
Three quotes from librarything.com
“An increasing amount of nonfiction reads like fiction.”
“Fiction requires imagination and extrapolation that not everyone is wired for.”
“Attention span and imagination: if you don’t have them both, fiction won’t appeal. Don’t force it if it doesn’t bring you pleasure.”
“When you read fiction, you’re basically being exposed to the imagination of a particular person. When you read non-fiction, you’re being exposed to the imagination of reality. And the real world is a far more complex and interesting place than the inside of anybody’s head…You’ll generally expand your mind more by reading non-fiction than you will by reading fiction… Fiction does play a part in rounding out the learning of every educated person. It’s particularly helpful in learning to write and speak well. It can provide clear analogies for understanding difficult concepts. It’s also a source of great enjoyment for many people. But, if your aim is expanding your mind, and you want to make the best use of your time, try to read mostly non-fiction.” – Paulstips.com (blogger)
Digital reading trends, 2016
African-Americans: 16% read books on their smartphones, 8% on computers and 4% on e-readers. Hispanic people are also more likely to read books using their phones. College grads are more likely than those who never went to college to read using e-readers or tablets rather than their phones. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/one-four-americans-didnt-read-book-last-year-180960340/
65% of Americans have read a print book in the last year, 28% have read an e-book and 14% have consumed book content via an audio book. Nearly 40% read print books exclusively; just 6% are digital-only book readers.
College graduates are roughly four times as likely to read e-books and about twice as likely to read print books and audio books – compared with those who have not graduated high school.
80% of 18- to 29-year-olds have read a book in the last year, compared with 67% of those 65 and older. These young adults are more likely than their elders to read books in various digital formats, but are also more likely to read print books as well: 72% have read a print book in the last year, compared with 61% of seniors.
http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/09/01/book-reading-2016/
Among American adults:
- 84% read to research specific topics of interest
- 82% read to keep up with current events
- 80% read for pleasure
- 57% read for work or school
- Older and younger adults are equally likely to read for pleasure or to keep up with current events.
(Source: Pew Research Center, Sept. 1, 2016)
QUOTES
“Men identify themselves as nonreaders when they really mean they don’t read fiction.” – David Booth, Even Hockey Players Read
“Fiction requires imagination and extrapolation that not everyone is wired for… Attention span and imagination: if you don’t have them both, fiction won’t appeal. Don’t force it if it doesn’t bring you pleasure.” — librarything.com
Factual fiction: “Whether you are for or against it, multi-screening is an unstoppable change in the way we consume ebooks. And it necessarily involves the collapse of a few forms that we have previously held as sacrosanct, not least the distinction between fact and fiction… To give this new form a name we could do worse than dusting down the term ‘faction’.” — Ewan Morrison, The Guardian, March 2, 2012
“When you read fiction, you’re basically being exposed to the imagination of a particular person. When you read non-fiction, you’re being exposed to the imagination of reality. And the real world is a far more complex and interesting place than the inside of anybody’s head…You’ll generally expand your mind more by reading non-fiction than you will by reading fiction… Fiction does play a part in rounding out the learning of every educated person. It’s particularly helpful in learning to write and speak well. It can provide clear analogies for understanding difficult concepts. It’s also a source of great enjoyment for many people. But, if your aim is expanding your mind, and you want to make the best use of your time, try to read mostly non-fiction.” – Paulstips.com (blogger)
“Individuals who often read fiction appear to be better able to understand other people, empathize with them and view the world from their perspective.” – analysis of studies by psychologists Raymond Mar and Keith Oatley
“The emotional situations and moral dilemmas that are the stuff of literature are also vigorous exercise for the brain, propelling us inside the heads of fictional characters and even, studies suggest, increasing our real-life capacity for empathy.” — Annie Murphy Paul, Time Magazine, June 3, 2013 (author of Origins and Brilliant: The New Science of Smart)
“Those who enjoy reading from an early age tend never to give up the habit. There is a close correlation between the amount that a person reads as an adult, and the extent to which they were encouraged to read at home as a child, with heavier readers tending to come from families where at least one parent was also a keen reader.” – Book Marketing Ltd. (2000)
(Source: https://readingagency.org.uk/about/Reading_Buying_and_Borrowing_habits.pdf)
“From the very earliest ages, when it comes time to write or read stories, students are actively discouraged from engaging in stories of aggression. It’s unacceptable to hunt or fish or fight in original stories… If we want men to read, we need to give boys stories worth reading. As it is, I think we’ve lost a generation of boys to video games and television, where they find the creative outlet that they’re hardwired to enjoy.” – author John Gilstrap
“I only read factual books… I mean, novels are just a waste of… time. I can’t suspend belief in reality… I just end up thinking, ‘This isn’t true’.” – rock musician Noel Gallagher, GQ magazine interview, Oct 16, 2013
“Young adults are no more likely than older adults to be ‘digital-only’ book readers: 6% of 18- to 29-year-olds read books in digital formats only, compared with 7% of 30- to 49-year-olds and 5% of those 50 and older. Eighty percent of 18- to 29-year-olds have read a book in the last year, compared with 67% of those 65 and older. These young adults are more likely than their elders to read books in various digital formats, but are also more likely to read print books as well: 72% have read a print book in the last year, compared with 61% of seniors.” – Pew research 2016
http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/09/01/book-reading-2016/
From a 2000 British study:
https://readingagency.org.uk/about/Reading_Buying_and_Borrowing_habits.pdf
- 64% of adults read fiction, and 55% nonfiction; 69% of children read fiction, and 42% read nonfiction.
- 75% of girls read fiction compared to 66% of boys. When they become adults, this gap widens to 77% of women and 45% of men. It is from the age of 25-34 onwards that the gulf between male and female fiction readership widens, though it begins to take effect from as early as the 6-11 age band.
- Nearly twice as many children (37%) as adults (20%) use the Internet as sources of reference information.
- Public library loans – particularly of adult fiction– have declined the last 10 years.
- Around 70% of people read books at least once a week.
- On average, adults read books for 5½ hours a week, compared to around 4 hours a week for children.
- More 15-16-year-olds read magazines than read fiction books.
- 43% of children read comics/graphic novels and 49% poetry/nursery rhymes.
- Most children who seek reference information use electronic sources at least some of the time, and a sixth do so all the time.
- Despite competition from new media, and increasing pressure on people’s leisure time, relatively few people think they are reading books less now than five years ago.
- Males read fewer fiction books because they are reading fiction in other formats instead (e.g. comic/graphic), or because they are reading non-fiction. However, even taking this into account, males are less likely than females to read books.
- Women are significantly more likely than men to read for pleasure.
- Men are far less likely to discuss the books that they read, to recommend them and to act on recommendations. They are less inclined to trust the judgement of their peers when choosing books to read.
- 31% of child readers read because it gives them a chance to use their imagination.
Sources for items in Pam Withers’ presentation, “Drawing information-lovers into fiction and vice versa”
- 1984: 64% of 17-year-olds read weekly or more (Common Sense Media, http://time.com/94794/common-sense-media-reading-report-never-read/)
- 2014: 45% read once or twice per year (Common Sense Media)
- 33% of high school grads never read another book (the late Dan Poynter, parapub.com, no longer online)
- 1984: 8% of 13-year-olds, 9% of 17-year-olds “never read for pleasure” (Common Sense Media)
- 2014: 22% of 13-year-olds, 27% of 17-year-olds “never read for pleasure” (Common Sense Media)
- Time parents read to kids (ages 2-7): 1999, 45 mins., 2013, 30 min. (Common Sense Media)
- Kids who are read to daily: 75% of white children, 66% of black children, 50% of Hispanic children (Common Sense Media)
- What 4th to 8th graders read at proficiency level? 46% of whites, 18% of blacks, 20% of Hispanics (Common Sense Media)
- Missouri adult illiteracy is dropping: 1992, 13%; 2003, 7%; US average, 14.5% in 2003 (Newsletter – New Literacy Data Released – Missouri Economic …
- https://www.missourieconomy.org/newsletter/literacy.stm)
- 10,000 new fiction titles/yr.; 50,000 nonfiction (Source: Getting Your Book Published for Dummies)
- Fiction outsells all other categories of books (longer shelf life) (The Entertainment Marketing Revolution by Al Lieberman and Patricia Esgate, Chapter 6)
- 53% people read fiction, 43% nonfiction; 55% kids read fiction, 40% read nonfiction (Publishers Weekly)
- 17% teens read for info, 18% for entertainment (NEA survey by Peter D. Hart Research Associates, “Teen Book Club,” American Demographics, July 1, 2001)
- 18% girls, 30% boys read daily (Common Sense Media)
- 15% decline in boys ages 9-11who enjoy reading (www.literacytrust.org.uk)
- 10% decline in girls ages 9-11 who enjoy reading (Common Sense Media)
- Literacy critics mostly male, readers mostly female (Lakshmi Chaudhr, In These Times magazine; November 2001 Complete-Review.com)
- Reading population 53/43 fiction/nonfiction (Publishers Weekly)
- New York Times book reviews 40/60 fiction/nonfiction (Publishers Weekly)
- Majority of teachers (75%), librarians (80%), children’s writers (85%) and children’s book editors are female (various sources, including J. Scieszka, Globe & Mail, SCBWI and CWILL member lists)
- Males read 59% nonfiction, 38% fiction; females read 50% nonfiction, 48% fiction (Reading Canada Part 2, Jack Jedwab, executive director, Association for Canadian Studies Dec. 2002)
- Fiction purchased 55% by women, 45% by men (Publishers Weekly)
- Jack London is males’ top pick for fiction, only 9th pick for women (Novels, Novelists and Readers by Mary F. Rogers)
- Fiction/nonfiction favorites of all time: various lists including thegreatestbooks.org, listchallenges.com, Amazon and Wikipedia
- Three types of learners (https://www.familyeducation.com/school/multiple-intelligences/learning-styles-visual-auditory-kinesthetic/)
- Categorizing by genre gives fiction a 90% boost, nonfiction a 25% boost (Colorado State Library, University of Denver, 2002)
- Nonfiction borrowings: 75% to boys, 25% to girls (Patrick Hockey, librarian web post; forum.education.tas.gov.au)
Miscellaneous stats
- Favorite fiction category (19%) is mystery and suspense (Publishers Weekly)
- Men are 20% of fiction market (surveys in U.S., Canada & Britain, npr.org)
- Only 20 to 30% of boys like reflection as well as action in their reading (Michael Gurian, Boys and Girls Learn Differently)
- In the 1930s, males & females checked out books at the same rate (Novels, Novelists and Readers by Mary F. Rogers, p. 76)
- Unit sales of print books rose 3.3% in 2016 over the previous year, making it the third-straight year of print growth. The largest gains came in the adult nonfiction category. The lone bright spot in fiction was comics and graphic novels, which had a 12% increase on the year. Juvenile fiction was up 3.8, mostly due to Harry Potter. (https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/72450-print-book-sales-rose-again-in-2016.html)
Creative Nonfiction examples
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison
The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert
Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Locks by Rebecca Skloot
In Fact: Best of Creative Nonfiction by Lee Gutkind
Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
Ordinary Light by Tracy K. Smith
Parking for Mars by Mary Roach
Separate is Never Equal by Duncan Tonatum
bookriot.com, goodreads.com, wehavekids.com…
