Article review # 2

write each paragraph and what is needed for each paragraph from the article(please read it all in details since the professor want us to concentrate on the deep details and mention it in our critique as it is mentioned in the rubric, so be specific to use every single part needed from the article please). and the other file is the article itself.

the kinds of nonfiction passages that appear on such tests.
Yet, sadly, too often nonfiction books are undervalued, underused,
and oversimplified.
Undervalued
As an adolescent I enjoyed fiction.
I was eager to read stories about
people I thought were just like me
and to revel in the choices they
made and the experiences they felt.
Yet, as an adult I find myself attracted
to nonfiction. Why? I want
to know more. I am older now, and
I read books eager to learn about
the lives of others—real people in
real circumstances who have made
real choices.
I want to know things: What
was Hitler really like? And what
motivated him? Who really discovered
penicillin? Or gunpowder?
Or dreamed of the mechanics of
flying? Or nuclear weapons? Or
America? Who made the computer
commonplace? And what really
made Lincoln great? Just how
many people died in the Civil War?
And the Vietnam War? What were
the real reasons we lost Vietnam?
How did Martin Luther King Jr.
become so much larger than life?
And what made him tick? Who
was Maria Montessori, and what
prompted her to speak out about
women’s rights and biological urges
and fears when others were consigning
women to the kitchen and
the nursery? And what about astronaut
Sally Ride? And Supreme
Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor?
And Shirley Chisholm, the
first African American ever to run
for president of the United States in
a time when few women, let alone
black women, ran for any office?
How valuable it would be for
young men and women to read
nonfiction works and to experience
the lives of others who have made
a difference in the public arena.
And what could be better than a
nonfiction work for young people
to learn of the public lives of unconventional
and heroic figures—
both male and female?
Still, as valued as nonfiction
books are, the great books, as I
learned from my secondary teachers,
were the classics—written by
Hemingway, Steinbeck, Twain—
and not nonfiction works, and certainly
not books that looked like
they belonged on elementary school
shelves. Somehow, a book with pictures
was not valuable enough to
share in class.
Underused
Young people should be encouraged
to appreciate the wealth of
wonderful nonfiction books that
grace library and bookstore shelves
and, equally importantly, they
should be instructed on how to use
such material. They should know
what a glossary is. An index. A
timeline. A primary source. A secondary
source. A photograph. An
artist’s rendering. How two books
on the same subject differ in content,
tone, style. Why would someone
write a book about a famous
person? How does that happen?
Who chooses the topic? The author?
The editor? The publisher?
And what is an editor? How does
an editor differ from an author?
What does a publisher do?
If the idea of education is to develop
young people into critical
thinkers, why not start at the
source? Instead of assigning research
papers, would it not be better if students
simply went to the library,
found a book on Mark Twain—say,
Geoffrey C. Ward and Dayton Duncan’s
Mark Twain: An Illustrated Biography
(New York: Knopf, 2001),
based on Ken Burns’s acclaimed
PBS documentary—and then shared
the book with the class? Wouldn’t
that save hours of copying, rewriting,
rewording, word processing,
and redefining—for the simple purpose
of a teacher’s saying, “Well, at
least now they have an idea of how
to do a research report. After all,
they do need this for college”?
If we want students to use the
information they find in their research,
we must encourage students
to share the usefulness of
their findings.
Oversimplified
Good books are good books no
matter what the genre. And good
nonfiction books—books that define
their subject matter in clear,
descriptive, and straightforward
prose—are as valuable as any other
work of art. Young people should
know this.
They should know that good
nonfiction books—even ones that
lack photos, fancy graphics, or easyto-
access tables and charts—are
valuable and contribute significantly
to the body of knowledge
that defines the human endeavor.
Often, these books are the first that
people turn to when they need good
information quickly and easily.
As a teacher educator, I tell my
prospective elementary and secondary
teachers that an elementary
school library—complete with
well-stocked and well-written nonfiction
titles—is often the best
place to start to find information.
Doing a report on the presidents?
Or sea life? Or maybe planning a
visit to a faraway place or somewhere
nearer to home? Books
geared toward young readers are
jam-packed with good information
and, more importantly, they
highlight the important stuff first,
92 November 2003
Nonfiction Books in the Classroom: Undervalued, Underused, and OversimplifiedColumnHead/Subtitle

94 November 2003
Nonfiction Books in the Classroom: Undervalued, Underused, and Oversimplified
Yet, don’t we love to browse?
Don’t we love to skim the pages of
our favorite coffee-table book, glancing
at familiar pictures, skimming
over tedious passages, and honing in
on items that capture our interest? I
know I do. And I encourage my education
students to do the same.
So, teachers—instead of relegating
nonfiction books to term papers,
let us bring them to the forefront
of the class and share these
books with glee and gusto. For,
when used well, they make good
teaching simple and easy.
Jeffrey Kaplan, associate professor of educational studies at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, is a former editor of
the book reviews and the current editor of the “Research Connections” column of The ALAN Review.
English Education Programs Meet NCATE
and NCTE Teacher Preparation Guidelines
The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) has adopted the NCTE guidelines,
now called program standards, for undergraduate programs for teacher education in English Language Arts
for middle/junior and senior high schools. These program standards were derived from NCTE’s Guidelines for
the Preparation of Teachers of English Language Arts. Institutions seeking NCATE accreditation are required to
submit program review documents showing how their programs meet the NCTE program standards. The
Council’s program review process is carried out by over 100 reviewers. All are members of NCTE and CEE
(Conference on English Education) who have attended program review training workshops. The NCTE review
program is directed by Charles Duke, Appalachian State University, with Sandra E. Gibbs at NCTE headquarters.
Since our last listing, the forty-six institutions below have submitted program review documents
that show their English education programs to be nationally recognized by the NCTE/NCATE
Program Standards.
Alaska: University of Alaska-Fairbanks; Arkansas: Arkansas State University-State University, John Brown
University-Siloam Springs, Lyon College-Batesville, Southern Arkansas University-Magnolia, University of
Arkansas-Little Rock (Combined 6–12/Undergraduate), University of Central Arkansas-Conway; Colorado:
University of Colorado-Boulder, University of Northern Colorado-Greeley; Delaware: University of Delaware-
Newark (Combined 6–12/Undergraduate); Illinois: Augustana College-Rock Island; Louisiana: Southeastern
Louisiana University-Hammond, Southern University-New Orleans (Combined 6–12/Undergraduate), Xavier
University-New Orleans; Maryland: University of Maryland/Eastern Shore-Princess Anne; Massachusetts: University
of Massachusetts-Lowell, Westfield State College; Mississippi: University of Southern Mississippi-
Hattiesburg; Missouri: Harris-Stowe State College-St. Louis, University of Missouri-Columbia (Middle School
5–9/Undergraduate, Senior High 9–12/Undergraduate); Nevada: University of Nevada-Las Vegas; New Hampshire:
Plymouth State College; New York: Herbert H. Lehman College-Bronx (Middle School-Junior
High/Graduate), The Sage Colleges-Troy, State University of New York-Fredonia, State University of New York-
New Paltz (Combined 6–12/Undergraduate, Combined 6–12/Graduate), Syracuse University (Combined
7–12/Graduate), University of Rochester; North Carolina: Western Carolina University-Cullowhee (Senior
High/Undergraduate); Ohio: Otterbein College-Westerville (Senior High/Undergraduate), University of Dayton
(Combined 7–12/Undergraduate, Combined 7–12/Graduate), University of Toledo (Combined 7–12/
Undergraduate, Combined 7–12/Graduate); Pennsylvania: Indiana University of Pennsylvania (Combined
6–12/Undergraduate), Lock Haven University; South Carolina: Newberry College, University of South Carolina-
Columbia (Combined 7–12/Graduate-Basic MAT, Combined 7–12/Graduate-MAT), Winthrop University-Rock
Hill (Combined 7–12/Undergraduate, Senior High/Graduate); Tennessee: Vanderbilt University/Peabody
College-Nashville (Combined 6–12/Undergraduate, Combined 6–12/Graduate); Texas: University of North
Texas-Denton (Combined 6–12/Undergraduate, Combined 6–12/Postbaccalaureate); Utah: Southern Utah
University-Cedar City; Virginia: George Mason University-Fairfax, Old Dominion University-Norfolk, St. Paul’s
College-Lawrenceville; West Virginia: Bethany College (Middle School-Junior High/Undergraduate, Senior
High/Undergraduate), Marshall University-Huntington (Middle School-Junior High/Undergraduate, Combined
6–12/Undergraduate), West Virginia Wesleyan College-Buckhannon.
For more information on NCTE’s participation in the program review process, write to Sandra E. Gibbs,
Associate Executive Director, NCTE, 1111 West Kenyon Road, Urbana, Illinois 61801.

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