Nonfiction



It has been said that reading is thinking with the mind of another. -- John Miedema, Slow Reading, p. 61

Henry Workman, the young man who wrote in response to his reading of Langston Hughes' poetry, obviously experienced "thinking with the mind of another" -- thinking with Langston Hughes.

"I wasn't alive when Langston Hughes wrote poetry, but he taught me about the way things were  and the way they ought to be. " -- Henry Workman

Through his poetry, Henry learned of Hughes' fight against the oppression African-Americans suffered in the early twentieth century. He learned of the Harlem Renaissance and Hughes' work to bring change through his art.

Readers learn to read the world through nonfiction and fiction. Truths are told through the stories of fiction and nonfiction stories can be told in a way that is as compelling as any work of fiction.

Marc Aronson, our visiting authority on nonfiction in this session, is a history buff. But science and the natural world is also rich in stories that young people can learn from and authors with whom they can think.

There is also the interesting concept of vertical and horizontal reading. Vertical reading, Birkets (1994) defines as reading intensively on a topic, while horizontal reading enables a reader to read extensively across many topics. There are great rewards to both. Horizontal reading keeps us constantly engaged with new and fresh ideas from "out in the world" (Midema, 2009) while reading deeply on one subject creates a well of knowledge and understanding within us so that each dip in a new book inspires a new wave of integration and reflection that washes over us. The newness and freshness is generated from our own minds.

[Don't miss in this session the chance to learn about micro-histories or entire books devoted to single topics like rats, pencils, cadavers, cod, or screwdrivers.]

Most importantly, we learn from Midema's work on slow reading that as vital as the new literacies and how we read and learn on the Web are (Leu, 2009), that we still need to create the conditions for young readers to engage in voluntarily slowed-down, thoughtful reading of longer texts. Much like a parallel to the "slow food" movement, slow reading encourages a deeper connection to text and the dedication of time for connections to be made.

Slow reading gives the reader more of a chance to "think with the mind of another."

Read more about the slow reading movement . ..

Suggested Resources for Nonfiction Books . ..