Sixth graders at H.C. Crittenden Middle School are immersed in the Global Citizens project in social studies: They are thoroughly researching a country and creating a digital book full of their knowledge.
The H.C.C. project also involves students at Byram Hills High School and Wampus Elementary School as well. The sixth graders are getting editing and fact-checking help from 10th graders in the Global Scholars Program and they will present their books to third graders at Wampus who are learning about communities other than their own.
The middle school students have been working on the project since the fall. Their research includes information on their country’s culture, economy, geography, government and history.
In February, the sixth graders learned about the nonfiction writing process during a visit from nonfiction author Steve Tomecek, a science educator who has written dozens of science books. In his nonfiction writer’s workshop, he talked about writing engaging nonfiction and used examples from his work during a lively presentation in the library.
Mr. Tomecek discussed the difference between fiction and nonfiction and the various types of nonfiction books. He also noted that nonfiction can be seen as boring.
“But the thing is, nonfiction doesn’t have to be boring,” Mr. Tomecek said, adding that a well-written book should invite the readers in. “If there’s no hook, there’s no book.”
He discussed organizing research by putting information into categories: what I know, what the reader wants to know and what I’ve learned. “These are the hooks,” he said.
Mr. Tomecek talked about the target audience and suggested the sixth graders talk to younger students, perhaps siblings, to see what they are interested in knowing about the country they are studying.
“It’s very important that you do this exercise because thinking of this in advance, rather than just throwing a bunch of random facts in, is very, very important,” he said.
Mr. Tomecek also urged students to check the source of their research, noting there can be errors on the internet and in books. He suggested checking the date of a book or website posting, noting that information can quickly become outdated.
Graphics - photos, illustrations, maps and charts - are also important in creating an engaging nonfiction book, he said.
Students found the visit helpful, especially the suggestion to check their sources for accuracy.
Sixth grader Arnav Franklin said he was inspired to write a more entertaining book with fewer words and more pictures to engage the Wampus students. “I want to make them entertained while they learn something at the same time,” he said.
His classmate Grayson Piccini said she found Mr. Tomecek’s presentation “really entertaining and fun and helpful.”
“He taught us a lot of good strategies and told us things we need to know for writing the book, like how you always need to check your sources, check the dates of the sources and think about what those people would want to learn about, what that age is interested in learning about,” she said.
Sheila St. Onge, who teaches social studies, said the visit will help the students bring their facts to life in an engaging way.
“Seeing how they can pull their final product together in a creative way, with many examples of how that can be done, was good for students to see,” she said. “It’s nice for them to be inspired and learn that this is something that historians do, and scientists do, and they saw that reading and writing doesn’t only live in language arts class. These skills can be applied to other subject areas as well.”
