Once upon a Fact : Helping Children Write Nonfiction

This timely book explores the debate about how best to engage children in the writing of nonfiction and suggests many instructional strategies for K–6 classrooms. Using transcripts and descriptions of children’s actual writing practices, the authors show that children willingly embrace nonfiction writing when the genre is given an important place in the classroom. Drawn from the authors’ classroom-based research study with third graders, this groundbreaking volume:

• Explores in detail the intertextual patterns that children adopt when writing nonfiction reports.
• Documents the ways in which peer and teacher influence fuel and direct children’s writing.
• Identifies four types of nonfiction writers―strategic, experience-only, memory-only, and textbound–―and presents case studies with excerpts from interviews and nonfiction reports.
• Offers a set of instructional guidelines for supporting and extending expository writing, including sample lessons and curricular activities.

Carol Brennan Jenkins teaches courses in literacy and coordinates the elementary education program at Boston University. Alice Altfillisch Earle has taught third grade for over 20 years and is currently pursuing certification as a principal.