Topic: Nonfiction and Fiction.

Ten-second review: How use both nonfiction and fiction in working with a topic? Use information texts to build up students’ background knowledge on a topic and then use fiction to add a personal dimension to their knowledge of the topic.

Source: J Soalt. Reading Teacher (April 2005), 680-683. A publication of the International Reading Association (IRA).

Comment: This idea might work better with picture books in the primary grades or Young Adult books in the upper elementary grades. On an adult level, I might read a biography of Napoleon and then read Tolstoy’s War and Peace. But that’s a stretch. But another, more realistic example might be to read a history of the Civil War and then to read The Red Badge of Courage. RayS.