mrs. balsai's nonfiction unit
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Mrs. Balsai's nonfiction unit.TRANSCRIPT
English 9 Nonfiction unit-‐ Creating a nonfiction literary text Scope and sequence ESSENTIAL QUESTION: HOW CAN FICTIONAL ELEMENTS BE EMBEDDED INTO A TEXT OF NON-‐FICTION? In the next month or so, we will be immersed in our study of nonfiction. You will learn the differences and similarities between fiction and nonfiction, read a variety of nonfiction texts and then design your own “nonfiction literary text” based on your research and understanding of a specific topic in a science-‐related category. As you conduct your research of a disease or syndrome, a genetic engineering controversy or an environmental issue, you should be thinking of what kind of “story” you can tell to use your information to support character development, sequence of time, conflict, theme, figurative language and how you can incorporate other fictional elements into non-‐fiction text. For example, think of what the author of the Jesse Owens book (Carole Weatherford) had to know about the man, his life, his Olympic experience, history of 1936 Germany, the reaction of the German people to Owens, the newspaper headlines, the details about each medal event, and the trip home in order to write the book she did. We will break the project into different sections, each with a separate point total and a due date. Below are the sections and a description of what I expect for each section. As we begin each stage, I will give you the due date ahead of time and a rubric that will provide you with the specific items I will be grading on each stage. PART 1. INDEX CARD (Brainstorming stage) 10 points Due Date_________________ Your work will begin with narrowing your chosen area to a more specific subject. For example, if you choose the area of disease, you will need to then find a specific disease to research such as sickle cell anemia or fibromyalgia. You will then ask three specific questions that you want to answer about your chosen topic. Make sure your questions are not worded so that you only need a sentence or two to answer them. For example, do not ask, “How many people get this disease in a given year?” Once you have received approval for your topic and questions, your research will commence with finding the answers to the three questions. PART 2. RESEARCH TEMPLATE (Gathering information stage) 30 points Due Date___________________ You will learn how to locate scientific databases that will help you with your topic. You must evaluate each source using the CARRDSS acronym. You will also use the research packet template to record information about the sources used. The templates must be filled in completely with information that answers your questions. You will also generate MORE questions from the reading you do on your topic and record that additional information on the templates as well. There will be a place for ALL the information you find so always record anything you find relating to your topic because there will be a place to use it in your project. Mrs. Burns, the
librarian, will be working with our class to show us how “googling” is not the best way to approach this project. PART 3. STORYBOARD/OUTLINE OF BOOK (Drafting stage) 30 points Due Date__________________ In the book, Jesse Owens, The Fastest Man Alive, we saw how a non-‐fiction text can include elements of fiction such as setting, character, plot, foreshadowing, irony, symbolism, point of view, tone, mood and theme. We also found that a non-‐fiction text can include poetic elements such as metaphor, simile, hyperbole, onomatopoeia, personification and synecdoche. The author of the Owens book used researched information about Jesse’s Olympic experiences and told the story in a chronological sequence using many of the literary devices mentioned above. Your job will be to create a story in such a way with your topic. For example, if you are working with the disease known as malaria, you might create a story about a character who has or gets the disease. You will have to figure out where to set your story, what conflict (or antagonist) might confront a character with the disease, what events might complicate his life and change the direction of the story. Similar to the Owens book, you will need to incorporate the research about your topic in the story line of your non-‐fiction text. You will need to complete a storyboard or outline of your story so that you have a working draft to guide your writing. Remember you must think about only including one main incident in your story (think short story form) so that your story is manageable and doesn’t need to become a multi-‐volume series to complete the story. PART 4. NON-‐FICTION TEXT STRUCTURES (Incorporating non-‐fiction reading tools stage) 40 pts. Due Date___________________________ Non-‐fiction texts include helpful tools such as a title page, table of contents, an index, photos, diagrams, illustrations, pronunciation keys, captions, section headings, a glossary, maps, charts, guide words, a variety of print types and font sizes, labels, direct quotes from authorities, and other graphic aids. Your story must incorporate at least FOUR different non-‐fiction reading tools. For example, in the Jesse Owens’ book, we saw the author use a title page to begin the book, section headings to show the story’s chronological sequence, illustrations to support the tone of the text and direct quotes from the newspapers of the day that reported on Owens’ Olympic accomplishments. You will need to think about how to incorporate these non-‐fiction techniques into the story so that they are believable and supportive to your storyline. You will submit your four ideas on the storyboard as indicated and submit them when you submit the storyboard. PART 5. CREATING THE BOOK. (Publishing stage) 100 points. Due Date________________ If you have done your job as a researcher and have a solid understanding of your topic, your story should be fairly easy to tell. You will now need to put it all together. You will be using iPhoto and the book template found there. You will be using the iPhoto template for a hard or softcover book. It allows you 20 pages (10 double page
spreads) to tell your story. As you find photos, illustrations, maps, charts, etc., you will need to download them into the iPhoto library so they will be ready to move into the book when you need them. Make sure to write text on every DPS and use those non-‐fiction reading tools to supplement your text, and create voice, tone and mood as you tell the story. You may also draw images freehand and after scanning your drawings into iPhoto, use them as well to help tell the story. Don’t forget to save your work on the book template as you work to avoid having to redo steps. PART 6. AUTHOR’S PAGE (Adding supplemental text) 20 points Due Date________________ As you write your non-‐fiction text, you will invariably have research or information that you may not use in your story because it just doesn’t fit or make sense to use for the audience of the book. For example, remember when Ms. Weatherford was talking about the concentration camps outside Berlin in 1936. She talked about “hearing the gunfire” far away but chose not to include the idea that the gunfire was the sound of Jews being executed by the Nazis. She did not include this information because she was writing a children’s book and her point of view was sensitive to those young readers. The final page of the Owens book included information about Jesse’s childhood, education, family and death that the author found during her research but did not find its way into the story because the story focused on his Olympic experience. The author’s page is a place for you to showcase the other information you found that you did not use in the story. You will need to include this extra information as the last page of your text. It should be written in paragraph form using complete sentences. PART 7. WORKS CITED PAGE (Documenting stage) 30 points Due Date_________________ The final part will be the page you include to give credit to the sources you used in your book. I will provide you with an MLA style guide on how to set up this required page as we get closer to the end of the project. There are also documents in my Class Notes files that you can use to help guide you through this requirement. You may use EasyBib to complete this page, but most importantly, you must have the necessary information from each source in the citations you write. Keeping accurate records of where and when you access your information will help you be more successful in every step of the project.