That's nonfiction? Really?

Yesterday in my TE 348 class, we discussed nonfiction. Of course, I immediately started to dread this discussion. Ever since I was a kid, I hated nonfiction. Every nonfiction book I read, or was forced to read, was too boring. I don't want all of the facts. I want creativity and imagination. I wanted to read what the dog said to the cat, or what happened when the school bus shrank. I didn't care how a certain conversation played out in a war, I was a kid! So, as I grew older I never gave nonfiction a chance. I always thought of it as the boring and bland books that were simply facts. Yet, after class yesterday, I realized that I actually didn't mind nonfiction!

The Magic School Bus is classified as nonfiction! I was shocked. I guess I should have assumed, it is very educational. But the whole shrinking school bus to go into a human body through me off I guess. It seemed that it may have some weird classification since it is a mixture. Yet, the book says it was nonfiction, it just had some fiction ideas. Which, after the discussion it all makes sense.

I guess the thing for me, was how nonfiction was presented to me in my first interaction. My first presentation of nonfiction was that it was strictly facts. It couldn't be a creative or elaborate story, it was simply hard facts. Boring, right? I was immediately turned off and everytime I heard the word nonfiction I cringed. Also, growing up it seems that when I was presented with nonfiction in school, it was the boring kind. The type that was page after page of straight facts that wasa chore to read. The only time I was presented with something interesting was at home, because I was able to choose what to read. If my teachers would have made nonfiction seem more interesting, maybe I would have a want to read it now. But now, I am stuck in this idea of nonfiction being boring facts.

Ultimately, this got me thinking of how to present nonfiction when I am a teacher. I am without a doubt going to do everything in my power to make it interesting and fun. I don't want my students to be biased just because I am. I also don't want them to be biased because I don't present the material in a good way. I want to open their eyes at a younger age of all of the possibilities of nonfiction. It doesn't have to be all facts. It can be a creative story that has facts embedded them. I want them to see that nonfiction can be creative. It can consist of fake characters or events that are not possible. As long as the sole information is truthful. I don't want them to go through school thinking that nonfiction is boring. I don't want them to turn out like me, and only read nonfiction when it is required for class. Nonfiction books offer so many opportunities for children, and I need my students to be in reach of those opportunities. Ultimately, I hope to show my future students that nonfiction can be fun to read, and shouldn't be a genre that they avoid!