by Derek Spencer
Outliers
You might have heard it
said that reaching "expert status" in a given profession or activity
requires 10,000 hours of dedicated practice — this is the book that
helped propel that idea into the cultural conversation. In Outliers,
Gladwell examines several people who have achieved extraordinary success and
attempts to determine the reasons why.
Outcasts United
If you want to teach students
about the challenges people face when trying to live in a new culture, this is a
great book. Outcasts United is about
a youth soccer team made up of refugees who immigrated to the United States to
escape war and oppression. The book does an excellent job of exploring the subject
of assimilation and shows ways in which teenagers from various cultures deal
with “culture shock.”
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Supplementary information
for the Common Core stipulates that informational texts aligned with the standards
are written so that the majority of readers can understand them — in
other words, accessible to laypeople. This is one of those texts.
Not only does The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
present scientific information in language that your students can understand
without a Ph.D., it also raises pertinent ethical questions that can lead to
excellent classroom discussions. The best literature — whether
fiction or nonfiction — makes you think about some essential human
question. This book fits the bill.
Freakonomics
Your students might think
that “dull” is an intrinsic quality of a text about economics, but Freakonomics connects economic
principles to real-world situations in an engaging way. The book does explore
topics like abortion and drug-dealing (both from an economic standpoint, of
course), so it might not be suitable for every classroom.
Fast Food Nation
The subject of heavily
processed food has been in the news often recently, as more of us are examining
our daily habits and trying to figure out how we can live healthier lives. Fast Food Nation reveals some unsavory
practices going on behind the curtain at fast food restaurants, and it has been
compared to Upton Sinclair’s seminal work, The
Jungle. Certainly it treads some of the same ground — food quality, worker
treatment, ethics — but this is no novel. It's a fascinating work in its own right, a snapshot
of the modern fast food industry.
The Omnivore's Dilemma
Michael Pollan attempts to answer the question at the heart of the titular dilemma: We have a staggering number of options when it comes to foods, so which foods should we eat? Wander through your local supermarket and you’ll find thousands of items — all manner of flavors and textures, from fruits and vegetables to cookies and corn chips. Out of this bewildering myriad, how do you choose foods that will nourish you and keep you healthy and happy?
It’s a tough question, and
Pollan gives you plenty of information to help you figure it out. The book is
written in straightforward language, but the Young Readers’ edition may be more
digestible for younger students and less-proficient readers.
Moneyball
I read this one in March,
and it’s a breezy read. If you want to teach this text, you should know up
front that there is some profanity in the book that may offend students and/or
their parents. That said, it’s a great text with which to engage students who
are excited about sports (specifically baseball). And even if your students aren’t
interested in sports, that’s okay. Baseball is the Trojan Horse the book uses
to get inside your head; the book’s message has more to do with questioning
assumptions and finding innovative ways to solve problems.
Moneyball is a concrete example of how critical thinking skills translate
to real-world success. If that inspires students to critically evaluate the
world around them on a daily basis, you win.
The Last Lecture
This nonfiction text is
more inspirational than informational — it’s a collection of anecdotes and
advice from a professor who, upon learning he had terminal cancer, wanted to
impart to his family as much information as possible about his philosophy of life:
how he treated others, whether personally or professionally; how he worked (and
played); how he persevered.
If you use this text in
your classroom, you should also use the information found at http://www.thelastlecture.com/. The
Common Core asks students to be adept at synthesizing information in multiple
mediums, and the book can be used in conjunction with the videos on the website
as one step in achieving that goal.
The Freedom Writers Diary
A perfect example of how a
teacher who teaches with empathy and understanding can make huge changes in the
lives of her students. Using texts like Anne
Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, Erin Gruwell showed her students how
intolerance and racism have deleterious effects on individuals and whole
societies. Inspired, her students (who had been labeled “unteachable”) began to
think about the intolerance they had experienced in their own lives, and they
began to keep diaries, calling themselves “The Freedom Writers.”
Sex and drugs are discussed
in the book, so it may not be suitable for every classroom.
Hiroshima
This title chronicles the
lives of six survivors of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima at the end of
World War II. Hiroshima can be used
to show students a different perspective on a historical event, one that they
can’t find in a traditional history textbook.
When reading any nonfiction text, students need to be aware that what they’re reading could be biased in some way — just because they’re reading nonfiction doesn’t mean they’re reading fact. Our book Reading & Analyzing Nonfiction: Slant, Spin & Bias makes a great companion to any of these nonfiction texts. The book helps you teach students to distinguish fact from opinion and interpretation, an essential skill that will protect them from being swayed by poor arguments in college, in their careers, and for the rest of their lives.
Have a fantastic afternoon, and thanks for reading!
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