ABSTRACT
The students sat at their desks, facing the teacher at the front, who had an article about the Civil Rights Movement on the Elmo. Body language was bored: slumped backs, hands holding up heads, eyelids drooping. Even though students had copies of the article themselves, only a few were actually holding them in their hands. After reading through it, the teacher announced it was time to get back into groups to continue discussing the class book, The Watsons Go to Birmingham . Suddenly, it was like a new group of students sat in front of me: students were leaning in to share ideas and books were grasped in hands. When they left, before I could even comment, the teacher said, “I know; they love their fiction. I wish I could get them to like the nonfiction we are pairing with the text as much as they like the book.”
