ABSTRACT
Fortunately, middle-grade students have developed new strengths. They have become better critical readers, which can translate into making them better at rereading their own writing. The craft lessons in this chapter are geared toward a variety of subgenres, including persuasive, informational, biography, and expository writing. Students expect teachers to provide questions that they in turn must answer. But nonfiction turns the tables: students must take a more active role and generate their own questions that will drive their research. When it comes to juicing up lethargic prose, skilled nonfiction writers have lots of tricks up their sleeves. As students try to create their own information texts, they need to spend time apprenticing themselves to the finest nonfiction writers around. Many teachers would finger organization as the Achilles heel of their writers. The structure of school, where too many subjects are viewed as isolated curriculum, is probably what caused many of students to become “compartmentalized thinkers”.
