Sunday, May 13, 2012

Nonfiction Monday Round Up

I'm excited to be hosting the Nonfiction Monday RoundUp today!

Nonfiction Monday was started by Ana Suen. Here is the information from her site about what to do today!

Bloggers across the kidlitosphere celebrate Nonfiction Monday by writing about nonfiction books for kids on Monday.

Join Nonfiction Monday!
We invite you to join us!
o Write about a nonfiction book for kids next Monday on your blog.
o Copy the Nonfiction Monday button to use in your blog post.
o Link your post to the weekly Nonfiction Monday Round-up! (Please use the permalink to your post, not the address of your blog. Thanks!)

Register for Nonfiction Monday by filling in the Mr. Linky below. (This is my first time using Mr. Linky, so we will hope that it works the way it should.)

My nonfiction post this week has a couple of older titles, because I got them from two of our elementary schools that are being shut down. Central College and Longfellow were math and science magnet schools and always had great test scores and turned out fabulous students, but the buildings are old and not cost efficient to run. At least I was able to repurpose some of their books.


Botzakis, Stergios. Pretty in Print: Questioning Magazines. (Capstone, 2007)
I love magazines. I really do. But I realize that magazine exist to sell us stuff. That article in Family Circle about cleaning your kitchen in five minutes is always surrounded by ads for products. Fashion magazines are entirely devoted to making women think that the perfectly good clothes in their closet are out of style. I still like them. Do students understand how much is being sold to them? I'm not sure. This is a nice, short book that covers a lot of different ways this type of media tries to sway readers. This would be a good book to use in a class on media literacy.


Wan, Guofang. TV Takeover: Questioning Television. (Capstone, 2007)
I don't love television. That has more to do with the hypnotic qualities of that electronic glow,  but when my children were small, they were only allowed to watch PBS (and no more than half an hour of TOTAL screen time). As a result, I was never besieged with pleas for sugary breakfast cereal or the latest toy. When they were finally allowed to watch commercial tv, they were rather annoyed by the commercials, and we discussed what was being sold. Did the fruit chews really make people's heads explode? Again, for media literacy, this book is quite good, and interesting enough for students used to the fast pace of television to read! I especially like the discussions of product placement, because I don't know that students know about this.

10 comments:

  1. Media literacy is a great topic to explore. Thank you for hosting this week!

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  2. Hi Miss Yingling,
    Thank you so much for hosting this week. The linky looks cute. The books that you have shared here look really interesting. While I admit they may not be the first ones I will pick up when I visit the libraries or as I look over the shelves, but you have made me interested in them. Thanks for sharing them with us this week.

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  3. Now it's not just product placement on TV and in movies, but in video games as well. A few years ago, someone created a web-based game designed to teach kids about targeted ads. I can't find it anymore, but the FTC does offer this site,shich is similar: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/youarehere/

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  4. So, instead of watching tv kids should get involved in citizen science!!! (I am very excited about my Nonfiction Monday book) Looks like Mr. Linky is working fine - I'm going to have to try it myself one of these days...

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  5. I will be linking up soon. Thanks for hosting. A big thanks for having the linky up. It makes it so much easier! Wow! You have some great, thought-provoking suggestions. I'd like to get these to share with my teen daughter.

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  6. Thanks for hosting today. The books you feature sound interesting and important for students, especially for middle schoolers who love media.

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  7. Thanks for hosting this week!

    I have been a little annoyed at kids' magazines lately, I see ads in the ones that didn't have then when I was a kid. A media literacy book is a good idea.

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  8. media literacy is becoming ever more important. When I talk in high school classes I am astonished at how little useful media kids use. they rely on Facebook, internet "news" items and some really biased sources. They don't seem concerned that they are being manipulated.

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  9. Thanks for hosting.
    selection is "Emi and the Rhino Scientist" written by Mary Kay Carson with photographs by Tom Uhlman.

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  10. Wendie's Wanderings is advertising a link to Melissa Stewart's discussion of Creative Nonfiction today.

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