Tag: non fiction

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How They Croaked– A Totally Fascinating Read

It’s often tricky to find books that will capture the interest of reluctant readers. It’s a fine balance between providing a challenge, but not too much of a challenge: you want to find a book that isn’t so far below grade level that they get bored quickly, and you definitely don’t want to find a book that is so far off from their current reading level that they get frustrated and end up giving up all together. 

Thankfully, there are authors that just understand this, who write books that are engaging, just challenging enough, and will capture and hold the attention of their readers. One of those authors is Georgia Bragg— she has a knack for writing books that are so much fun! One book of hers in particular, is at the top of my “Books for Reluctant Readers” list: How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous. 

In this book, Bragg details the awful demises of nineteen historically famous people like Cleopatra, George Washington, Marie Curie, and Edgar Allen Poe, among others. Each chapter focuses on one individual, and recounts a little about their life and what they are famous for, then describes their ultimate fate. Sometimes a little gruesome, always historically accurate, and always fascinating, each chapter is educational and engaging. Chapters are short— usually about 2-5 pages, and the book overall is a very quick read (I sat down and read it in its entirety in just a couple of hours). It’s a great option for kids between ages 9-13, but would honestly be a great read for ages 14+ as well. 

While I never had the chance to teach this book to my students, I did recommend it several times. If I had had the chance, I would have taught it to my 8th grade classes. Not only does it provide readers with interesting facts, it lends itself to excellent teaching opportunities. Below are a few ideas for teaching it with a whole class:

  • Split your class up into partnerships and assign a chapter to each group. Have them read their assigned chapter then create a slideshow or other sort of presentation to teach the rest of the class about their famous person and their demise. 
  • Read the entire book as a whole class, focusing on a chapter or two every day.
    • With each chapter, display pictures of the person it’s about. 
    • Some of the chapters discuss different medical technologies, practices, methods, etc. that are different than we have today. Take time to educate students about these different medical practices.
    • After you have finished reading the whole book, assign students to pick a famous person who is NOT in the book and create their own chapter about their person, including illustrations or pictures.
    • Make a timeline showing the birth and death dates of all nineteen people from the book.
  • For sake of time, choose your top ten favorite chapters and only teach those ones to the whole class. Have students choose four more chapters to read independently. 
  • As you read the book, have students fill out the “All You Need to Know” worksheet provided below.

Not only is this book a great non-fiction read, it also provides super cross-curricular instruction, as it contains both historical and scientific elements, and allows for a plethora of learning opportunities. 

Give it a go with your classes; I bet they’ll love it. And if you don’t have junior high aged classes or kids, read it yourself and enjoy!

If you enjoyed Croaked, you might also like How They Choked also by Georgia Bragg. In it, Bragg details how famous people royally messed up. It’s equally as engaging and educational as Croaked.

** Free printable is for classroom or personal use only. It is not intended for resale in any way. **

How They Croaked WSDownload
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Another Non-Fiction Book That is Fun to Teach

A while back, I wrote a post about non-fiction books providing really cool teaching opportunities in the classroom, and highlighted one book that I had great success with while teaching junior high school. You can find that post here. Today, I thought I’d highlight another book I had great success teaching with my seventh grade classes: Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World by Jennifer Armstrong.

Shipwreck tells the story of Ernest Shackleton and his crew of 27 men and their 19 month ordeal of being stuck in Antarctica. The story begins in 1914 as the crew sets sail from England, headed to Antarctica, hoping to be the first crew to cross the entire continent from one side to the other. Things go terribly wrong five months into their trip when their ship, The Endurance gets trapped in ice, and eventually is crushed and then sinks. The crew must face the harshest conditions, low food rations, and high emotions as they try to get to help. Miraculously, all 28 men survive the ordeal and make it home. It truly is an inspiring story of grit and determination.

To introduce this book, I would use an anticipatory guide where I told students they were going on a trip, and they could only take 5 personal items with them in their bag. They wouldn’t have access to power, there wouldn’t be cell phone service or Wi-Fi, and other technology would be limited. Food and sleeping gear would be provided, but everything else was up to them. They had to choose their items, then defend their choices. 

Following that activity, I would have them take a true/false “quiz” with facts about Antarctica. Students were always fascinated by the cool facts they learned about this giant ice continent. 

With that, we were ready to start reading! We would go one chapter at a time, and go over new vocabulary words as we read (there are LOTS of new words in the book). We would read the book during January, which is one of the coldest months where I live. I would always take my classes outside for a while (not long enough to harm them), so they could feel how cold it was, and remind them that what the crew felt was even colder. 

We did activities that involved map reading, learning about different kinds of ice, and comparing our diets and calorie intake to that of the crew, We tracked the crew’s expedition and charted it on a map, using longitude and latitude. We learned about the type of wildlife that lives down there. We compared facts about Antarctica with the state where we live– things like land size, wildlife, population, weather, etc. We journaled as if we were part of the crew, and learned about the kind of sailing technology they had. We measured out the size of their lifeboats and marked it with tape on the floor, then had several students fit inside the outline so that they could see how cramped it would have been. We would end the unit by watching a documentary about the expedition, the crew, and what happened to them after they made it back home.

I did my best to make the experience as authentic as possible so that students could really “feel” what it would have been like to be part of the crew of the Endurance. Students enjoyed the unit and had several hands-on opportunities as we read, which kept them engaged and focused on what we were reading. Because of the activities we did, we covered several other content areas like math, science, writing, and history. 

As an adult reading the book, I also found it fascinating and never tired of this unit. I looked forward to teaching it each year. It was definitely filed under my “Non-Fiction Books Don’t Have to be Boring” file!

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Non Fiction Doesn’t Have to Mean Boring

Finding engaging, interesting non fiction books for teenagers can be a bit tricky sometimes. They don’t want to be bored by a book that reads like an encyclopedia or text book, and they need a book that is written on their level. Imagine handing an eighth grader a book about the discovery of bacteria and other germs that is written with a bunch of medical terms and jargon— you’d probably end up with a room full of frustrated kids who can’t understand what they are reading. It just wouldn’t go over well. 

Thankfully non fiction books written for and geared toward teens are becoming more prevalent. I was always on the hunt for good informational texts to teach to my junior high classes. One of my favorite books to teach to my eighth graders was a book called Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science by John Fleischman. 

The book recounts a fascinating true story of a man named Phineas Gage, who, by an unlucky turn of events, was the unfortunate recipient of a tamping iron being blasted through his head while working on a railroad construction site in 1848. The rod, measuring 1 1/4” in diameter and 3’7” long, weighing just over 13 pounds, entered through his open mouth, passed behind his left eye, and exited through the top of his head. The tamping iron continued airborne and was found around 80 feet away from where Phineas was struck. How the accident happened is riveting in its own right, but what’s even more amazing is that somehow, Phineas survived the ordeal, and lived another 12 years after the accident!

The book follows Phineas after his accident, describing the personality and mental changes he experienced as a result of his injury. It also describes the amazing amount of brain research that Phineas was part of, and how this research led to the discovery of new information about how the brain works and what certain parts of it control.

It really is a fascinating story. Gruesome, as the title warns, but fascinating. Eighth graders would eat it up. It had just the right amount of gross, cool, interesting, and relatable to keep them engaged as we read through the text. It lent itself to a great opportunity for cross-curricular instruction and gave students a chance to learn some really cool things about the brain. 

We always started the unit with a little background knowledge on the brain. I would show some real MRI scans and we’d map out and learn the different parts of the brain and what their functions are. We would learn about early beliefs about how the brain works and talk about how far our knowledge of the brain has come. 

During the unit, we would discuss personality, sleep, brain development, and decision making. I would show short videos talking about how crucial sleep is for proper brain development, and videos about the teenage brain. I had students complete their own personal “mind map” where they filled a head-shaped outline with words and drawings of things that made them who they are. We would dive into how surgical protocol and procedures have changed for the better over time; they were always amazed that medical procedures were performed under such non-sterile conditions (as was I!). 

We always ended our book study and unit with a research paper. Their topic was fairly open, as long as it was written about anything that had to do with the brain, its function, its science, etc. I would have papers turned in about dreams, the effects of music or art on the brain, learning deficits, speech disorders, cognitive and other disabilities, and so on. 

It truly was an engaging unit, filled with so many opportunities to learn new information as well as make connections to what they already knew. I loved that it was a unit that combined English and Science, and that students were given the chance to use many different methods of learning: reading, research, video/technology, art, and critical thinking. 

Even if you’re not in the market for a good non fiction book to teach to your class, keep it in mind for when you are or for when a student wants a recommendation for a good book to read. You can also add it to your own personal To-Be-Read list and watch as your mind becomes engrossed with this fascinating and true story!