A very timely reflection as I have just finished revamping the Junior Non-Fiction collection within my school. I would not say that there was tension between fiction and non-fiction but rather there was a need to revisit the collection and look at ways to improve it. After reflecting on borrowing statistics, patterns, current curriculum and student interests I set myself a goal at the beginning of the year to do something about the non-fiction collection within our Resource Centre.
Our collection is quite large, and the location in which it sat, students found it quite difficult and daunting to browse and find books. Apart from a few bulk loans from classroom teachers and the occasional joke and cook book being borrowed, the collections borrowing statistics were very low. Reflecting on why, I decided to divide the collection into two separate collections – P-3 and Junior Non Fiction. I did this according to appropriate age level, reading levels and content. Now that the two collections are in different locations and the accessibility to the books has changed, with the detailed signs to assist and aid learners, the borrowing in both these sections have dramatically increased. The National Library of New Zealand, (2014) discusses James Moloney’s opinion about the attraction that boys have to non fiction. I agree with James. Since dividing the collections I have seen those conversations, the excitement about topics and books and my reluctant readers and non borrowers are now borrowing.
Like all schools there are a variety of topics and genres that capture students interests. Focussing on the upper primary I have noticed that a large amount of students both reluctant and avid readers are in fact interested in events in history and biographies. Keeping in mind Mosle’s (2012) opinion that what schools need is not more non-fiction but better fiction, “narrative non-fiction” that models good writing persuades me to revisit the collection and the curriculum and look for opportunities where I can build such texts into the collection.
References
National Library of NZ. (2014). Non-fiction. National Library of New Zealand Services to Schools. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20160729150727/http://schools.natlib.govt.nz/creating-readers/genres-and-read-alouds/non-fiction
Mosle, S. (2012, November 22). What should children read? [Blog post]. Opinionator: The New York Times. Retrieved from https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/22/what-should-children-read/?_r=0