Nonfiction – Reading Unit
Introduction
 Essay: A nonfiction, shorter work that is NOT poetry or
verse.
 Good Readers = Good Writers
 BECAUSE
 We model
 We become critical thinkers
 We learn strategies (juxtaposition, metaphor, anaphora)
 We learn new vocabulary
 We learn what we like and what we don’t like
 Reading for pleasure NEEDS to be part of our lives: Start
thinking about what you want to read for pleasure…
“Learning to Read and Write: Superman and Me”
Sherman Alexie
 Author’s Purpose:
 Inspire individuals to read
 Reading opens doors
 Author’s techniques
 Motif – A reoccurring image, subject metaphor, or theme in a
work: Heroes
 Metaphor – A comparison saying one thing is another: “A
paragraph was a fence with words.”
 Anaphora – Repetition of the first word or words in a series of
sentences or phrases: “I read…I read…I read…” paragraph 6
 Juxtaposition – 2 opposite ideas NEXT to each other for
comparison: “They” (paragraph 5) versus “I” (paragraph 6)
“Listening” – Eudora Welty
 Voice: Author’s style, the quality that makes his or her
writing unique, and which conveys the author’s attitude,
personality, character.
 Sensory Images: Images created in your head from a very
detailed description of something, often using more than one
of the five senses (sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing).
“Listening” – Eudora Welty
 “The sound of what falls on the page begins the process of
testing it for truth.”
 As readers we have to LISTEN for what
works and what does not. Be aware of a
writer’s voice and your own voice in
writing. How a piece of writing sounds is as
important as what it says. Can we believe it,
trust it, be engaged with it?
Welty, Eudora. “Listening.” in Cohen, Samuel, ed. 50
Essays: A portable Anthology. 2nd ed. New York:
Bedford/St. Martins, 2007.
 SIGHT: “In ‘Once Upon a Time,’ an ‘O’ had a rabbit running




it as a treadmill, his feet upon the flowers” (Welty 440).
SMELL: “…the cup of the yellow daffodils gave off whiffs
just alike” (440).
TOUCH: “…their weight and with their possession in their
arms, captured and carried off to myself ” (437).
TASTE: “It had the roundness of a Concord grape Grandpa
took off his vine and gave me to suck out of its skin and
swallow whole, in Ohio” (441).
HEAR: “Her voice came out just a little bit in the minor key”
(441).
Frederick Douglass
“Learning to Read and Write”
http://www.youtub
e.com/watch?v=Su4JBEIhXY
Using Douglass to Understand Main
Idea & Details of a Paragraph.
Introductory info on
how he started to
learn to read and
write
 Learned to read and write
 Mistress instructed him
 Stopped teaching him when husband said
she couldn’t teach a slave
 Learned to treat slaves like “brutes” even
though she “lacked depravity” – she was
kind
Douglass – paragraph 2
Provide further
details about
Mistress Hugh:
slavery hurt her as
much as him
 Mistress was kind & tender-hearted
 Treated him like a human at first
 Took away her good qualities
 Stopped teaching him
 Started to become angry when she saw him
reading
 Learned education and slavery were
incompatible