As you read the mentor essays in Nonfiction Writers Dig Deep: 50 Award-winning
Authors Share the Secret of Engaging Writing, you’ll notice that,
in some cases, professional writers start with a specific focus in mind. But
for others, finding a focus is part of their creative process. In most cases,
student writers will probably be in this second group.
How can writers find a focus? One way
is by asking questions.
As
you’ll discover in Nonfiction Writers Dig Deep, when
I saw a Pinterest board with an incredible variety of seeds, I asked myself:
“How does a seed’s external features contribute to its ability to survive and
germinate?” That question focused my thinking and helped me target my research
for the book that eventually became A Seed Is the Start.
Questions also help guide Laura Purdie Salas and Jen Swanson in early stages of the
writing process.
Laura’s favorite question is “What else?” She asks it
over and over as she shapes the ideas and information her manuscript will
explore.
Jen is a curious person who is always
asking questions. Her books often begin with a BIG question, but she also asks
herself dozens of smaller questions as she organizes information and searches
for the best way to present her topic to her young audience.
If your class has adopted the Idea
Incubator or One Amazing Thing strategies I’ve discussed in previous
posts, students may already have questions that they can use as a starting
point. If not, invite them to seek out questions that interest them in their
Idea Incubator list or brainstorm questions about some of the amazing things
they’ve been noticing around them. Students can use these questions to guide
their research.
Not
only does this approach guarantee that students will have some skin in the
game, a specific query will lead to more targeted note taking. It will also
give students authentic opportunities to make connections between information
they find in a variety of sources.
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