Relating it back to their lives

Strangely enough, I don't have much of an issue with asking kids to become involved in stories that are non-fiction or informational. The middle ages literally crave information, especially when it's about something that they want to know about.

What I've done is, whever there is something that we're supposed to start reading that is non-fiction, I allow the students to attempt to relate it back to their lives through discussions after reading. The children love knowing facts. Seth*, for example, loves reading about war-time dramas and commented, after reading a story on Hiroshima, "Ms. Franklin, did you know that if only half of the world's nuclear bombs went off that it would blow up the world? THE WORLD! That's nuts!" Any time a student can inform a teacher about something they might not know, it makes that student feel empowered with information and importance.

Another thing I have done is on projects for computer use, I have them research using the 6 questions (who, what, when, where, why, and how) on a subject related to their book, or on a topic of their choosing that is a part of the book. Example: Crazy for Chocolate is a fictional book about a girl who loves chocolate, but a research project that many of my students have gotten a lot of fun from is researching the origins of chocolate, and then looking up recipes that use chocolate. Another example is from the book Money Hungry--a girl who wants nothing more than to make money in any way possible--and I have the students look up the 6 questions on how money is created and destroyed. It's a fun process that the kids like to share. As I said, any time a kid can share information that they believe you might not know or their friends might not know, makes it so that they're the teacher and you're the learner!