Melissa Stewart
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Programs for Educators and Writers

Melissa Stewart Programs for Educators

5 Kinds of Non­fic­tion:
Enrich­ing Read­ing and Writ­ing Instruc­tion with Children’s Books

Audi­ence: K‑12 class­room teach­ers, lit­er­a­cy edu­ca­tors, school librar­i­ans, pro­fes­sors of lit­er­a­cy and children’s lit­er­a­ture, instruc­tors of pre­ser­vice teach­ers
Time: 60, 90, or 120 minutes

5 Kinds of Nonfiction

Most edu­ca­tors cur­rent­ly cen­ter infor­ma­tion­al read­ing and writ­ing lessons around all-about books—traditional non­fic­tion titles that pro­vide a gen­er­al overview of a broad top­ic. But these books are just the tip of the ice­berg when it comes to the diverse array of children’s non­fic­tion books being pub­lished today. In this engag­ing, inter­ac­tive ses­sion, award-win­ning children’s non­fic­tion author Melis­sa Stew­art intro­duces the 5 Kinds of Non­fic­tion clas­si­fi­ca­tion sys­tem and pro­vides par­tic­i­pants with an oppor­tu­ni­ty to explore and sort books into each of the cat­e­gories. Atten­dees will dis­cov­er how each cat­e­go­ry is best used in a school set­ting and learn strate­gies for incor­po­rat­ing a broad assort­ment of non­fic­tion books into their exist­ing curriculum.
A Book is a Dream

5 Kinds of Non­fic­tion: Rethink­ing Your Book Collection

Audi­ence: Pub­lic and school librar­i­ans
Time: 60 or 90 minutes

Most librar­i­ans chose their careers because they con­nect strong­ly with sto­ries and sto­ry­telling. They grav­i­tate toward fic­tion and nar­ra­tive non­fic­tion (books that tell true sto­ries) because it feels com­fort­able and famil­iar. And yet, stud­ies show that 42 per­cent of ele­men­tary stu­dents pre­fer expos­i­to­ry non­fic­tion (books that inform, explain, or describe). An addi­tion­al 33 per­cent enjoy expos­i­to­ry and nar­ra­tive texts equal­ly. Research also indi­cates that info-lov­ing kids are sig­nif­i­cant­ly more like­ly to thrive as read­ers if they have access to a rich, diverse array of expos­i­to­ry non­fic­tion. It’s crit­i­cal­ly impor­tant to curate col­lec­tions that will appeal to all chil­dren. In this infor­ma­tive, high-ener­gy ses­sion, award-win­ning children’s non­fic­tion author Melis­sa Stew­art breaks down the 5 Kinds of Non­fic­tion in children’s books (four of which have an expos­i­to­ry writ­ing style), offers tips for col­lec­tion devel­op­ment, and sug­gests small group, whole-class, and whole-school activ­i­ties that high­light a broad range of non­fic­tion titles.

20 Ways to Nur­ture and Nour­ish Non­fic­tion Readers

Audi­ence: K‑12 class­room teach­ers, lit­er­a­cy edu­ca­tors, school librar­i­ans
Time: 60–90 minutes

After learn­ing how sim­ple changes in shelv­ing and check out prac­tices can increase non­fic­tion cir­cu­la­tion, dis­cov­er how tools like book match sur­veys, pre­view stacks, and read­ing lad­ders as well as whole-class and whole-school activ­i­ties like March Mad­ness Non­fic­tion, the Sib­ert Smack­down, and Her­itage Time­lines can nur­ture a love of non­fic­tion in ALL students.
Nonfiction book read aloud

Tips & Tools for Non­fic­tion Read Alouds

Audi­ence: K‑8 class­room teach­ers, lit­er­a­cy edu­ca­tors, school librar­i­ans, instruc­tors of pre­ser­vice teach­ers
Time: 60 min­utes or 90 minutes

Research indi­cates that read­ing aloud has a pow­er­ful pos­i­tive effect on stu­dent engage­ment, think­ing, and read­ing achieve­ment. It also shows that 75 per­cent of ele­men­tary stu­dents enjoy non­fic­tion as much as or more than fic­tion, and yet, many teach­ers and librar­i­ans are hes­i­tant to read non­fic­tion aloud. To help change that, this ses­sion pro­vides tips and tools for (1) locat­ing appro­pri­ate non­fic­tion titles, (2) read­ing non­fic­tion in a way that engages stu­dents in online as well as school set­tings, and (3) encour­ag­ing and facil­i­tat­ing stu­dent respons­es to non­fic­tion texts.
Melissa Stewart conferring with a studen

Help­ing Stu­dents Over­come Their Non­fic­tion Writ­ing Roadblocks

Audi­ence: K‑8 class­room teach­ers, lit­er­a­cy edu­ca­tors, school librar­i­ans, instruc­tors of pre­ser­vice teach­ers
Time: 60–90 minutes

To suc­ceed in col­lege and their future careers, stu­dents need the skills to sum­ma­rize infor­ma­tion and syn­the­size ideas so that they can craft expos­i­to­ry writ­ing that’s clear, log­i­cal, and inter­est­ing. Award-win­ning non­fic­tion author Melis­sa Stew­art will lead a live­ly dis­cus­sion about suc­cess­ful strate­gies for help­ing stu­dents select a focused top­ic, think cre­ative­ly about research, orga­nize infor­ma­tion, iden­ti­fy the per­fect text struc­ture, find the sta­mi­na to revise, and work pro­duc­tive­ly with cri­tique partners.

Cel­e­brat­ing Aha Moments

Audi­ence: Edu­ca­tors, writ­ers
Time: 60 minutes

Weav­ing togeth­er sto­ries from her child­hood and research trips to the Gala­pa­gos Island and Cos­ta Rica, Melis­sa dis­cuss­es what inspires her to write, how she gets ideas, and why she can’t imag­ine any bet­ter job.
5 Kinds of Nonfiction

5 Kinds of Non­fic­tion:
Under­stand­ing the Chil­dren’s Pub­lish­ing Market

Audi­ence: Writ­ers, pub­lish­ing pro­fes­sion­als, edu­ca­tors
Time: 75 minutes

In recent years, most children’s book pub­lish­ers have been focused on acquir­ing nar­ra­tive non­fic­tion, espe­cial­ly pic­ture book biogra­phies. But that’s begin­ning to change. Agents and edi­tors are cur­rent­ly becom­ing increas­ing­ly inter­est­ed in man­u­scripts that branch out in new direc­tions. In this engag­ing pre­sen­ta­tion, award-win­ning author Melis­sa Stew­art describes the char­ac­ter­is­tics of the five major non­fic­tion book cat­e­gories being pub­lished today and explains how and where to pitch each type.
Writing STEM Picture Books

Writ­ing STEM Pic­ture Books

Audi­ence: Writ­ers, pub­lish­ing pro­fes­sion­als, edu­ca­tors
Time: 60 minutes

Pic­ture book biogra­phies have been pop­u­lar for many years, but there’s cur­rent­ly an increased demand for oth­er kinds of non­fic­tion in the mar­ket­place. One great option is STEM-themed con­cept pic­ture books with an expos­i­to­ry writ­ing style. Join award-win­ning author Melis­sa Stew­art for a live­ly pre­sen­ta­tion that digs deep into the expos­i­to­ry non­fic­tion writ­ing process, includ­ing strate­gies for devel­op­ing an irre­sistible hook, select­ing a text struc­ture, exper­i­ment­ing with for­mat, and iden­ti­fy­ing the best voice for a par­tic­u­lar manuscript.
Melissa Stewart
Melis­sa Stewart

For more infor­ma­tion, read the Plan­ning a Vis­it page, and then please con­tact Melis­sa.

School Visit Slideshow

Watch this School Vis­its Slideshow to see how Melis­sa taps into the delight and fas­ci­na­tion chil­dren have for nature and learn­ing via the tools that nature provides.