Another week has passed. I am keeping it short this week. I will discuss rediscovering some old books, The Dana Girl Mysteries, and more on critical thinking in reading comprehension.
The Dana Girls
I love a good mystery.
I’m an avid Murder She Wrote watcher and a total Psych-O (from the show Psych).
When I was a young girl, I enjoyed a book series called the Dana Girls Mysteries.
They were written by the same team of authors as the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mysteries.
The Dana Girls are now out of print and won’t make it to the silver screen anytime soon, but a worthy read nonetheless.
Written in the 1930s, they have a different style than our modern children books.
The vocabulary is better and the turn of phrase more astute. A small example:
“On the still December air floated the notes of a plaintive whistling in a minor strain. It was not the warbling of a bird, nor did it seem like that of a human being.”
In the Shadow of the Tower, p. 1
Good literature is easy to find; I am not in doubt.
These are just so accessible and short.
You get all the eloquence of a bygone era in an action-packed mystery for children.
Why am I telling you?
Well I went to a used bookstore the other day.
Whenever I go to one, I always ask if they have The Dana Girls.
This time they actually said yes. I was dumbfounded.
We bought a whole bunch. I’ve been reading through them with great pleasure.
The Dana Girls, Nancy Drew, and The Hardy Boys (original books, not modern ones) are great reads for Middle Schoolers and early High School kids.
They are very easy to read, but also introduce the student to uncommon vocabulary and an older style of talking.
Not to mention, mysteries are fantastic tools in developing critical thinking in children!
Fact vs. Opinion
This deeper thinking about how people say things and not just what they say plays a big role in comprehension. Click To TweetI want to continue to discuss with you my thoughts about critical thinking in reading comprehension.
Read the first part of the discussion here!
This week I turned my attention to fact versus opinion.
I am a huge fan of The Thinking Toolbox by Nathaniel Bluedorn and Hans Bluedorn
They have very fun dialogs and exercises to help you get thinking about thinking! 😉
There is not just fact and opinion but also inference.
I found this middle step was the hardest.
A statement of fact is any statement about something which can be directly observed by others or checked for accuracy.
Inferring is a logical conclusion made from verifiable fact.
Opinion is a statement of inference that is not entirely facts.
The Thinking Toolbox, Lesson 4
We went through the different exercises and examples.
I realized often it came down to the tone of the words.
Did the writer sound authoritative?
Did he add something extra, using such language as “must have,” “inevitably,” “probably?”
You can say the same thing but in completely different ways.
That colors the meaning.
This deeper thinking about how people say things and not just what they say plays a big role in comprehension.
This week’s post is shorter.
I have a secret project I am working on that I am excited to share with you soon.
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I have a passion for helping students, young and old, improve their writing and study skills. I am a tutor and proofreader.