Marc Aronson
![]() Marc Aronson earned his doctorate in American History while he was working as an editor of nonfiction books for middle graders. He loves bringing young readers the new insights that historians, archaeologists, and other experts are discovering right now. For sample chapters, teachers guides, and more information on the award-winning books he has written, edited, or packaged visit www.marcaronson.com. User Stats
Nonfiction MattersRecent Posts
Post NCTENovember 23, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0) I hobbled on to the train down to Philadelphia on Friday to attend the National Council of Teachers of English conference. My view of the meeting was skewed in a few ways -- I attended two seesions honoring notable books, so I got a close view of a selected group of books. My tours of the booths was limited by the slow pace of being on crutches-- so again I saw fewer books, but in a bit more detail. Still, the overwhelming impression the books and the conf. left me with was of the vitality, experiment, and creativity now going on in books for young readers. With the wide acceptance of the graphic novel format for middle grade and older readers, publishers have felt more and more free to experiment with the use of visuals and text, different kinds of type, creating new collage forms. While mos...Read More Recent Posts
The Mixed Messages of Standards and Education ReformNovember 20, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (4) Last night I met with two experts on education and education reform. They have both been working with the government, foundations, and private companies for decades -- seeing one phase of reform replaced by another. They made clear to me something Nina had raised in her comment the other day about teachers -- the focus on facts. The shift to standards loads more and more and more and more and more stuff onto what a teacher is theoretically supposed to cover and the student is supposed to know. Of course it is really all a shell game -- what the student needs to know is that tiny subset of all of that stuff that will be on the test. But since neither student nor teacher knows what that subset will be, coverage is all. Standards have come to mean loads of facts -- not how to find them, think about them, organize them, make sense of them, or exp...Read More Recent Posts
NBA storyNovember 19, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0) tinyurl.com/ygbcqse Recent Posts
The Unforgiving Minute -- A Soldier's EducationNovember 18, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (6) "Question the Answers" Recent Posts
Fort Hood and Us -- Another Real World ResponsibilityNovember 17, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (2) If you know something, it is your responsibility to share it with those who lack that knowledge. You have been presented with a gift, but the terms of the bequest are clear -- you must share it, pass it on, to all those who need it. That friends is what it means to be a nonfiction author for younger readers -- we have been gifted with the chance to learn, to discover, to know, and thus we have the responsibility to share, to inform, to educate. This preamble applies to Afghanistan, but, I realized yesterday, also to Fort Hood. Here's why: a columnist in Forbes raised the question of whether the killings should be known as Going Muslim -- ala Going Postal tinyurl.com/yfk3rms &nbs...Read More
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