Saturday, November 19, 2011

12:4 Faction

When and where did I find the word:  Faction was found in the assigned readings for this week.  It was found in the following book:

Daniels, H., Zemelman, S., & Steineke, N.  (2007).  Content-area writing.  Portsmouth, NH:  Heinemann


What it means: According to Daniels, Zemelman, & Steineke (2007), faction is the combination of factual research and imagination that is most popularly used in genres such as historical and science fiction.  A write who uses faction researches a topic and then creates a story around the topic.

Level of Familiarity: I was not familiar with the formal definition of faction; however, after reading about it, I realized that my husband is an avid reader of novels that utilize faction.

Do I want to know this word well and tell why?  I think that faction is an important concept because it is a way to present what might be mundane information in an interesting fashion.  Daniels, Zemelman, & Steineke (2007) use the example of Michael Crichton's Jurrasic Park as a faction-containing novel.  Crichton's Jurrasic Park is a vivid story about reviving long-extinct dinosaurs in an amusement park type setting.  The story is interesting, but after reading the book (or watching the movie, I suppose) you realize that you've not only been entertained by it, but you've also learned about dinosaurs, chaos theory, and cloning.

Do I think others should know this word well....if so who and why?  I think that teachers and writers of educational materials should know this word.  Teachers might select classroom texts that utilize faction as a way of engaging student interest.   Writers of educational texts might also use faction as a way to engage reader interest (and perhaps increase profits).  

No comments:

Post a Comment