Top of the Worllllllld!

Whenever I think of Mount Everest, I think of the highest place on earth. In The Top of the World Climbing Mount Everest by Steve Jenkins, Jenkins provides information to prepare you to climb the tallest summit on the planet. This book is an example of a nonfiction text. Jenkin describes what equipment will be necessary in order to make the climb up mount Everest. Non-fiction text gives the audience information about things that a real – it is evidence-based information that is given to the reader. As Temple, Martinez, and Yokota (2019) state, “Nonfiction is ‘a genre created mainly to inform’ (Mitchell, 2003, p.326) about a particular subject, issue, or idea” (p. 284). This is exactly what Jenkin does, he gives us information about climbing mount Everest. Jenkin also goes into detail about how the terrain changes from the bottom of the mountain to the top of the mountain. He goes on to describe how the ecosystems reflect these changes as a climber ascends the mountain. Jenkin also tells you about the location of the mountain, between Indian and China. This type of nonfiction is known as Factual Nonfiction because Jenkins presents facts (Temple, Martinez, and Yokota, 2019). Jenkin lists know facts at the end of his book, for example, the number of people who have attempted the climb and the number of people who have died attempting the climb.

When I was in third grade, my teacher showed us a video of her climbing mount Everest. At that time, I did not know the significance of being able to climb the mountain – we could all tell that she was very proud of this accomplishment. Nonfiction is important to children because they want to know the world around them (Temple et al, 2019). It is true, children do want to know about the world around them. The teachers should only be an outlet to provide students the opportunities to know about the world around them. Through nonfiction text, the children can get a small glimpse of real things that happen around them.

In my classroom, I would be able to implement nonfiction text through fact-based information. This fact-based information would be pulled from online resources that have evidence about the community I serve. Since mathematics can instill the thought of white supremacy, through its hierarchical and outdated methods, moving towards culturally relevant facts will only want students to know more about what is going on in the community they live in and how mathematics can be used as a tool to understand patterns and trends that occur where they live.

References:

Jenkins, S. (1999). The Top of the World Climbing Mount Everest. Paw Prints.

Temple, C. A., Martinez, M. G., & Yokota, J. (2019). Children's books in children's hands: A brief introduction to their literature. NY, NY: Pearson.