There is an increased focus on nonfiction/informational text and writing instruction. How can teachers balance this with narrative reading and writing?

There’s a lot of concern around Common Core and a worry that narrative writing is now being diminished. One way to think about this is that we’re not diminishing narrative writing, but we’re bringing other types of writing into the fold. We’re making sure that kids write to persuade and they write to inform as well.

I also think we should think about narrative writing in new ways — for example, using narrative writing also as a tool for learning. If you think about social studies texts creating a narrative around the western migration — that can help you think about and learn in social studies. Or, you might share the information you’re gathering through science experiments in a narrative story format to help contextualize that information.

I don’t think it’s that narrative is going to disappear or is diminished, I think we’re going to use narrative in more creative ways hopefully, and also as a part of a larger approach to using writing in schools.