Evaluating Childrens Books

I have really enjoyed being exposed to so many different genres of children’s literature this semester.  I learned about genres that I never even knew existed.  It has opened my eyes to how limited my library really is.  It is a goal of mine to expand my library to include as many different types of books as possible.  The more books that my students are exposed to, the better.  I have also learned to really look at what I’m reading to determine the value it has in the classroom.  Is it purely for enjoyment, or is it a book that I can create a lesson plan around?  The more that you can use a book that children love in your teaching, the better.  I will not dismiss a book simply because it does not interest me.  It may interest my students.  Just because I don’t particularly like biography books, a child in my class my love it.  I need to be more open-minded in what I select for the classroom.  I have always been a huge advocate for literacy.  I plan to continue on that path, only now I have more tools to use to foster that environment.  I truly believe that literacy is perhaps the most important aspect of education.  After all, if a child can’t read, how are they going to learn math, science, or social studies?  I appreciate everything that I have learned this semester and plan to put it to good use.

Honestly, I have enjoyed this course. I think I have learned a great deal about children’s literature that I didn’t know. One of the things that I enjoyed most in this class is the blogs. I have always liked getting new things to share with my students and I have a list of new books that I intend to put in my classroom library that I got from the other student’s blogs. While taking this course, I realized I need to incorporate more literature into my lessons. Many times I don’t include books because of limited time to spend on certain topics, but the kids really enjoy that part of the lessons. The school I work at uses the SFA reading program. We have to follow it during our 90 minute regular education instruction time each day. I am a special education teacher, but I have a SFA reading group that I work with each day. The reading material is really good. We teach the students about genres, text features, author’s intent, summarization, prediction, and compare/contrast and so on. I love the program, but we are unable to choose our own material to read because it is predetermined. We have a lot of Hispanic children and kids from low-income families at our school and I would like to include more literature that depicts their culture or their situations. I think that really helps the students find a connection with reading. I absolutely love it when I see my students get excited about a book. We have read books before that the students couldn’t wait to find out what was going to happen. I think that finding out what my students are interested in and then finding children’s literature to use with them is something I need to improve on. I need to spend more time reading new books and including them in my daily lessons. I also plan to have a read aloud each day during transition times that the students can enjoy. I think it is important for my special education students and for all students to see reading as a fun activity so that they will want to read for enjoyment on their own. My goal is to help my students become better, more fluent readers, but also I hope my students will develop a love for reading.

Through the blogging, I have learned about several new books that I can use in my classroom.  The various books touched on many different subject and ideas.  They ranged from core content, like Appalachian studies, to themes that the students could relate to and would motivate them to read.  I also learned that many of my fellow students have lots of great ideas on children’s literature.  Further, I learned that we all need some assistance in finding good quality books to use in our classroom.

There are several areas where I need to improve on for future growth.  First, I need even more variety in my classroom library.  They need to cover more subject areas that interests the students.  I could survey the students, find out what interests them the most, and purchase some books on the topics they picked.  Second, I need to incorporate more picture books into my lesson plans.  I think the students would enjoy this.  Third, I need to learn more about some of the more popular authors/illustrators.  This information would be great to share with the students in order to further motivate them to read more.  The second and third one could both be accomplished by completing an author/illustrator study on popular picture books.  Fourth, I need to provide more free reading time for my students.  This could be accomplished by simply taking about 15 minutes out of the regular schedule for silent reading.  Fifth, I need to organize the books that I have so that I can better utilize them in my lessons.  I could organize them in crates by subject and core content contained in them.

“Beggars can’t be choosers!” Who says we can’t. We are begging daily for more literate children and we must be choosy in our book selection. This experience has taught me first and foremost, there is a lot out there. There are so many children’s books to choose from that finding the best can be a difficult task. I have found also through this study that not all honor books would be considered honor books by all and most certainly may not meet out need instructionally. Planning instruction is very important and as we plan literacy instruction quality literature should be at the center of the planning. In my professional paper I tried to capture the importance of quality children’s literature by using the literary elements as a foundation. To that end I created a checklist for evaluating children’s literature. By no means is it completed but it is a start.

1. I have so many books in my classroom library that I haven’t read. This is a problem. How can I trust that the books are quality simply because they are published? I have to read and evaluate them to ensure the best and highest of quality is adhered to without censoring the books due to my personal biases or preconceived notions.
2. Books are vehicles that can provide meaningful experiences for students to learn from. Knowing what skills can be taught from a particular book in my library is equally important. Creating an inventory of books aligned with the skills that can be garnered from a particular book could make the difference between having and using a classroom library.
3. Purchasing high quality children’s literature to use in instruction. There were several books that were discussed on the blog that I had never heard of. I do not profess to be a children’s book expert but I am much more proficient at quality works now. As I look toward the future for both classroom and for my daughter I will continue to purchase quality literature to provide a healthy literacy diet.
4. Be even more selective with basil readers and the stories within them. I have long felt that some of the stories in our series lacked quality at times and when we can skip a story and not feel or see a difference the story should be omitted. I want to work to determine some other stories to insert into our curriculum that will be meaningful and worthwhile for our students.
5. I need to read more. I have used as an excuse, “I am too busy!” I am going to read children’s book more so that I can discuss with my students and engage in conversations that model for them what good readers do. Furthermore, I want to be able to compare books and the quality of the literature so that the selection of future books will meet the standards of highly qualified children’s literature I am hoping to have in my classroom and personal library.

Uncover a Horse by David George Gordon is a reference book that is essential for any young horse lover.  This book explores a horse’s skeletal system, cardiopulmonary system, digestive system, reproductive system, nervous system, muscular system, and dermal system.  It covers everything from how to measure a horse, to watching their body language.  My favorite part of the book is the center of each page.  There is a 3-D model of a horse and each system that you are looking at.  You can see what the skeleton looks like, what the heart and digestive system looks like, and even where a mare would carry her foal.  The model makes the book more interactive and you can get a better understanding of each system.  My daughter is a horse fanatic and this book has given her a better appreciation for the animal.  She has a better understanding of the make-up, instead of it just being a pretty animal to ride.

I had to seriously think about whether or not I wanted to include this book in my reading blog.  It is based on a television show after all.  However, my preschool kids love it.  Most of the draw is the familiar characters.  Nearly every child loves Dora.  As a teacher I wanted to look at the educational value of this book.  Kids can help with problem solving, they can learn small bits of Spanish, there is sequencing, and there is some repetitive language use as well.  In one portion of the book children can point to shapes and figure out where they fit in the picture.  The fact that all of this happens with characters that kids know and love make it that much more engaging for them.  I have gladly added this book to our classroom library.

The Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett is an adaptation of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  Goldilocks is replaced by Aloo-ki, and Alaskan Eskimo.  The 3 bears are Polar Bears who live in a large igloo.  The rest of the story is relatively the same.  Aloo-ki eats from three different bowls, tries on three pairs of boots, and crawls into three different beds.  Most of what makes this story so wonderful is the illustrations.  Throughout the book there are the main story illustrations, along with side illustrations which depict what is happening elsewhere.  At the beginning of the book Aloo-ki loses her dog sled team on an ice floe.  While she is trying on the boots, you see the bears in the side illustrations diving out to see to rescue the dogs.  As she is sleeping, you see the dogs safely back on land.  The illustrations help you see all aspects of what is happening, rather than just what the text is telling you about.  It is interesting to read this with my kids and watching what they pick out from the pictures.  They often point out things that I have missed, even after reading it dozens of times.  Jan Brett does a fantastic job giving an old tale new life .

Pinkalicious by Victoria Kann and Elizabeth Kann is one of those books at my house that has been read so many times that it is falling apart.  Each of my three girls has gone through a phase where this was their absolute favorite book.  We would read it together at least three times a day, every day, for a month or more.  It is very well loved.  Pinkalicious made some pink cupcakes with her mommy on a rainy day.  She ate so many cupcakes that day that she had turned pink by the time she woke up the next morning.  A quick trip to the doctor confirmed that she had a case of Pinkititis.  For a week she was not allowed to eat any more pink food.  She needed to eat a diet of green food to return to normal.  That night, after everyone went to sleep, she snuck another cupcake.  The next morning she was RED!  She quickly gobbled down all the green food she could find and returned to her normal color.  The illustrations are a great mix of many different patterns.  They really help set the tone of the story.  I highly recommend this book for any little girl who loves the color pink.

Fancy Nancy by Jane O’Connor and illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser is one of my absolute favorite books written for little girls.  Nancy is a little girl who loves to dress in frilly clothes, accessorize, use fancy words, and say anything in French.  However, her family is hopelessly plain.  She gets a “stupendous” idea to give her family lessons on being fancy.  She teaches them the difference between fancy and plain, and then finds some accessories to dress them all up.  Her family then goes out to dinner dressed in their “fancy” duds.  Nancy accidentally spills their “parfaits” and doesn’t feel fancy any more.  They go home where they have homemade parfaits and share some very sweet tender moments.  My kids and I love this book for many reasons.  The story is so funny.  When they go out to dinner they all look slightly ridiculous, but Nancy thinks they look like movie stars.  We also like learning the fancy words Nancy uses.  She even explains what each one means.  For example “My dad is our chauffeur.  That’s a fancy word for driver”.  But the book really wouldn’t be what it is without the amazing illustrations.  This is what truly brings Nancy to life.  There is so much detail in every picture.  You can practically read the story just by looking at the pictures.  We have expanded our collection of Fancy Nancy books and love every single one.  You can’t go wrong with Nancy.

Throughout the course of this class on children’s literature, I learned many new things.  With some information I read, I felt confident that I was implementing it as a teacher, such as teaching most of the genres, teaching reading outside of the sole use of a basal, teaching students about the text features in both fiction and nonfiction books, and modeling and encouraging the use of critical thinking in reading.  Other information, I have learned lead me to reflect on my current teaching practices and recognize areas of professional growth I must pursue in order to make better instructional decisions in teaching reading to children.

One area of professional growth I need to pursue is in integrating more literature into the classroom that meets the needs of a diverse body of students.  One way I can do this is to use more literature that specifically represents a variety of cultures, national heritages, and human conditions.  Doing this allows for all students to feel like they are a valuable part of the classroom, as well as gives them the opportunity to make connections between the text and real-life.  The integration of more cultural elements in a reading program also provides a broader perspective for all children to understand the world they live in.

Another area of professional growth I need to pursue is in developing better strategies for students to understand the theme of a story.  This seems like a rather easy literary element to help students learn, yet I have found that students easily confuse the theme and moral of a story.  This causes a barrier in learning when students are expected, according to the Common Core Standards, to compare and contrast the themes in stories.  One way I can definitely strengthen their understanding is by reading more of the folk tale genre and modeling the differences between moral and theme.

While integrating more folk tale genre into the classroom, another area of genre that I need to incorporate and expose students to is comics.  Through this class I have discovered how comics provide a tool to student motivation, opportunities to study many illustrations, demonstrate dialogue among characters, and providea tool for modeling and encouraging students to write.  This is an area that I am very unfamiliar with as I have never read many comics.  Finding resources to integrate comics into the classroom will be a priority.

One final area that I foresee as a need to grown in professionally is in meeting the needs of resistant readers, including students who struggle with reading, students who have ethnic or moral barriers, English language learners, and particular boys and girls who just do not desire to read.  In order to grow in this area, I must first know my students’ background, home environment, interests, future goals, and any type of books they have discovered they like.  Next, I must know books.  I must stay on top of new and award winning books and work collaboratively with librarians who could assist me in this area.

As I apply what I have learned from this children’s literature class and continue to research further about integrating more cultural elements through the literature, better strategies for teaching children to distinguish the theme in various texts, incorporating the use of comics as a tool to student motivation, and meeting the needs of resistant readers, I will be able to broaden my abilities in teaching reading successfully.  This knowledge, in addition to the use of best practice teaching and the continued use of critical thinking among students will ultimately help me attain my main goal, which is to help provide students with the skills and motivation they need to be life-long readers, who not only comprehend various texts they read, but find enjoyment in reading and learning.