Booktalks, Bookwalks, and Read-Alouds: Promoting the Best New Children's Literature Across the Elementary Curriculum

191 Pages·2002·0.68 MB·English

by  Rosanne J. Blass

Booktalks, Bookwalks, and Read-Alouds
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Booktalks, Bookwalks, and Read-Alouds
Prom oting the Best New Children’s Lite ra t ure
Across the Ele m ent ary Curr icu l um
Rosanne J. Blass
2002
LI BRARIES UN LIM ITED
Teacher Ideas Press
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Cont ents
Int rod uct ion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. vii
Chapt er 1: Lang uage Arts and Lite ra t ure . . . . . . . . .. 1
In tro duc tion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 1
Alp hab et Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 2
Fant asy and Ad ven ture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 5
Myst eries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 14
Poe try. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 18
Retellings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 24
Short Stories, Hu mor, Ridd les, and Puzz les . . . . . . .. 34
Chapt er 2: Mathe m ati cs and Scie nce . . . . . . . . . . .. 39
In tro duc tion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 39
Mathe m ati cs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 40
Sci ence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 54
Chapt er 3: Soc ial Studies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 79
In tro duc tion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 79
Amer i can His tory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 80
Au to bi og ra phies and Bio gr ap hies . . . . . . . . . . . .. 90
Conc ept Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 100
Hist ori c al Fict ion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 104
Places . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 118
Rel at ions hips and Comi ng of Age . . . . . . . . . . .. 121
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vi Cont ents
Chapt er 4: Arts and Recr ea tion . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 135
In tro duc tion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 135
Art. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 136
Mus ic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 139
Dance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 148
Drama. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 151
Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 153
App end ix A: Graphic Organizers . . . . . . . . . . .. 159
App end ix B: Dir ect ions and Recipes. . . . . . . . . .. 171
Aut hor/Tit le Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 173
Subj ect Ind ex. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 179
Int rod uct ion
The imp ort ance of readi ng and books in the life of a child cann ot
be underestimated. Read ing may be the sing le most imp ort ant skill
needed for a child’s edu c at ional succ ess and also can be one of the most
enjoyable ex pe ri ences in childh ood. Books trans port reade rs bey ond
the imm ed ia cy of time and place into the past as it was or might have
been, into the fut ure as it might be, and from here to far-away realms of
fact and fant asy. Books int rod uce us to new chara ct ers, teach us im por tant
life less ons, help us un der stand ours elves and oth ers, and in spire us.
Readi ng builds lit er acy. As lit er acy grows, so do lang uage and
conc ept ual de vel op ment un til readi ng and writi ng bec ome the tools of
em pow er ment and poss ib ili ty, the tools by which the reader achieves
aca d emic suc cess and sati sf yi ng life exp er ie nces. An app rec ia t ion for
books and a des ire to read beg in with the home and fami ly, cont inue in
school, and are sup ported by the comm un ity and so cial rel at ions hips.
This guide is des igned to help edu c at ors fost er an appreciation of and
int ere st in books and to link readi ng to cur ric u lum studi es.
Build ing a col lec tion and cre at ing acc ess to lite ra t ure are only the
first steps of this end eavor. By shar ing their en thu si asm about and in-
ter est in books, par ents and edu c at ors comm un ic ate the mess age that
readi ng is somet hing to get ex cited about. For many years, li brar i ans
and med ia spe cial ists have used booktalks to prom ote their col lec tions.
Booktalks are short prom ot ional pres ent at ions des igned to ent ice reade rs
into readi ng part icu l ar books. Unt il re cently, booktalks have been used
mostly with older reade rs—teens and adults—but even young chil dren
will res pond to this type of book prom ot ion. Modi fying the app roach
of tra di tional booktalks to fit the needs of young reade rs is an ef fec tive
tool for readi ng prom ot ion. This book is one of the few re sources avail-
able that prov ides booktalks for young reade rs.
The books cho sen for in clu sion in this guide repr es ent some of
the best new publ ic at ions in chil dren’s lite ra t ure. Tit les were se lected
from those rev iewed and reco mm ended by publ ic at ions such as: Book -
list, Book Rep ort, Book Talks, Bul le tin of the Cen ter for Children’s
Books, JOYS, School Li brary Jour nal, VOYA: Voices of Youth Ad vo-
cates, Wil son Bull et in, and Readi ng Teacher. Se lec tions inc lude many
award-winning books and aut hors, as well as books that repr es ent
emerg ing trends in chil dren’s lite ra t ure. Emp has is is on new rel eases,
that is, books publ ished from 1998 to 2001, with repr es ent at ive tit les of
both fict ion and nonf ict ion for ele m ent ary and midd le school chil dren.
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viii Int rod uct ion
In short, you’ll find a wide ass ortm ent of books that ap peal to the
va ri ety of young reade rs in the ele m ent ary grades—tra di tional and
nont rad it ional (in tended for flue nt rather than beg inn ing reade rs) pic-
ture books, al pha bet books, con cept books, early read ers, easy chap ter
books, nov ell as, jun ior nove ls, bio gr ap hies and aut ob io gr ap hies, po etry,
short sto ries, hum or, ridd les, and puzz les.
In tro duc tion
The booktalks are or ga nized by curr icu l um area bec ause with
this age group read ing is oft en done within the pa ram e ters of school
subj ects. Of course, the links in these books are not limi ted to a sing le
subj ect area. Most can be used across the curr icu l um, and you’ll see
that the curr icu l um con nec tions oft en inc lude sugg est ions for other
subj ect ar eas. How ever, by plac ing ti tles within a sub ject area, ed u ca-
tors can more easi ly use these books to en hance cur ric u lar stud ies.
Likew ise, stud ents will be enc oura ged to make learni ng con nec tions
with their readi ng.
The four chapt ers are based on stand ard ele m ent ary school cur ric u-
lum are as: language arts and lite ra t ure, mathe m ati cs and scie nce, soc ial
studi es, and arts and recr ea tion. Each ent ry prov ides bibl iog raphic in for-
mat ion, age level, a book sum mary, a booktalk (or in struc tions for a
bookwalk or read-aloud), curr icu l um conn ect ions, and iden ti fi ca tion
of re lated books for furt her read ing. Tit les ap pro pri ate for speake rs of
Engl ish as a seco nd lang uage are noted by the abb rev ia t ion ESOL. Age
leve ls are gene ra lly based on publ ishe rs’ reco mm end at ions, but in
some cases modi f ic at ions were made based on the ease or diff ic ulty of
the lang uage used and con cepts dev elo ped. Par ents and edu c at ors are
urged to use these lev els only as a gene ral guide and to use their own
judgm ent in se lect ing tit les. Curr icu l um con nec tions given with each
ti tle can help edu c at ors conn ect readi ng act ivi t ies to other school studi es.
(All websites were acc essed on June 15, 2002.) They are in tended to
stimulate ideas and learni ng ext ens ions, rather than to give full, det ailed
act ivi ty dir ect ions, al though samp le graphic or ga niz ers, dir ect ions,
and rec i pes are in cluded in the app end ixes. Edu c at ors and par ents will
need to adapt these ideas to fit the needs of the child ren with whom
they are worki ng.
The prim ary au di ence for this book con sists of pub lic lib rari a ns,
school lib rari a ns, and med ia spec iali sts who work with ele m ent ary-grade
child ren, but teache rs and pare nts will also find the book em i nently
use ful. Pub lic lib rari a ns who serve young stud ents in the lib rary or who
make school vis its can use these booktalks to pro mote their coll ect ion
and ser vices. School lib rary med ia spe cial ists will find the booktalks
valu able in se lect ing and prom oti ng books in class rooms and in the
me dia cent er. They may also want to ref er to this book when maki ng
sel ect ions for purc hase. Classr oom and readi ng teach ers, curr icu l um
specialists, church edu c at ors, and home-school pare nts and teachers might
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Int rod uct ion ix
use the guide to ident ify books for read-alouds or to ident ify books that
comp lem ent spe cific top ics they are cov er ing in class.
Tips and Guide lines for Booktalking
with Young Readers
When work ing with young child ren, it is imp ort ant to be in ter ac-
tive and to enc oura ge part ici p at ion. Show the book to the child ren as you
tell them about it. Ask the child ren quest ions, and list en to their res ponses.
In some cases, you may want to have chil dren re peat spe cific phrases
from your booktalk. You also can do a bookwalk as you speak. While
talk ing, take your young list ene rs for a “walk” through the book by
turni ng the pages and show ing the pict ures. Make a point of usi ng the
lang uage and vo cab u lary of the book so that it be comes fam ili ar to the
chil dren as they list en.
With very young learne rs and for simp le pict ure books, you are
encouraged to read the story aloud. Get into the story and let your nat u ral
expressiveness emerge. Be sure to occ as iona lly make eye con tact with
your aud ie nce. A spir ited first readi ng with beg inn ing reade rs can oft en
prompt mult ip le succ ess ive readi ngs.
When se lect ing tit les for your booktalk, be sure to read them
first. Choose books that you en joy and that you think the child ren will
also en joy. You should also have mult ip le cop ies of the books that you
booktalk bec ause the child ren will want to read the book right away.
The booktalks in this guide are meant as temp lates only. There is
no need to memo r ize them word for word. You can and should adapt
them to your own style and to fit your own pur poses. Never read a
booktalk. In stead, make the booktalks your own by us ing your own
“voice” and wordi ng.
Children’s Lit er a ture To day
The books cho sen for this guide re flect some of the re cent trends
in publ ishi ng. These books lend thems elves to curr icu l ar ap pli ca tions.
It is easy to see how books that cele b rate cre ation and the en vi ron ment,
as exe mp lif ied by Brian Pat ten’s The Blue & Green Ark and Joe Miller’s
If the Earth . . . Were a Few Feet in Dia me t er, can be used in the study
of nat ure and scie nce. The many cre ative retellings of fairy tales and
folkt ales, inc ludi ng cult ural vari a tions, frac tured tales, and ex ten sions