Dakiri Burkhardt October 2, 2013 ENGL 414A Resources for Childrens Literature I.

Five Useful Websites about Reading or Teaching Childrens Literature 1. Title: Childrens Literature i. URL: http://www2.nkfust.edu.tw/~emchen/CLit/index.htm ii. Person Responsible for Site: Chi-Fen Emily Chen, Ph.D. iii. The Childrens Literature website contains general information about childrens literature. I believe this website might have been used for a college class because there are PowerPoint presentations for each little topic and there is a tab called, About the Course. However, this would definitely be helpful for first-time reading teachers. There is a tab for the history of literature, the study of literature, teaching literature, poetry for children, picture books, folk literature, fantasy, realistic fiction, and web sources. Each little category has sub-tabs that allow you to explore different genres of that type of literature, examples of that type of literature, how to teach it, and online sources for each. iv. This website is easily navigable because there are tabs on the left-hand side of the website that clearly organize the information it includes. 2. Title: Scholastic For Teachers i. URL: http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/?esp=CORPHP/ib/////NAV/Teacher s/Tab/TeachersHP//// ii. Scholastic Inc. is responsible for creating and running this website. iii. Scholastic is a great resource for teachers because it has so much to offer. On the top of the website there are seven main tabs. There are five really useful and important tabs. The first tab is called, Resources and Tools. This tab has a drop-down menu containing links to daily starters, lesson plans, freebies, planning calendar, book fairs, and more. These items are geared to equip teachers with specific things they might need for teaching reading. The second tab is called, Strategies and Ideas. This tab has a drop-down menu containing links to new teacher support, teacher to teacher blogs, classroom books, guided reading, and so much more. These items are geared towards getting teachers to share their ideas with one another to help reach as many students as possible about how to teach reading. The third tab is called, Student Activities. This one has links to student activities, computer lab activities, interactive whiteboard activities, Scholastic news, and more. These items are focused on resources for students to better understand what is being taught. The fourth tab is called, Books and Authors. This tab includes a

book list, author and illustrator lists, Book Wizard (which helps find and level books), and information on how to teach with books. The sixth tab is called, Shop: The Teacher Store. This tab brings you to the Scholastic Teacher Store where various things can be purchased for any classroom. You can search by subject, format, grade, catalogs, and sale items. This is helpful because help is being offered for more than just one subject. So, this opens this website to more teachers than just reading or literature teachers. 3. Title: Reading Rockets: Teaching Kids to Read and Helping Those Who Struggle i. URL: http://www.readingrockets.org/audience/teachers/ ii. Reading Rockets is funded by a grand from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs. iii. Reading Rockets has a plethora of information for teaching childrens literature. There are tabs at the top that include resources for parents, teachers, principals, librarians, and other professionals; there is even a link that has all of the important information in Spanish at the top. On the left hand side, there are links for classroom strategies, teaching reading, helping struggling readers, free reading guides, reading research ,and so much more. This website is full of differentiation because it aims to reach all types of readers. There are articles written by teachers and their experiences with various strategies and methods of teaching reading. On the home page, there is an In the Classroom section that has information on teaching writing. This is a great resource because reading and writing should be taught hand-in-hand. There are also guides to how to plan a 90 minute reading block, which can always be shortened to meet other time allotments. 4. Title: K12 Reader: Reading Instruction Resources for Teachers and Parents i. URL: http://www.k12reader.com/reading-resources/ ii. This website was started by Jerry and Leanne Charles in 2008 with the goal of providing free reading instruction resources for parents and teachers. iii. K12 Reader is full of useful resources for teaching childrens literature. On the top of the page are tabs for worksheets, games and activities, book lists, etc. The worksheets are printable and free and vary in subject matter. While all of this aims to help improve reading, the subject can be historical, mathematical, scientific, etc. On the left-hand side of the website is a column of links, broken down into multiple headings. The first heading is Reading Instruction. It contains subheadings for balanced literacy, content area reading, grammar reference, phonemic awareness, phonics, reading comprehension, reading fluency, sentence types, and teaching sight words. When you click on a link, it describes what the subheading is, what it means, and effective strategies for teaching it. The next heading is Spelling words; its subheadings are broken up into grades 1st-5th. Each grade level is equipped with spelling

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lists broken down into weeks along with dictation sentences and a master spelling list for the teacher. The next heading is Sight word worksheets. The subheadings are Dolch Word Lists and Fry Word Lists. These help teachers level students and books that they are reading. The next heading is called Grammar Worksheets and it contains worksheets a nd activities for adjectives, adverbs, appositives, homographs, homophones, nouns, and so much more. The next heading is called, Phonics Worksheets and it contains just that worksheets to help students work on phonics skills and strategies. The next heading is Reading Comprehension and this is split up into grades 1st-9th, context clues, drawing conclusions, main idea worksheets, and making inferences. The next heading is called, Teaching Tools and it contains rubrics for reading and writing. The last important heading is called, Writing and it contains writing prompts, cursive handwriting, print handwriting, and sentence structure. There are also themed worksheets, lesson plan templates, reading logs, and reading award certificates. There is so much to explore with this website and every reading teacher should know about it. 5. Title: Read Write Think i. URL: http://www.readwritethink.org/ ii. This website was created and is maintained by the International Reading Association, the National Council of Teachers of English, and Verizon Thinkfinity. iii. This website is full of classroom resources, professional development tools and tips, parent resources, and afterschool resources. When searching, this website can be filtered by grade level and resource type (lesson plans, minilessons, unit plans student interactives, activities, games, worksheets, printables). This helps a lot because if a teacher needs resources for a specific grade (Kindergarten 12th grade), then this information can be easily found. Teachers can find resources for poetry, fiction, nonfiction, themes (holidays, careers, arts, community, etc.) and so much more. All of the resources on this website are free and can be downloaded to your computer. Three Non-web sources about Reading or Teaching Childrens Literature 1. Five Pillars of Scientific Reading Instruction by Richard L. Allington, Ph. D. University of Tennessee i. Article obtained by Dr. Watts in Reading and Language II ii. PDF Link: http://www.uwex.edu/ics/stream/dpi/PI34/Targeted%20Reading%20Bibl iography%20.pdf iii. This resource is valuable because it highlights five key elements of reading instruction, which Dr. Allington believes are phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. This article points out the importance of making reading interesting and engaging for

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students of any age. Try not to give them materials that will frustrate them and give them a negative attitude towards reading. These are just five pieces of advice that all reading teachers should read about and internalize. 2. Taking Full Advantage of Childrens Literature i. Written by Fank Serafini from The Reading Teacher, Vol. 65, Issue 7, April 2012, p. 457-459 ii. Link to PDF: http://ehis.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=db51fb544585-4454-807b-d7134481fd9d%40sessionmgr12&vid=2&hid=15 iii. This is an important resource for teachers because it explains that having a basic understanding of the design elements of picture books, the structures of visual images, and the various art movements and styles used in picture book illustration is important for expanding the potential of discussions in the classroom. If teachers know more about what they are trying to teach to their students, then lessons will be more meaningful and students will get more out of them. 3. Reading Picturebooks as Literature: Four-to-Six-Year-Old Children and the Development of Literacy Competence. i. Written by Coosje van der Pol from Childrens Literature in Education (2012), Vol. 43, February 2012, p. 93-106 ii. Link to PDF: http://ehis.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=2c08a432d09e-4e78-bd59-2f0460458486%40sessionmgr14&vid=2&hid=15 iii. This article explains why it is important for teachers to be able to probe childrens understanding of what it means to be a competent reader of picture storybooks. It suggests some literacy conversation guidelines to use during class discussions about stories read in class to help gauge if students understand story elements like character and irony. This is valuable information because it shows teachers that even though young students might not be able to read story books themselves and understand everything, if they are read story books aloud, there is a good chance that they might pick on more than we think. This article reminds teachers not to underestimate the intellectual strength of their students. The more they are exposed to environments rich in stories that encourage meaningful structuring activities and by have literacy conversations, the easier it will come to them in the future. Five Characteristics of Distinguishing Reliable Web Sites 1. Find out who wrote the site look for an about us or about the author on the top or bottom of the website. Check to see if the author provides their credentials, and check up on them; avoid anonymous authors. i. http://www.edb.utexas.edu/petrosino/Legacy_Cycle/mf_jm/Challenge% 201/website%20reliable.pdf

2. Check the date of the website this is important because outdated information, true or not, might be harmful to your research or purposes. If more recent data is available to the public, then your results might be wrong just because you used outdated websites or sources. i. http://www.edb.utexas.edu/petrosino/Legacy_Cycle/mf_jm/Challenge% 201/website%20reliable.pdf 3. Look for sites from established institutions the internet has a lot of websites that were started fairly recently by random people. Websites that are associated with trusted institutions that have been around for a while and have a proven track record of integrity are much more reliable. i. http://journalism.about.com/od/reporting/a/Eight-Ways-To-Tell-If-AWebsite-Is-Reliable.htm 4. Check the domain of the website because the originiation of the website can provide information of the websites purpose. i. org :An advocacy web site, such as a not-for-profit organization. ii. .com : A business or commercial site. iii. .net:A site from a network organization or an Internet service provider.; iv. .edu :A site affiliated with a higher education institution. v. .gov: A federal government site. vi. .il.us :A state government site, this may also include public schools and community colleges. vii. .uk (United Kingdom) : A site originating in another country (as indicated by the 2 letter code). viii. ~:The tilde usually indicates a personal page. ix. http://www.library.illinois.edu/ugl/howdoi/webeval.html 5. Make sure the information you are reading is free from bias check for clues that the author might be biased. Is the author taking a personal stand on a social or political issue? Is the author being objective? These are really important questions because sometimes bias can result in false information. If you are using this information to support an argument, that might be one thing, but if you are citing this source as fact, that will get you in trouble. i. http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/web-eval-sites.htm