Brooke Wohlford

Resources
Childrens Lit
September 30, 2014
Websites:
Site One:

Tips for Teaching Poetry

http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/tips-teaching-poetry

Academy of American Poets

This site contains tips for teachers on how to teach poetry. It gives many tips on
preparation, asking the librarian to create a poetry book display, ordering different poetry
books for children to look at, and attending poetry readings. It gives tips on reading
poetry such as, reading a poem at the beginning of each class, introducing a new poetic
form each week, and organizing a student poetry reading. It also gives tips on teaching
how to write poetry: create a school poem and ask each student to contribute one line,
hold poetry workshops, and give students a list of words to make a poem out of.

I really liked how this site added different activities to enhance the learning of poetry.
There were a total of ten activities and they seemed fun. For example, one activity was to
organize a poetry contest for teachers and administrative and have the children judge
each poem.

Site Two:

100 Greatest Books for Kids

http://www.scholastic.com/100books/

Scholastic

The site contains a variety of childrens books. The site has pictures books as well as
novels. When you click on a book, it gives you the title page, the author, the description
of the book, and the category it belongs in.

I really liked the simplicity of this site. I liked how it was interactive; you find a book that
interests you and you click on it. The only thing I didnt like was the random order of the
book; theyre not in alphabetical order.

Site Three:

Carol Hursts Childrens Literature

http://www.carolhurst.com/

Rebecca Otis Carol Hurst

The site contains a variety of information. It contains featured books for children and
reviewed books. It contains ideas of ways to use certain books for curriculum and theme.
You can even sign up for a free newsletter.

I liked this website because it has links to everything you need on the homepage.
Everything is organized and easy to follow. It has a wide variety of reviewed childrens
books that are in alphabetical order so it is easy to find a certain book.

Site Four:

Childrens Literature Association

http://www.childlitassn.org/

Unknown

The site is organized and has a lot of information. There is a navigation tab that says
resources and when you click on it, it brings you to a great page with a lot of great

information. There is a list of childhood studies program, childrens books awards,

childrens literature collection, childrens literature journals, organizations and centers,
mythology and folklore, different genres, history of childrens literature, information
about authors, themes and subjects, and so on.

I really liked this website because of its organized categories. In each category there were
a handful of links to click on and look at. They had many different topics and even had a
young adult literature section for older kids.

Site Five:

Teaching With Books

http://teacher.scholastic.com/read/teaching-with-books.htm

Scholastic

This site had book based lessons, booktalks, discussions guides, book-based lesson
plans, activities for students, and books that come alive. Each category had a list of books
to use as well as books for teachers to buy. It showed the title page of a book as well as a
description. It was organized and easy to follow.

I really liked this website because it gave a few different categories for teachers. Not all
teachers teach the same so I liked the diversity of the different ways to teach. It would
also be helpful for teachers who want to try teaching in different ways because all
students learn differently.

Books:
Book One:

Title: Through the Eyes of a Child

Author: Donna E. Norton

City of publication: Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey

Publisher: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Year of publication: 1995

Number of pages: 713

This source is valuable because it is packed with information on childrens literature. It

describes the child and childrens literature, the history of childrens literature, evaluating
and selecting literature for children, artists and their illustrations, picture books,
traditional literature, modern fantasy, poetry, contemporary realistic fiction, historical
fiction, multicultural fiction, and nonfiction (biographies and informational books).

Book Two:

Title: Idea Bags

Author: Sharon MacDonald

City of publication: Torrance, Ca

Publisher: Fearon Teacher Aids

Year of publication: 1999

Number of pages: 106

This source is valuable because it has hands on activities for students. Idea Bags is
unique because it has 30 different poems for students to learn. Each peom also has a list
of activities to do with the poems. Children who learn hands on will get a lot out of this
book.

Book Three:

Title: Every Child a Storyteller: a Handbook of Ideas

Author: Harriet R. Kinghorn and Mary Helen Pelton

City of publication: Englewood, CO

Publisher: Teacher Ideas Press

Year of publication: 1991

Number of pages: 211

This source is valuable because it offers the storytelling process, uses literature as a basis
for storytelling, takes fact into fiction, has a readers theatre, uses pictures to tell or
write about, has storytelling totes, creates stories with plate-oramas, uses different
crafts, and a problem solution process for storytellers. I really liked all the activities in the
book, such as the puppets and miscellaneous craft ideas.

Five Characteristics of Reliable Resources:

Websites:

If the website is ran by a familiar company, such as scholastic, it is usually reliable.

If the website has journals, or links to journals from universities or authors, it is usually
reliable.

If it has the domain .edu, it is reliable, but some reliable websites can have .org, .com, or
.net

Books:

If a book has a known publisher, it is usually reliable.

If the book has a known author, it is usually reliable.

In general:

If a source has misspellings and grammatical errors, it is not reliable.

If a source seems well designed and organized, it is usually reliable.

If the source sites its sources (if they have any), it is usually reliable.