LRC 480: Children's Literature in the Classroom Section 6 Spring 2002 Facilitator: Judi Moreillon

The purpose of this project is to broaden and deepen your knowledge of children's literature, to respond personally to the books you read, and to create a record of your reading for future use.

Reading children's literature is the heart of this course. Design a record-keeping system that will meet your needs as a teacher and perhaps as a resource for your students. Possible formats are note cards, looseleaf notebook pages, or a database. Whatever you choose, you'll want to be sure it is organized and that you'll be able to make additions to it in the future.

These are the essential pieces of information you will record for each book:

1. bibliographic information: author, title, illustrator, publisher, date of publication, number of pages, ISBN#;
2. short summary of the plot;
3. description of the illustrations;
4. theme(s);
5. your personal reactions to the book;
6. curricular connections (how you might use it with students in a classroom).

After our first class meeting, click here to see a sample reading record for Thank You, Mr. Falker. Other Reading Record Samples and criteria for complete records are found in your Course Packet. Records which do not meet the criteria will not be counted.

Click here for a blank form. Print page one only (range: pages 1 to 1).

Click here for Reading Record Rubric.

In your reading record, you should only include books that are appropriate for the classroom. If you explore series titles, such as Clifford books, Dear America, Eyewitness, etc., you may include only one title in your reading record. You must read from all grade levels, all genres, and select books that offer diverse perspectives. You will turn in a Reading Record Tracking Sheet each time you submit your Reading Record.

You are required to read at least 15 chapter books (books of more than 100 pages). After the you have read the first 15, each additional chapter book of more than 125 pages will count the same as 5 picture books. You may also read professional books with a literature curriculum focus such as Educating Esmé: The Diary of a Teacher's First Year by Esmé Rajii Codell or The Girl with the Brown Crayon: How Children Use Stories to Shape Their Lives by Vivian Gussin Paley. After 15 chapter books, professional books count the same as 5 picture books. Please ask the facilitator to approve/recommend professional titles.

Reading AND recording daily will make this an enjoyable and easy assignment. You are encouraged to use the read-alouds that are shared in class, books that you read during our browsing time, the titles from your literature circle reading and our whole class reading, and the children's books you'll read for other projects in this course. You may consider listening to books or novels on audiotape and/or watching high quality movie versions of longer children's literature. (Please get the facilitator's permission for your audio and video selections.)

You will turn in your entire reading record and a new tracking sheet three times during the semester. On February 9th, turn in records for at least ten books. This will give me the opportunity to give you feedback early in the project. You will also turn in your Reading Records on March 6th. All of your records and the 3 Diversity Tracking Sheets will be due on April 24th/May1st.

These are some resources that may help you locate books of particular interest to students and to teachers:

Arizona Young Reader Award Nominees - 2002
These titles are nominated by Arizona students each spring. Teachers and teacher-librarians share them with kids. Each March students vote for their favorite titles in the picture book and chapter book categories for elementary and novel at the middle school level.

The Caldecott Award-Winning Books
The Caldecott Metal is award yearly to the most distinguished children's picture book for its illustrations. Named after children's book illustrator, Randolph Caldecott, the Caldecott Medal was first awarded in 1938. Honor Books are also named by the Caldecott Committee, a committee of the American Library Association.

The Newbery Award-Winning Books
A committee of the American Library Association votes for the Newbery Award books each year. Since 1922, a first place book receives the Newbery Medal and one or more books is awarded Honor Book status. The award is named after John Newbery, an English publisher and bookseller, who was the first person to print and sell books for children.

Nancy J. Keane
Nancy J. Keane is a middle school teacher-librarian and radio children's booktalk host in Concord, New Hampshire. You can read her booktalks indexed by title, author, subject, and interest level and peruse her bibliographies for titles.

Booklists of Children's Literature
Posted by the Monroe Public Library (Indiana), this site has lists indexed by type such as predictable books, books in a series, pirate books, funny fiction, math and space books...

Young Adult Librarian's Help/Homepage
Although small this site is good resource for young adult literature, magazines, and comics. The genres/themes represented are adventure, horror, and feminism.

Reading Online
This electronic journal has an archive of their children's literature book reviews.

Candlelight Stories
This site contains online children's stories/books.

Main Page

Course Schedule

SW Children's Lit Web Site