Living BooksL Classroom Activities Overview

Overviewfor the

ClassroomActivities

Activities for Teachers and Parents

www.wanderfulstorybooks.com

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Permissible Use of Copyrighted Material

Throughout the materials developed to enhance the usefulness of Wanderful interactive storybooks in the classroom, we suggest that you copy screens and images of the storybook characters. We know you want to work within the copyright laws and have developed these guidelines to help you obey the law while you make use of technology to the advantage of your students.

You may make use of the text and images in the Wanderful interactive storybooks so long as the use is not for profit and is used in your classroom for teaching. This includes making multiple copies of material for classroom use SO LONG AS THE MATERIAL IS NOT OF A COMMERCIAL NATURE and is not sold, NOR has effect on the potential market value of the copyrighted work.

Proper attribution of material is appreciated: © 2012 Wanderful, Inc., under license from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. This helps to inform users that the materials you use and your intentions are legal.

© 2012 Wanderful, Inc., under license from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

TABLE OF CONTENTS

OVERVIEW Classroom Activities

INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 3

A BOOK LOVER APPROACHES THE COMPUTER ................................................................................................................................. 5

LIFE IN MY CLASSROOM INCLUDES CHILDREN AND TECHNOLOGY ....................................................................................................... 8

CLASSROOM PRACTICE AND WANDERFUL INTERACTIVE STORYBOOKS

Reading ................................................................................................................................................ 11

Writing.. ........................................................................................................................................... ... 12

Technology ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 14

INTEGRATING WANDERFUL INTERACTIVE STORYBOOKS IN THE CURRICULUM

Thematic Units .......................................................................................................................................................... 15

Genre Study ............................................................................................................................................................... 16

Author Studies .......................................................................................................................................................... 17

Dramatic Play ........................................................................................................................................................... 19

Cooperative Learning ............................................................................................................................................. 20

TECHNICAL TIPS AND TRICKS ......................................................................................................................................................................... 21

SELECTING BOOKS FOR CHILDREN .......................................................................................................................................................................... 22

PROFESSIONAL BOOKS ......................................................................................................................................................................... 29

INTRODUCTION

OVERVIEW Classroom Activities 3

The Wanderful interactive storybooks Classroom Activities are designed to help teachers integrate these products, originally published as Living Books by Broderbund software, into the curriculum. The Classroom Activities are available for most of the Wanderful interactive storybooks.

The purpose of this Overview is to combine theory with practice, concept with technique, broad stroke with fine detail, inspiration with nitty gritty tricks. Our goal is to link the exciting technology of these interactive storybooks running on tablets, mobile phones, and computers with the reality of classrooms full of children and paper and books and bells. While technology will never replace the gifts of a committed teacher or the magic of traditional books, we hope the technology exemplified by the Wanderful interactive story books and the activities and resources provided in the Classroom Activities will support and enhance the learning materials and instructional units you provide for your students.

Contributors The writers who have contributed their ideas, expertise, and specific suggestions bring to this project a combined total of more than one hundred years in the classroom. Immediately following this Introduction are two personal accounts of their experiences that may help you to see how these activities and bibliographies emerge from the rich and familiar context of real teachers and children.

Marianne Saccardi taught in public and private elementary schools for twenty years before teaching children’s literature in the graduate school at the College of New Rochelle and Early Childhood Department at Norwalk Community College. A new edition of her book, Art in Story, was published in 2006 by Libraries Unlimited/Teacher Ideas Press, and Books that Teach Kids to Write was published by the same press in 2011. She is currently working on a new book for Libraries Unlimited to be published in 2013. Her articles have appeared in School Library Journal, The Reading Teacher, School Arts, Book Links, and The Constructive Triangle.

Rebecca Ann Penso, Ed.D., is a resource specialist and mentor teacher in Los Angeles. She is an expert in adapting technology to support learning. Working with at-risk students, she has developed highly motivating online and off-the-computer techniques to help them grow, not only in academic competency but also in social skills. A classroom teacher for thirty-five years, her graduate work is in language devel-opment education. In addition to contributing to this Overview, she created most of lessons in the Classroom Activities for each Wanderful interactive storybook.

Bonnie Sunstein, Ph.D., is professor of English and education at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa where she serves as Director of Undergraduate Writing in English and Program Chair in English Education. She teaches courses in research, non-fiction writing, American folklore, and English education. Her books include What Works, Composing a Culture, Portfolio Portraits, The Portfolio Standard (all Heinemann). She is co-author of three editions of FieldWorking: Reading and Writing Research (Bedford St.Martins). She is a contributor to this Overview.

Lucinda Ray is the Educational Consultant and Editor for the Wanderful interactive storybooks Classroom Activities. She developed the concept for the original Living Books Classroom Activities and Overview, contributed to their writing, and served as editor for that project. She has been a classroom teacher for thirty years, teaching language arts, reading, English, speech, theater, and composition to middle and high school students, and composition at the college level. She has also developed and designed curriculum for a number of educational software products for Broderbund, The Learning Company, Intellitools, Houghton Mifflin, and Riverdeep. She holds two Masters degrees, in Theatre Education and in English Literature.


Philosophy Three articles discuss the philosophical approach of whole language in elementary classroom instruction in the areas of reading, writing, and the use of technology. These short articles represent the theoretical backbone and the informing principles of the many Classroom Activities that accompany most of the Wanderful interactive storybooks/Living Books titles.

The support materials for each title are designed to encourage children's natural love of language play and enhance the power of their language to explore, express, learn, and communicate.

One way children learn to read is through their own writing. They also learn to read through continuing opportunities to engage in both reading and writing. Therefore the classroom activities provide support for authoring and writing, for interacting and creating, as well as for reading. The activities are cross-curricular and are tailored for different age, grade, or reading levels.

Integrating Wanderful Interactive Storybooks in the Curriculum A set of five articles suggests ways you can integrate activities around any Wanderful interactive storybooks with other parts of your curriculum and classroom organization. You will find discussions of Thematic Units, Genre studies, Author studies, Drama, and Cooperative Learning. Like the many classroom activities that are included with each of the individual titles, these suggestions are intended as both quick-start support and as models for meeting your own classroom and curriculum needs.

Technology Technical Tips and Tricks is a compilation of techniques we used to put these Overview and Classroom Activities materials together. We want to make sure you know these short cuts and techniques as well. Consult this section for information about how to create your own electronic or print materials from Wanderful interactive storybook images.

Additional reading This Overview concludes with two annotated bibli-ographies, one suggesting guidelines and sources for selecting good children's books and the other recom-mending professional reading.

Common Core State Standards No matter how engaging a learning activity may be, one of the realities of teaching for most teachers and school systems is the need to demonstrate that activities in the classroom are helping children achieve the learning goals established by the curriculum. To assist in this important task, Wanderful interactive storybooks has aligned the Classroom Activities with the Common Core State Standards1.

For example, the Classroom Activities for The Tortoise and the Hare support the areas below of the Common Core State Standards: CCSS’s Reading Foundational Skills and Language Standards in Grades K–5: Reading Standards for Literature (RL), Speaking and Listening Standards (SL), Writing Standards (W), and Reading Standards: Foundational Skills.

This is a sample of the level of detail provided in the Classroom Activities for each title.

1 Common Core State Standards © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved.

Common Core

Activity State Standards Talking With the Animals RL K-3 1, 2, 3, 6, 9, 10

SL K-3 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Finish Line Festivities RL K-5 1, 2, 3, 7, 9, 10

W 1-2 5, 7, 8

W 3-5 5, 8, 9

Say It Again RL K-3 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 9

RL 4 3, 4, 7

SL K-3 1, 2, 3, 4, 6

W 3-5 3

Reading Along RL K 4

RL 2-3 7

SL K-3 2, 6 RF K-2 3, 4

A BOOK LOVER APPROACHES THE COMPUTER WITH SUSPICION THEN APPRECIATION


by Marianne Saccardi

The thematic units and annotated bibliographies for each of the Wanderful interactive storybooks Classroom Activities were developed by Marianne Saccardi, who directed the Fairfield-Westchester Children's Reading Project in Greenwich, CT. Why did she decide to help create these materials for electronic books almost two decades ago? And why is she engaged in updating them now? The following piece traces her reassessment of the potential for computers to support enthusiasm for reading and writing. Her experience demonstrates that children can be introduced to books and encouraged in the reading and writing process through technology.

As a life-long book lover, I had always viewed the computer with suspicion. Didn't it, after all, claim hours of our children's lives—hours that could be better spent reading and writing? However, a special project soon convinced me that computers belong in the classroom, not as drill masters or as rewards during free time, but as integral parts of reading and writing and whole language learning at its best.

It all began with my colleague, Dr. Marilyn Jody, an English professor at Western Carolina University, who was teaching a short story course through her university's MicroNet electronic mail system. She discovered that the students in the course engaged in more candid and in-depth book discussions on the computer, both with her and with one another, than did the students she saw face-to-face every week.

She and I decided to try computer book chats with elementary and high school students as well. We agreed to set up a small three-week demonstration in April to determine whether a full-scale computer-literature project would be useful. Called BookRead, the project would link two middle school classrooms in Connecticut and New York and two high school rooms in New York and North Carolina. The teachers in these classrooms were already focusing on literature with their students and agreed to give the project three weeks of their valuable class time.

Since the students in both high school classes were very reluctant readers, we knew that we had to attract first-rate authors to the project. Fortunately, Sue Ellen Bridgers and Gary Paulsen, both award-winning writers of gripping novels for adolescents, agreed to join our pioneering efforts. Although neither of them had ever used a modem, they had a few months to learn, and we gave them whatever help we could. We teachers, too, were new to electronic learning, and we began weeks of fumbling trial and error as we sent messages back and forth to one another and to our two authors. Fortunately, computer personnel in all the participating schools helped us enormously.

We met with the teachers a few weeks before our target date to discuss our goals and plans for the three weeks. While we were getting to know one another and sharing methods and ideas, our students were busily making videos introducing themselves to their partner classes. These videos were a great hit and helped the students put faces with the names they would later see signed to letters.

Week 1 The teachers and students read and discussed their authors' books in class and in their reading journals. We wanted the children to begin focusing on ideas and questions that they wished to discuss with their partner classes on the computer. We also wanted the teachers to note how the classroom discussions went and to compare them to the computer discussions that would take place the following week.


The middle school students read and discussed the Paulsen books. Dogsong (Bradbury), Hatchet (Penguin), The Winter Room (Orchard), The Voyage of the Frog (Dell), The Crossing (Orchard), Canyons (Doubleday), The Night the White Deer Died (Doubleday), and Tracker (Penguin) were among the titles we presented to them. In addition to reading some of these books, the high school students could also choose books written by Sue Ellen Bridgers Permanent Connections (HarperCollins), Home Before Dark (Bantam), Sara Will (HarperCollins), and All Together Now (Bantam) were available.

Week 2 The students talked to their partner classes about the books they were reading. Some wrote general letters. Others, especially the high school students, wrote to particular individuals.

The high school students were more interested in talking about themselves at first—their interests, activities, and plans. They needed much more time to do this than we were able to give them, and their exchanges spilled over into the third week as well. Eventually, even the most reluctant readers were drawn by their peers into conversations about books.

When the younger students launched into book talk with their partners, we were amazed at their insights. They began to connect the various Paulsen books to one another, to notice that the room in The Winter Room was very much like the room in Popcorn Days and Buttermilk Nights. They compared Russell's learning the ancient ways of his people in Dogsong to Carley's leaving behind his city life in Popcorn Days and Buttermilk Nights. They spoke with enthusiasm and conviction. They spoke as “insiders,” well versed in their author's style and ideas.

Week 3 Our two authors kicked off the third week by writing lengthy pieces about themselves and their work.

The students and authors then exchanged mail for the rest of the week. Sue Ellen answered individual high school students while Gary wrote group letters in which he responded to individual questions and insights. All the students were struck by the authors' honesty about themselves and by their different views on writing.

On the last day of the third week, the two high school classes held a simultaneous online dialogue with Sue Ellen. Student representatives typed their peers’ questions into the computer while the whole class viewed Sue Ellen’s responses as she typed them on the screen from her home computer. They could witness her writing process as she paused to think and phrase her answers. As Chris Renino, one of the teachers, put it, “The final live book chat between one of the authors, my students, and those at North Buncombe High School in North Carolina, was outstanding.”

The following Monday, the middle grade students had their chat with Gary Paulsen. Again, students did the typing for their peers. The students were awed by the fact that Gary’s extemporaneous writing was very much like the writing in his books: it seemed to be a part of him. These online conversations were a fitting conclusion to an incredible three weeks.

Evaluation At a wrap-up meeting, all of the teachers expressed their delight with what happened in April and their desire to see the project develop and expand. Some teachers saw the project as a powerful motivator for their reluctant readers: “BookRead worked beautifully with my students. The program did not miraculously make them avid readers, nor did it lead them to an overnight change in their attitudes about books, school, or themselves. However, they did read. Everyone read, and everyone read more avidly, in greater quantity, and more penetratingly than they had all year,” Chris Renino said.

Deirdre Fennessey felt that having an audience made her students more conscious of trying to write well, while John Gibson noted that the project “created a community of readers/writers engaged in a common task ... it encouraged sharing of reading experiences which motivated readers to try books recommended by others. They seemed interested in, and motivated by, interaction with other students their age from very different backgrounds and life experiences.”


Mike DeVito stated that “without a doubt the mystique of using the computer to actually talk to students in other schools and to the author himself made my class feel that we were participating in something special and different.”

Melody Eury from North Carolina had originally been concerned that “not only were these students reluctant readers: they were also ‘poor’ readers. My worries were unfounded, however, because one of these ‘poor’ readers read every single book that we had! One student who said he did not read a book at all last year read five this year.”

The teachers all agreed that their students did more reading during this period than they otherwise would have and that they broadened their reading experiences by reading books they might not have chosen on their own. They were also impressed by the way the computer acted as an equalizer. Even shy children could express their ideas freely. We saw this demonstrated when we viewed a video Deirdre had made of a classroom book discussion. One child did not speak throughout the entire hour, but he sent and received mail on the computer often throughout the demonstration.

Based on the success of this limited demonstration, Marilyn and I have expanded the program, and through a state grant, conducted a weeklong training seminar for teachers in North Carolina. We are currently seeking the necessary funds to set up a program using the computer to hook troubled teens in our inner cities on to reading.

Project BookRead was an exciting adventure into the world of books and computers—an adventure that was successful even beyond our initial expectations. One seventh grader put it so well when she said, “The project was awesome! I got started reading Paulsen's books, and now he's one of my favorite authors. I think that talking to an author over the computer is totally space age! It's really cool!”

Wanderful interactive storybooks, of course, involve different technology than online computer conversations. And students today are using Skype, iPads, podcasts, and other technological means not only to communicate with authors and with one another, but also to create programs of their own. However, Project BookRead convinced Saccardi that online technology offers new and exciting resources for readers. It is up to us as teachers to discover and use these and other new technologies for our own student readers and writers

.

LIFE IN MY CLASSROOM INCLUDES CHILDREN AND TECHNOLOGY


by Rebecca Ann Penso

Some kids just learn to read. You show them books, help them decipher words, and inspire or prod them with thought-provoking questions. They just read. And then they just write. They easily copy strokes to make letters and remember the letter sequences to form words. Soon they are creating sentences and paragraphs. These are not the children I teach.

My students I work with youngsters with who face a variety of challenges among them learning and language disabilities, autism spectrum disorders, attention and motivation problems. These kids, no matter how hard they try, struggle with deciphering words and sentences. Letters are a jumble of lines and are, all too frequently, a nightmare to copy. My students have great ideas, but they lack the skills to translate them into written work. Many are easily distracted and prone to spend more time watching their classmates than focusing on lessons. They have all the 'smarts' they need but their deficits and limited attention thwart their academic success.

When I was lucky, I identified those in-trouble youngsters early on, in first or second grade, before they develop the host of coping-with-failure behaviors that create yet another roadblock to learning. Technology is a vital part of my program.

My context Education has undergone dramatic change during my career. In the 80s and 90s there was no map for dealing with kids with special needs. I was free to transform that room in the back of the schoolyard to an inspiring learning place. My classroom was crowded with guinea pigs, bookracks, folders of student materials, an art center, bulletin boards full of student projects, and fast growing silkworms. Carrots and radishes pushed out in clear plastic containers. We had picture books, reference materials and a rack of student-authored books.

My classroom was not state of the art. But it was extremely well organized from my children's per-

spective. Students had their own folders and knew exactly where to find and store the many materials they used each day.

I was an inveterate grant writer and collected several computers, including some that I bought and some donated by friends. A printer was networked to the computers.

Students came to my classroom and I tailored curriculum to their abilities and needs. Some focused on the most basic of readiness skills while others created several paragraph stories either with a pencil or a word processor.

The bell rings. . . Second and third graders galloped in almost as the first bell rang. Three grabbed their pair of disks to begin ten to fifteen minutes of a talking typing program that incorporates phonics with the beginning elements of word processing. Others worked on identifying and sequencing beginning sounds, and then moved on to typing.

By 8:30, the first graders fluttered in. I gathered them together to review their special sets of vocabulary. One day’s focus added food words (using an exploratory early learning software program) to our lists of colors, verbs, and vehicle words. I used lots of clues, including riddles and beginning sounds to guide these students to remember the vocabulary.


Next children moved on to interactive software. Perhaps they printed out an image. Perhaps they explored an interactive story on a CD-ROM. Occasionally they used a paint program to design and draw a favorite scene. Beginners dictated a sentence or two to an adult who added the words that described the drawing. Later children used paper and pencil, working on partially dictated sentences and using picture dictionaries. Ultimately, they wrote their own captions.

Meanwhile, other students read in pairs or individually, either with me or with my assistant. Youngsters usually read from either standard readers or chose core literature selections within the range of their skills.

Children loved to express themselves, both orally and in writing. Each child had his or her own picture dictionary to which we added personal vocabulary. As students finished first drafts, they were helped to reread creations with an adult, and then with a friend. Reading aloud provides a check on accuracy and communicative skill. In guided individual work and lessons, I helped them read their writing slowly, observing words that somehow were misplaced or never made it off the end of the pencil.

They brought finished products to me for word processing. The students read their stories as I typed them. We discussed confusing elements as they read, and they decided on modifications. While I did correct their spelling and punctuation, I tried to avoid modifying the language of my story creators. (The children read to me what they meant to say. They stumbled when work was over-edited.) My writers illustrated their finished products, then pasted them into their very own storybook. We recorded stories for later sharing at home and with peers. These storybooks and recordings became a treasured resource as children brought them home to share with their families.

In addition to this work with the computer and with the teacher, my students also reviewed vocabulary in their reading material and in their personal stories by writing sentences, working with word cards, and creating structured written work.

Recess? My language arts enthusiasts often need extra help memorizing and using information. So just before recess, many challenge each other with games emphasizing vocabulary math facts, and problem solving. Somehow lots of kids just linger on and never make it into the yard.

Round Two After recess, my older students enter. Some completed the typing-phonics program. Others concentrated on mastering keyboarding, enabling them to make the most of a talking word processor. They'd even made a cursory acquaintance with the spell checker. Direct instruction was increasingly curriculum-based. We used software programs as a springboard for ecology and animal exploration, extending our knowledge using the Eyewitness series of books as well as others. We explored the weather, using an online encyclopedia as well as picture text materials. My students used literature-based CD-ROM stories as inspiration for their own retellings. In addition, students worked together to recreate favorite tales or develop their own, completing work with drawings and captioning then, linking scenes to make slideshow.

Moving right along In last decade computers have entered nearly every child’s home. Not just parents but many young-sters have their own cell phones. Education has changed too. Today the mainstream classroom is the designated setting for nearly all youngsters, including those with special needs. Every child works with grade level texts and materials. Children with disabilities receive most of their support within the general education setting. Resource specialists and general education teachers collaborate to optimize learning, planning lessons as a team. Together we create a learning environment for all children to thrive.


Swimming in the Mainstream In the mainstream classroom I help small groups and individuals. With modifications, youngsters partic-ipate with their peers. I preteach vocabulary, posting rebus charts for difficult words. I preread stories and written assignments, explaining challenging concepts, paraphrasing directions and checking for under-standing. I introduce many of the same techniques I have used in previous years, not only to those with disabilities but also for those who need just a bit of additional assistance. Much of the support is similar to what I used when special education was isolated. By finding free and inexpensive online programs, I organize computer stations so that, in spare moments, students can reinforce skills. In spare moments, children are also able to delve into simplified books and alternate activities.

Using every moment School days are stuffed with mandated academic instruction. Continually assessment requires a common curriculum with little time for hands-on experiences. Every moment outside the traditional school day becomes precious. Before and after school, at recess and at lunch, children nearly bang down my door to use programs and explore the web for images and articles.

Funding is tight, grants hard to come by. I found another strategy for providing technology. Twenty-four eMacs, castoffs were brought up to speed with eBay purchased memory and newer system software. My room offers opportunities for growing and learning in a student-directed environment. Shelves display excitement: anole lizards camouflaging among the leaves, silkworms gobbling up mulberry leaves and transforming into moths, centers for illustrating stories and a well stocked library of favorite books at all levels. When general education teachers find a few minutes, I bring them hands-on experiences—planting seeds, viewing online videos—that parallel their classroom work. Online videos (often from YouTube) provide stop motion plants cycling from seeds to flowers and vegetables. The Internet invites glimpses into any area

we can imagine: international pen pals, virtual journeys to other countries, under the sea or other worlds and more.

Today’s children grow and learn together. We no longer have those special isolated children. They, like their peers, are enveloped in technology. It permeates every part of their lives. It’s amazing how much students know and how well they can progress with the right kind of support. Every child must become proficient at using word processing and exploring the Internet. Be it making a Powerpoint presentation or creating a traditional report, technology has given access to a world of excitement. The school day is too short, Teachers can’t do it all. Every family needs to provide those experiences that link schoolwork to real life.

Favorite web sites Starfall takes preschools and beginning readers to sound/symbol work and talking,. The interactive books http://www.starfall.com (free) Public Broadcast System presents favorite book and cartoon friends in a variety of game challenges.

http://pbskids.org/ (free) Writing Buddy, available as a smartphone app, offers a talking word/singing processor. It is especially enticing for beginning readers and writers.

http://drpeet.com/Reading_Writing_Tools.html ($6.99) Wacky Web Tales is a fill-in-the-blank story writer. Kids complete a list of nouns, verbs and adjectives. These are placed in blanks to complete a tale for sharing and giggling.

http://www.eduplace.com/tales/ (free) Enchanted Learning entices beginners and those with nascent skills. A wealth of information for elementary youngsters, this program not only is fun for budding explorers but also for children interested in sharing other

languages. http://www.enchantedlearning.com/ (free and enhanced versions)

CLASSROOM PRACTICE AND READING


Language-rich classrooms continue a child's natural development of language We teachers simply build on what our students’ parents and caregivers have begun. We recognize that the children who come to us have been successful language users for several years and that we need to continue to provide many opportunities each day for them to expand and hone the skills begun in early childhood. We know that we don't have to wait until they are ready to read, that they learn to read as they learned to talk, by plunging in and DOING it…very day, many times a day. We know that children are uninhibited, enthusiastic language users and learners, and so we give them room to experiment and take risks without fear of failure.

Above all, we share with them the joy, the enrichment, the new vistas that the world of books opens up to us. We show them that reading is something we do because we LOVE it, because it is actually FUN, because it is an important way of connecting and communicating with others. We read to them daily; we share with them words, phrases, paragraphs from our own adult books that move and inspire us. We laugh, we wonder, we cry, we are silent along with them as we grow into a community of readers and writers.

Reading and Wanderful interactive storybooks One of the special gifts of reading, for those of us who love books, is that it engages our imaginations. Reading introduces us to characters and people who can become as real to us as our own families, and allows us to experience events, times, and settings far from our daily experience. Helping children make that imaginative leap from the sea of print on a page is one our greatest challenges and greatest rewards.

Wanderful interactive storybooks enable students to experience the joy of imaginative reading that is so important to establishing a life-long habit of reading for pleasure. The stories themselves are fun to read. And when the children interact with them on the screen, they are engaging in that joyful play with

language that is so natural to the young. They meet the unexpected—a door window suddenly becomes a car windshield, a patch of flowers becomes a singing group. The images and sounds and music embedded in every page of a Wanderful interactive storybook give a child an experience of the imaginative available in reading.

Children using Wanderful interactive storybooks get inside the minds of the story characters; they can listen in on thoughts not expressed in the text or see how another character reacts to an event. These interactions expand children's understanding of character development and viewpoint, and help them see the varying interpretations readers make as they respond to stories. In The New Kid on the Block it is the text itself that stimulates the imaginative sound and animations. Children literally play with language in this collection of poetry, experiencing figurative language and image in graphics and music.

The wealth of related books and activities suggested here in the Classroom Activities for each title provide many opportunities for real reading and writing throughout the day. We hope you will find resources here to stimulate and support young readers both in your classrooms and in their trips to libraries and bookstores.

CLASSROOM PRACTICE AND WRITING


by Bonnie Sunstein

We want our classrooms to be sites for making knowledge with words, places where communities of readers and writers work with their choices. Com-puters, tablets, and other technology enrich our knowledge-making spaces because they integrate reader, writer, and text. They blur the boundaries between teachers and students. Texts and students can become teachers, and we learn from what students discover as they change words, sounds, and images. Computers and tablets invite us all to manipulate texts, share responses, revise continually, and actually watch as our decisions blend with what’s already there.

Angie and Ricardo select an electronic storybook on their classroom computer or tablet. Together, they’ve chosen Just Grandma and Me. They each read the book several times. But this time, they explore its text electronically. Critters have voices, images have words which name them, and scenes come alive with verbal description. As their own new version of the story unfolds, Angie and Ricardo choose their focus. They spot a bird in a tree. They click. The bird speaks. They notice a little character on the beach with his mother, click, and hear him complain. They giggle when they discover that they can replay the story—first in Spanish, then in English.

Are they reading? Of course. Are they writing? Yes. Are they collaborating? You bet. Are they making meaning? Absolutely. Reading, writing, thinking, and responding are interconnected, complementary acts. Growth in reading and listening enhances growth in writing and speaking. Each is a process of making sense and creating meaning through language, personalizing the rules that govern and organize thinking. Over the last thirty years in literacy education, we’ve learned that students experience these interconnections by talking about what they read, writing and commenting about how they did it, and sharing their reading and writing with others. The more we research, the more we see that literacy learning is a complex process, difficult to define and difficult to measure.

In schools, we hear so much jargon that the words can lose their power: “authentic,” “student-centered,” “writing process,” “critical thinking,” and even “literacy” itself. When we hear them too often, the words disconnect from our classroom practices even as they find their way into new materials and curriculum decisions. But whether we listen to the latest jargon or read the latest research findings, we always know our students. As teachers, we know that we must ensure a diet of varied writing and broad reading experiences, a community of responders, and lots of opportunities for revising and writing about the reading they do.

Literacy development involves connecting to other readers, to other writers, to other texts. It is both cognitive and social. To control language, students need to choose what they say and then work with their words. They need our confidence to trust their competence as word-workers. We cannot offer them single texts to read or empty structures in which to fit their writing. Instead, we must offer them arrays of choices.

A Visible Transaction We want to make literacy “authentic,” but we wonder. How do a reader's decisions enable her to see herself as a writer? When readers manipulate texts as Angie and Ricardo do, they integrate literacy processes in ways that are not possible with traditional books. The stories quite literally come to life in Angie and Ricardo's hands. With each decision to tap the screen or click the mouse, they read more deeply and clarify their version of the story they “write.”

Reading and writing are continual transactions be-tween writer, reader, and text—sometimes visible, sometimes not. In Wanderful interactive storybooks, as Angie and Ricardo show us, the transaction between the reader and writer becomes visible to


them. In this case they see the text change as they manipulate it. They decide to re-work the story in Spanish, for example. It is a book they already know in English, but in Spanish they hear subtle differences of sound and inflection. In another version, they forego the story line and choose to focus on a few details—the mailbox, the tree, a starfish, the contents of Grandma's purse—and they see that rich detailing deepens a story.

All picture books integrate three texts: the illustrated text, the written text, and the text the reader creates when he or she reads. Authors of picture books understand the value of illustration; pictures hold more meaning than readers sometimes realize. Illustrated text and written text merge with each choice Angie and Ricardo make. An important goal for students’ writing is to integrate images and words, and that’s exactly what they do when they explore inside a Wanderful interactive storybook.

Writing and Revision When Angie and Ricardo choose a language, a detail, or a narrative line to follow, they learn that writers compose by choosing. Good writers know they have options; they compose by deciding topics, organizing information, fleshing out characters, exploring setting details, and nudging narratives along. Wanderful interactive storybooks illustrate the options writers have, and offer a continual array of choices for writers as they revise. While Angie and Ricardo “write” their version by choosing options, they read. The more they read, the more access they have to the choices the writer made.

As they re-work Just Grandma and Me, Angie and Ricardo try alternative arrangements and name them as they go. They watch the character ride an umbrella and snorkel on the beach, but then they decide to stop to watch his encounter with a starfish. When they revise their experience with the text, they re-envision language as well as thinking.

Writers re-think an idea from alternate points of view or re-write it for an imagined audience. They read in order to re-write, and in the doing, they name the feature of language (grammar, usage, mechanics), the qualities of organization (information, content, mode, genre), and the purpose they wish to achieve (pattern, audience, tone or “voice”). Thus, Angie and Ricardo employ writing

strategies as they read: to improve thought, negotiate with others, and understand and name the language features that make up a written text.

Revision is the key to better writing, but it is difficult to do and even more difficult to teach. Computers, tablets, and word processors help us define and enact the processes involved in writing: prewriting, drafting, revising, re-drafting, editing, and publishing. With programs like Wanderful interactive storybooks, our students see themselves as readers and feel themselves as writers, as they work and re-work texts. In The New Kid on

the Block, for example, the voice of poet Jack Prelutsky reads as students choose details, phrases and images to explore in his poetry. Angie and Ricardo stop to investigate a detail of setting, and move toward reshaping the poem as they want it.

Seventy years ago, literary theorist Louise Rosenblatt wrote that reading itself is a private transaction between writer and reader. A reader needs to understand herself first, “achieve an inner center from which to view in perspective a shifting society.” And more recently, philosopher Maxine Greene observed that we do not achieve real freedom until we have a forum in which to speak. The freedom to grow, Greene writes, comes when there is a “consciousness of possibility.”

As they explore Wanderful interactive storybooks together, Angie and Ricardo discover a consciousness of possibility. They negotiate decisions, giggle over words, transform pictures into language and backgrounds into details. As they talk and listen, together and alone, they learn about their own power as readers and writers—as shapers of meaning.

Greene, Maxine. Dialectic of Freedom. New York: Teacher's Col-lege Press, 1988.

Rosenblatt, Louise. Literature as Exploration. New York: Modern

Language Association, 1983.

----. The Reader The Text The Poem: The Transactional Theory of the Literary Work. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois

University Press, 1978.

CLASSROOM PRACTICE AND TECHNOLOGY


“Mrs. Penso,” demanded Teresa. “Do you know what I

found out?” Teresa looked both amazed and smug as she dashed in the classroom door last fall after summer vacation. She looked around the room to see whether her teacher had loaded up her bookracks yet. Spying the copy of Arthur's Teacher

Trouble she was looking for, she snatched it up and waved it in Mrs. Penso's direction.

“Remember when we read this last year? Did you know there are LOTS MORE BOOKS ABOUT ARTHUR?” Teresa was enjoying her discovery immensely, but maybe not as much as was her teacher.

Mrs. Penso smiled, remembering the fun her classes had had last spring with Arthur's Teacher Trouble. The electronic version had given rise to puppets, math stories, role playing, and books children had written and illustrated in response to meeting Arthur. She looked at Teresa now, pleased to see her excitement. “I guess I did know that, but how did you find out?” she asked.

“I found them at the library. There must be about ten of them and I read 'm all!” Teresa's eyes sparkled. She jammed the book back into the rack in triumph and scooted out of the room into the playground.

What is the role of technology in the classroom? Re-search debates continue. Conferences and seminars showcase the ways teachers across the country are incorporating technology into their classrooms. But perhaps the most powerful voices are those of children like Teresa. They remind us that children learn and experience as individuals. Children learn in a variety of ways and with a variety of media. The goal for us as teachers is to foster Teresa's feeling of personal accomplishment and excitement in each child.

How can we offer youngsters learning experiences that are well matched to their readiness and abilities as well as interests. . . in our one teacher/thirty student classroom? The language classroom offers reading with real books. And the technology-rich language environment features multimedia experiences in a language-saturated setting. Technology can offer solutions that enable us to individualize some learning experiences and provide cooperative opportunities for other projects.

Computer software is infinitely patient and forgiving. A child can have a word pronounced for her fifty times if she chooses. Exploratory programs invite children to learn through discovery and experimentation. These features enable teachers to individualize each child's learning.

Technology also provides real opportunities for cooperative learning. Children work together to produce a multimedia project, or offer one another suggestions as they solve a technical or an academic problem.

Technology enters our schools in many ways. The Internet is incredible, with worldwide connections to information including videos, pen pal conversations, virtual experiences—so much more than paper and pencil lessons. Portable projectors allow an entire class, even a whole auditorium to view presentations. Add an attached optical page reader and you can even enlarge and project old-fashioned print! “Magic” whiteboards feature interactive lessons without the chalk dust. Ubiquitous smart phones catch photos and create videos. Even textbooks and encyclopedias are interactive, with daily revisions. Fantastic new tools are born every day, ready to inspire, educate and entertain. How can teachers prepare students? Fortunately, technology invites us to help them think creatively so that they can meet the challenges of a tomorrow we can barely imagine.

The technology of an electronic storybook software program inspired Teresa to seek out a library and design a summer reading experience for herself. Does technology belong in your classroom?

WANDERFUL INTERACTIVE STORY- BOOKS AND THEMATIC UNITS


Thematic units integrate all of the language arts— reading, writing, listening and speaking—and employ other areas of the curriculum such as math, science, social studies, art, and music to help with the investigation. Jeanne Machado, in Early Childhood Experiences in Language Arts, observes, “Most teachers believe that using a thematic approach [in literacy instruction] is an exciting challenge that is well worth teacher time and effort. They see this approach as one that encourages child-teacher conversations and consequently expands children's language usage and knowledge” (190). It is important for children to work individually and in groups, to learn research and note-taking skills, to keep learning journals, to share their learning with the rest of the class, and to reflect on their learning each day.

When teachers organize instruction around themes, their students become more invested and enthusiastic about their learning. They become a community of learners working for a common goal, courageous enough to take risks, to delve into material that stretches their capabilities. For these students, the curriculum is not something imposed on them but rather a course of study they and their teacher work out together as they plan what they want to find out about a topic and what kinds of research and activities they will pursue. Integrated learning enables students to see how a topic touches every aspect of their lives and relates to the world around them. Classrooms organized around theme cycles are busy, happy places where children are active participants in their own learning.

The Classroom Activities for the Wanderful interactive storybooks suggest many themes: sibling relationships, school, bullying, grandparents, humor, the value of perseverance, etc. These themes can be successfully integrated with your own curriculum and explored with any age group or ability level. Since literature is the center around which thematic learning revolves, a particular theme can be adapted for any age student by adjusting the difficulty and content of the literature selected and the depth and extent of the activities chosen to aid the study.

Sample Thematic Unit: Shelter To study the concept of shelter as a basic need for all creatures, human as well as animal, pre or emerging readers can begin by describing their own homes. They can draw pictures of their houses, discuss the differences in size and design, and talk about some basics of home construction. Children can explore animal shelters: the class fish tank, birds’ nests, shells, or dog houses. They can dramatize stories such as The Three Little Pigs in which finding and keeping a home plays a prominent part. All the while, the teacher reads daily from picture books about animal and human shelters and has an ample supply of books for the children to peruse individually and in groups. Books such as Mary Ann Hoberman’s A House Is a House for Me (Puffin, 2007), Jim Aylesworth’s The Mitten (Scholastic, 2009), and Irene Kelly’s Even an Octopus Needs a Home (Holiday House, 2011) can expand their concept of “home.”

Provide older students with picture books as well as with more difficult works of fiction like Give Me Shelter edited by Tony Bradman (Frances Lincoln, 2011) or Marianne Malone's The Sixty-Eight Rooms (Random House, 2010), and non-fiction books such as Building Green Places: Careers in Planning, Designing, and Building by Ruth Owen (Crabtree, 2009). They might study houses through the ages and in different cultures using books such as A Picture History of Great Buildings by Gillian Clements (Frances Lincoln, 2008). Invite a local architect to speak to the class about his or her work. Children can discuss the materials needed to build a house they design and compute the cost of purchasing them and of maintaining the house yearly. They can study the plight of the homeless, collect food and clothing for homeless people, or help at a soup kitchen. Students can explore animal shelters, re-search animals whose habitats might be in danger, and build birdhouses and watch the National Geographic film Amazing Animal Builders available on YouTube.

Good books, CDs, apps, interviews, podcasts, drama, reading and writing, art, music, group and individual projects are the ingredients which make integrated learning a meaningful experience for any age group.

WANDERFUL INTERACTIVE STORYBOOKS AND GENRE STUDY


A genre study is a chance to pause, to stop the normal flow of daily free-writing choices, and crawl inside one particular kind of writing for several weeks. Teacher and children together become researchers who collect as many examples of the selected genre as possible; who read in the genre aloud, individually and in groups; who study it from all angles—form, content, images, language. Finally, they try their hand writing their own pieces.

Genre studies often bring about a kind of chain reaction that transforms students into better readers and writers. When they are immersed in a genre over a length of time, they grow to love it, even to become passionate about it. That passion fuels the desire to read more and more in the genre and to write their own pieces. When students understand how a particular kind of writing works, it becomes easier for them to read with comprehension and insight. They notice features they never noticed before. And when they turn to writing, what they produce is no accident, but the result of a conscious effort to emulate works they have been studying.

Wanderful interactive storybooks exemplify several different genres: picture books, poetry, and fables. Because they are so much fun and make books “come alive” for children, they readily motivate students to explore these literary forms in detail. Children of all ages and abilities will profit from one or more in-depth genre studies during the year.

Sample Genre study: Poetry Any genre study begins with a gathering of examples—as many as teacher and students can bring into the room. In a study of poetry, bring in books of poetry from the library, poems borrowed from friends and relatives, and personal favorites. “Marinate” the children in poetry by reading several poems a day to them, even using poems about math or other subject areas.

Project poems on an overhead projector as you read them so that the children can see their form, where the white spaces are, where the lines begin and end. Have children work in groups and in pairs to classify poems into types (humorous, serious, poems about families, etc.), to hunt for figurative language, for words that convey images. Copy poems on charts and hang them

around the room, and copy favorite poems into a special notebook. Record poems and make these as well as other poetry CDs available for individual listening. Memorize poems (See Forget-Me-Nots: Poems to Learn by Heart, edited by Mary Ann Hoberman, (Little Brown, 2012), dramatize poems, stage choral readings, and write your own poetry.

Introduce pre and emergent readers to the rhythmic poetry of Mary Ann Hoberman using The Llama Who Had No Pajama: 100 Favorite Poems (Sandpiper, 2006) so they can begin playing with words. They can enlarge their own poems, illustrate them, and create a class Big Book of poetry.

Older students can study the genres within poems: narratives, ballads, cinquains, haiku, etc. They might also enjoy exploring the poetry of popular song lyrics and writing their own songs.

ELL readers can study poets of their ethnic backgrounds. Pat Mora's Yum! Mmmm! Que Rico! Americas' Sproutings (Lee & Low, 2007) provides information about fourteen popular foods that trace their origins to the Americas, accompanied by information with haiku sprinkled with Spanish words. Mora's edited collection, Love to Mama: A Tribute to Mothers, (Lee & Low, 2004) contains bilingual poems from thirteen poets of Puerto Rican, Cuban, Venezuelan, and Mexican American backgrounds, celebrating their bond with mothers. Danielle Wright’s Japanese Nursery Rhymes: Carp Streamers, Falling Rain and Other Traditional Favorites (Tuttle, 2012) is an illustrated collection of rhymes including a CD. Tap Dancing on the Roof: Sijo Poems (Clarion, 2007) is a collection of poems written as sijo, a traditional Korean verse form. Chinese and English Nursery Rhymes: Share and Sing in Two Languages (Tuttle, 2010) provides information about Chinese culture in addition to the rhymes, and children can sing along to the accompanying CD. Freda Bedi's Rhymes for Rango (Random House India, 2012) is a collection of poems about India featuring various feasts and customs.


As literate adults, we often rush to the bookstore or the library as soon as we become aware that one of our favorite authors has published a new book. We delight in reading everything that author has written, and we are anxious to experience yet again words and ideas we have come to love. We read his or her new work anticipating the kinds of themes, the writing style, the use of language we will encounter. We read with the familiarity of someone who approaches her favorite chair, knowing all the lumps and bumps and soft places.

When we spend several weeks of classroom time engaging in an author study, we give our students the opportunity to do what literate people everywhere do, to join what Frank Smith (1988, Joining the Literacy Club) calls the Literacy Club. Young readers and writers who spend precious time walking around in an author's shoes come away with new insights about the craft of writing. In coming to know that author's voice, they are better able to find their own voices when they write.

Sample Author Study: Marc Brown The first step in any author study is to select a fine author who has a large, varied body of work available and then to collect as many of that author's books as possible for classroom use. Living Books offer students wonderful authors for study. Because children enjoy reading these books so much, they frequently ask about other books that author has written. This is the perfect opportunity for teachers to introduce an author study quite naturally into the curriculum. Marc Brown, author of Wanderful interactive storybooks’ Arthur's Teacher Trouble, is an excellent subject for such a study. Children will likely be familiar with the characters in Brown's Arthur series because of the TV shows featuring them, and they will be eager to learn more about the author who created the characters they have come to love. They will also be able to study these characters more deeply than they might by simply viewing their actions on a TV screen.

What makes Brown such an interesting subject for study is that he is both an author and an illustrator, and it is instructive for students to consider how he does both. Read several books in the Arthur series aloud for pre and beginning readers. Some recent ones, all published by Little Brown, include Arthur's Eyes (2009), Arthur and

the Baby (2011), Arthur Locked in the Library (2012), and Arthur Turns Green (2011). After enjoying the books for several days, make a list with the children of the things common to most of the books. For example, many books present a problem or issue the characters have to solve. Keep the list up in the classroom throughout the study.

The books Marc Brown illustrates for other authors are especially suited to very young children. Because of their repetitive patterns and rhyme, students can continue writing the stories following that pattern on a class chart, individually, or in pairs. Bind the individual or paired writings into a book for the class library. See especially Dancing Feet by Lindsey Craig (Knopf, 2010), and Eric Pinder's If All the Animals Came Inside (Little Brown, 2012). How are the illustrations in these two books different from those in the Arthur books? What materials did Brown use? What are some of the ways Marc Brown makes us laugh when we see his pictures? Judy Sierra's Wild About You (Knopf, 2012) is especially useful for studying pictures since the text invites children to look for animals in the illustrations.

Older children can make a list of Brown's books using such resources as the library's online catalog. They can also go online and visit the author's website at http://www.marcbrownstudios.com/index.html and decide which ones they would like to read.


List related books. If changes were made, why do the children think this was done? They can investigate who tells the stories in the different books. Would the book be different if another character told the story? How? If you can obtain older Arthur books, it would be useful for students to study those illustrations as compared to the more recent ones. What is different about Brown's use of color? His use of white space in each spread? Use the Postcards from Buster book to launch a postcard writing activity.

After studying the Arthur books and making a list of their subject matter and the elements that make up these stories, the students could write additional Arthur stories and send them to the author. Is there a current school or community issue that could become the subject of their stories?

Children of all ages will enjoy the information on the Marc Brown Studio Page (see above) and a link from there will take them to the PBS site, which is filled with information, games, and challenges. They can also view a film about his work on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yNuBnNCAkQ&feature=related ).

Several of the Arthur books have been published in Spanish and children for whom Spanish is a first language might enjoy reading them alongside the English versions. All ELL students will benefit from reading the patterned books illustrated by Brown mentioned above.

By studying master writers, children can become “in-siders” in the writing process and become better writers themselves.

WANDERFUL INTERACTIVE STORYBOOKS AND CREATIVE PLAY


Wanderful interactive storybooks encourage readers to explore the reactions and differing points of view of many characters in a scene. Since students already interact with the characters on the computer screen, dramatic play in your classroom encourages students to expand those interactions imaginatively. Frequently on-screen viewpoints and reactions suggest subplots that can be developed through dramatic play. Dramatic play comes in many varieties.

Creative dramatics doesn't include an audience or the pressure of performance. Rather, it allows children to understand and interpret a story through movement and invention. It is particularly appropriate for younger children or for exploring a conflict or an emotional scene or event.

Role playing allows children to take on a character's attitudes and problems, to see the world from inside someone else's skin. Activities involving role playing encourage close attention to character and interpretation of a book, but they also enable children to place characters in new situations and use their own problem solving skills.

Reader's theater productions generally use the text of the story itself, distributing dialogue and narration among a number of readers. Because reader's theater is usually unstaged, it enables your students to focus on the interpretive range of their voices and of the language itself. It also removes the necessity for scripts and memorization, refinements that can delay or frighten young performers.

Puppet productions are another way to dramatize the events and play with the characters presented in Wanderful interactive storybooks. Your budding artists can create stick puppets, scenery and stages, while writers script new endings or subplots to Wanderful interactive stories.

Improvisations begin with a group of characters in a setting, present them with a conflict, and allow them to invent the play as they go along, spontaneously working off the ideas each person improvises. Improvisation can be similar to role playing in a larger group, or it can focus on developing plot solutions to a conflict.

Full scale productions, either newly written by your students based on characters in the books or adapted from the text of a Wanderful interactive storybook, are more major undertakings. The use of scenery, costumes, props, and even videotape can complicate your classroom life. And yet they may be the most memorable event of a unit or even a school year.

Sample Dramatic Play: Creative Dramatics, Puppet Productions, and Improvisation Pre and beginning readers, using creative dramatics to

explore Just Grandma and Me, can reenact a day at the beach: spreading out beach towels, dropping and washing off hot dogs, building sand castles, and testing the water temperature.

Middle level readers can listen to and write down the additional dialogue they discover by clicking on characters in any Wanderful interactive storybook. This dialogue can become the basis of puppet plays, using stick puppets made from the classroom activity resources.

Older readers might improvise the conversation Arthur and Little Critter have about bus rides. Or they could improvise the story the hare tells to his relatives when he returns home from the big race.

WANDERFUL INTERACTIVE STORYBOOKS AND COOPERATIVE LEARNING


Shared wisdom is always an asset. Kids working together reinforce each other's enthusiasm, support and extend individual ideas, and share a larger pool of skills and resources. You will find many opportunities to use cooperative learning strategies in the activities that accompany each Wanderful interactive storybook. Students will learn from one another, both about how to manipulate the features of Wanderful interactive storybook and about the learning activities in which they are engaged.

Cooperative groups will foster discussion about the concepts being investigated and the skills being developed. Sometimes this discussion gets noisy, but it strengthens your students' participation in the exploration and in the learning process.

When forming pairs or teams, aim for mixed groups that include both boys and girls, different abilities, and different ethnic groups. Make sure each student is assigned a role: recorder, mouse handler or tablet holder, spokesperson, encourager, reader, materials manager, etc. You can help your students develop good cooperative learning teams by going over ground rules such as taking turns, rotating leadership, fulfilling responsibilities to the group, and making positive rather than negative comments.

Set up a classroom environment conducive to team work. Arrange space for teams to work together. This may mean moving desks together into groups or setting up a schedule assigning groups to specific time slots at the available computers or tablets.

Design assignments that call for group planning, team writing, students helping students, group sharing. At the same time, use portfolio assessment, involving individual students in setting personalized goals and charting their individual progress.

Sample Cooperative Learning Strategies with Wanderful Interactive Storybooks Computer explorations invariably are more productive for pairs or teams of students. Teams or small groups increase the number of youngsters who can use available equipment while at the same time sharing their expertise. Nonverbal students, for example, may emerge as technological leaders. Students with strong visual or tactile learning preferences may be able to contribute much to students whose strengths are more verbal.

For Pre-Kindergarten and primary students, tapping or mouse handling may present challenges that group support can solve. Ask teams of students to locate and click on or touch a particular character on each page. One child can locate the onscreen character on each page, such as the dragonfly in The Tortoise and the Hare, while the other touches, or moves and clicks the mouse. Be sure students take turns so each student gets practice with each skill.

Older groups of students may enjoy creating a detective game or treasure hunt, challenging other students to find particular effects (for example, all the car and truck sounds, all the insects, all the singing flowers, all the periscopes) within any one of the Wanderful interactive storybooks. An undertaking of this size will require the roles of observers and detectives, note takers, clue writers, illustrators, game designers, and instruction writers.

WANDERFUL TECHNICAL TIPS AND TRICKS


Dynamic Page Selection Click on or touch the top right corner of the screen and select the page you want from a menu.

Dynamic Language Changing Click on or touch the top left corner of the screen and select the language you want. The language will change on the page immediately.

Settings and Keyboard Commands There are several settings and keyboard commands that can simplify your use of Wanderful interactive storybooks in the classroom.

1. If you tap the screen or click while the text that begins each screen is reading, the reading will be interrupted and you will advance the action on any screen to the interactive portion.

2. Selecting the page number at the bottom of each screen will take you back to the Home page, where you can click Options to change Settings.

3. On a keyboard, selecting the numbers 1 or 2 will immediately switch the language version of the page that is currently displayed. 1 is the English version.

4. On a keyboard, the letters R and P allow you to switch between the Read To Me and the Let Me Play options.

Duplicating Pages and Images Pages and images from Wanderful interactive storybooks have been included with the classroom activities, as samples to get you started and as inspiration for you to create your own custom materials.

You can duplicate and enlarge the materials included in these classroom activities, or create your own.

On an iPad or iPhone, you can create screen captures by simultaneously pressing the on/off switch and the center Home or Menu button. The screen capture will be stored in Photos. From there you can email the image to yourself.

On a Macintosh computer, you can print screens or create screen captures (on a Macintosh, use [Command+Shift+3] or [Command+Shift+4]).

By importing screen captures into drawing, painting, or presentation programs like Kid Pix, Hyperstudio, or Powerpoint, you and your students can place screen images from Wanderful interactive storybooks in slide shows and presentations.

SELECTING BOOKS FOR CHILDREN


Thousands of children's books are published every year. In fact, many publishers have added a third publishing season in addition to their winter and fall lists. Add these to the huge body of work currently in print, and it is clear that selecting just the right book for a particular child or class can be a formidable task. Knowing what to look for in a good book can make that task easier. If you are familiar with some of the wonderful books that have maintained the respect of reviewers and have been beloved by children and adults through the years, then you have models against which to judge the new books you encounter in your search.

When selecting fiction for children, it is important to consider such elements as plot, setting, theme, characterization, style, point of view, and format (See Barbara's Kiefer's Charlotte Huck's Children's Literature (2009). Here are some issues to consider when evaluating a book in each category.

Plot Is the plot new and original or contrived and predictable?

Setting Does the setting have an impact on the characters and the story? Does the author do a good job of creating a lasting impression of the setting without bogging the book down in details that are tedious to children? Is the setting believable, even in a work of fantasy or science fiction?

Theme Is the theme or message of the book handled subtly or is it didactic and heavy-handed?

Character Do the characters stay with us long after the book is closed and the details are lost to memory? Are they real and believable? Are their thoughts and actions in keeping with what the author has told us about them? Do the characters grow and change, that is, are they well developed? How? Does their dialogue ring true?

Style How does the author write? Is the language memorable or stilted? Do the words sing?

Point of View Who tells the story—the main character, a third person narrator? Do we agree with the author's choice of point of view?



Format Is the book well designed? Is the print large enough, the white space in proper proportion? Particular kinds of books need special consideration. In choosing picture books, of course, you need to pay particular attention to the illustrations. Do they develop and enhance the story? Does the medium chosen convey the mood of the story? What about color, line, space?

Genre Non-fiction books should be judged on the accuracy and timeliness of their information and on how knowledgeable the author is about the subject. Books of fantasy must be consistent and believable.

Above all, you must trust yourself. If a book comes alive for you, if it holds you, haunts your quiet moments, calls to you to be read again and yet again, then that is a book you must share with the children in your lives. But how to find these special books amidst the shelves and catalog pages? Fortunately, there are many journals that provide teachers with fine book reviews and timely articles about using literature in the classroom.

Journals with Book and Media Reviews

Booklist American Library Association. 50 E. Huron Street, Chicago, IL 60611. 800 545-2433. https://ssl.palmcoastd.com/17102/apps/-162720?iKey=INEW&

Includes two print magazines: Booklist with 22 print issues/year and Book Links with 4 issues/year. Print subscribers and others have access to the online Booklist as well (http://www.booklistonline.com/) but only subscribers can access full articles. Booklist contains over 8,000 recommended-only adult, youth, reference, and media reviews each year and 135,000 reviews in a searchable online archive. Book Links contains children's book recommendations arranged in themes.

The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books The Johns Hopkins University Press 2715 North Charles Street Baltimore, Maryland 21218-4363 Phone: 800-548-1784 Outside the U.S. and Canada call 410-516-6987 Fax: 410-516-6968 Online: www.press.jhu.edu/journals Email: [email protected]

Eleven issues per year. Excellent reviews of books for all age

The Horn Book 50 Roland Street, Suite 200 Boston, MA 02129 617-628-0225 877-523-6072 http://www.hbook.com



The Horn Book (continued) Six issues per year. Selects only those books it considers worth purchasing. Also offers wonderful articles, at least one of which is written by a children's book author. Also publishes the Horn Book Guide twice yearly. The Guide provides 2,000 concise reviews in each issue. The Horn Book Guide Online (http://www.hornbookguide.com/cgi-bin/hbonline.pl) contains 80,000 reviews. Non-subscribers can receive monthly issues of the informative Notes from the Horn Book. To subscribe go to http://www.hbook.com/notes-from-the-horn-book-newsletter/

Kirkus Reviews Phone: .800.316.9361 https://www.kirkusreviews.com/subscription/add/

This magazine publishes reviews on the 1st and 15th of every month and subscribers have digital access as well (http://www.kirkusreviews.com/issue/). Even non-subscribers can obtain free weekly email newsletters. To subscribe, go to https://www.kirkusreviews.com/subscription/register/?utm_source=kirkus&utm_medium=masthead&utm_campaign=newsletter-sign-up

Publishers Weekly

P.O. Box 51593 Harlan, IA 51593 Phone: 800-278-2991 (outside US/Canada, call +1-515-247-2984) Fax: 712-733-8019 publishersweekly.com Email: [email protected]

Publishes 51 issues per year with reviews targeted at publishers, booksellers, librarians and literary agents. Subscribers have access to a digital version as well. A free daily email newsletter is available at http://publishersweekly.us1.list-manage.com/profile?u=d684790bedf89afe76e7b9156&id=0f4bd0fb05&e=0b997bb5b5 Publishers Weekly Children's Book Shelf ([email protected]) is also a very helpful free email newsletter.

School Library Journal PO. Box 5881 Harlan, IA 51593-1381 Phone: (800) 595-1066 Fax: (646) 380-0756 Email: [email protected]

Publishes twelve issues per year. Written especially to librarians, though very helpful to anyone interested in children's books, this publication publishes over 4,000 reviews each year. It also has some feature articles about books in the library or classroom. This is a key review source for schools and libraries. School Library Journal also publishes a free email newsletter called Extra Helpings. Subscribe at www.slj.com.

The websites of all these publications are also wonderful sources of information about children's books.



Best Books Lists

All of the review materials listed above publish yearly lists of the best books of the year:

All of these lists are available in the magazines as well as online for a given year.

Booklist - Editors' Choice: Books for Youth and one for Young Adults

Book Links - Lasting Connections

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books - Blue Ribbon List

Horn Book - Fanfare The Horn Book also awards the prestigious

Boston Globe-Horn Book Award to a few select outstanding children's books each year. See their website for winners.

Kirkus Reviews - best books of the year lists

Publishers Weekly - several best books of the year lists

School Library Journal - a best books of the year list

The Children's Book Committee of Bank Street College of Education, NY, publishes five different Best Children's Books of the Year lists for various age levels from under 5 years of age to 14 and up. Go to: http://bankstreet.edu/center-childrens-literature/childrens-book-committee/

The Cooperative Children's Book Center publishes the Charlotte Zolotow book award list for outstanding picture books. Go to http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/books/detailListBooks.asp?idBookLists=221

The Association for Library Service to Children of the American Library Association has established awards for the most distinguished books of the year in different categories. These lists can be accessed by going to http://www.ala.org/alsc/. These lists are among the most respected in the field and can serve as an excellent guide for book choices, since they have been selected out of thousands of possibilities. These award lists are:

John Newbery Medal The Newbery Medal honors the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.

Randolph Caldecott Medal The Caldecott Medal honors the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children.

May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture Award The Arbuthnot award honors an author, critic, librarian, historian, or teacher of children's literature, of any country, who then presents a lecture at a winning host site.

Mildred L. Batchelder Award The Batchelder Award is given to an American publisher for a children's book considered to be the most outstanding of those books originally published in a language other than English in a country other than the United States, and subsequently translated into English and published in the United States



Pura Belpré Medal The Belpré Medal honors a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose works best portray, affirm, and celebrate the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth.

Andrew Carnegie Medal The Carnegie Medal honors the producer of the most outstanding video production for children released during the preceding year.

Theodor Seuss Geisel Medal The Theodor Seuss Geisel Medal honors the author(s) and illustrator(s) of the most distinguished contribution to the body of American children’s literature known as beginning reader books published in the United States during the preceding year.

ALSC/Booklist/YALSA Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production The Odyssey Award will be awarded annually to the best audiobook produced for children and/or young adults, available in English in the United States.

Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal The Sibert Medal honors the author(s) and illustrator(s) of the most distinguished informational book published during the preceding year.

Laura Ingalls Wilder Award The Wilder Medal honors an author or illustrator whose books, published in the United States, have made, over a period of years, a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children.

Other ALA Awards

Coretta Scott King Book Awards - honors African American authors and illustrators

Schneider Family Book Award - honors an author or illustrator for the artistic expression of the disability experience for children and teens

Printz Award - awards distinguished books for young adults

Margaret A. Edwards Award - honors an author for a significant contribution to young adult literature

Alex Award - honors ten books written for adults with special appeal to teens

Best Books for Young Adults

Notable Books Award

Best Books for Reluctant Young Adults

All of these ALA award lists can be accessed at http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia



Children's Magazines In addition to wonderful books, children's magazines stimulate interest in reading, and their articles and stories are short and interesting. Magazines can also be useful resources for thematic studies. Some favorites are listed below.

Carus Publishing Company 30 Grove Street, Suite C Peterborough, NH 03458. Phone: 1-800-821-0115 or 603-924-7209.

Carus publishes fourteen magazines for children. Among the most appropriate for children enjoying Wanderful interactive storybooks are:

Ladybug Magazine for children ages 3-6. There are nine issues per year, each 40 pages of stories and poems to read aloud that are just the right length for this age group. Go to: http://www.cricketmag.com/LYB-LADYBUG-Magazine-for-Kids-ages-3-6 Spider Magazine for children ages 6-9. There are nine issues per year featuring stories, poems, and activities, specially designed for newly independent readers. Go to: http://www.cricketmag.com/SDR-SPIDER-Magazine-for-Kids-ages-6-9 Click Magazine is a science magazine for kids ages 3-6, introducing them to science, art, nature, and environmental issues, answering their questions about how the world works. Go to: http://www.cricketmag.com/CLK-CLICK-Magazine-for-Kids-ages-3-6

Highlights 1800 Watermark Drive PO Box 269 Columbus, OH 43216-0269 Phone: 614 486-0631

Highlights publishes two magazines: High Five for children ages 2-6. There are twelve issues a year that contain activities, read-aloud stories, puzzles, recipes, and more. Go to: http://www.highlights.com/highlights-magazines-for-kids Highlights Magazine for children ages 6-12. There are twelve issues a year that contain a variety of stories, puzzles, crafts, games and activities. Go to: http://www.highlights.com/highlights-magazines-for-kids



National Geographic Society 1145 17th Street N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036-4688 Phone: 800 548 9797

National Graphic Little Kids for children ages 3-6. There are six issues a year that provide photographs, engaging stories, and interactive picture games. Teaching tools created by noted educators at National Geographic are included. Go to http://kidsblogs.nationalgeographic.com/littlekids/?source=NavKidsLittleKids National Geographic Kids for children ages 6 and up. There are ten issues a year that contain information about animals, science, technology, archaeology, geography, and pop culture, plus jokes, games, and activities. Go to: http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/?source=NavKidsHome

National Wildlife Federation 1100 Wildlife Center Drive Reston VA 20190 Phone: 800-822-9919

The Federation publishes several magazines. Among them: Animal Baby for children ages 2-4. Ten issues per year provide animal baby photos and stories. Go to: http://www.nwf.org/kids/wild-animal-baby.aspx Big Backyard. for children ages 4-7. Ten issues per year provide colorful animal pictures, activities, and educational content. No advertising. Go to: http://www.nwf.org/kids/big-backyard.aspx Ranger Rick for children ages 7-14. Ten issues per year provide photography, adventures, activities, and other educational content. Go to: http://www.nwf.org/Kids/Ranger-Rick.aspx

Stone Soup P.O. Box 56 Selmer, TN 38375, USA Phone: 800.447.4569

Stone Soup for children ages 8-13. Six issues per year contain stories, poems and art contributed exclusively by children. Go to: http://www.stonesoup.com/what-is-stone-soup-magazine/

PROFESSIONAL BOOKS


Many professional books are suitable for teachers of any grade level, because they have sections that specifically deal with different grade levels, or they discuss theory or practice that apply to all the grades. Among these are:

Harwayne, Shelley. Lifetime Guarantees: Toward Ambitious Literacy Teaching. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2000. Harwayne discusses the importance and selection of good books for the classroom; teaching different genres such as poetry and non-fiction; methods of teaching reading and writing and providing real reasons for children to write; help for struggling students; professional development; connections with families, and much more. A treasure.

Routman, Regie. Literacy and Learning Lessons from a Longtime Teacher. Newark, Delaware: International Reading Association, 2012.

Routman discusses qualities of and best practices in reading and writing instruction for K-12 teachers and provides explicit strategies and lessons they can use to achieve their goals.

Saccardi, Marianne. Books that Teach Kids to Write. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO/Libraries Unlimited, 2011. Using 400 children's books as models, Saccardi demonstrates what the authors of these books can show students about good writing.

Samuels, S. Jay, and Alan E. Farstrup, eds. What Research Has to Say about Reading Instruction, Fourth Edition. Newark, DE: International Reading Association, 2011.

This new edition of a classic provides a balanced review of the latest research and theory regarding reading instruction.

Wooten, Deborah A. and Bernice E. Cullinan, editors. Children's Literature in the Reading Program: An Invitation to Read, Third Edition. Newark, DE: International Reading Association, 2009.

Articles by many authors in the field of children's literature have contributed to this revised edition covering such topics as book selection, comics, graphic novels, non-fiction, and school-librarian collaborations.

Resources for teachers of Pre and Beginning Readers

Machado, Jeanne M. Early Childhood Experiences in Language Arts, Tenth Edition. Independence, KY: Wadsworth/Cengage, 2010.

This is a thorough treatment of effective early literacy instruction and includes research as well as practical information regarding classroom environment, teaching strategies and literacy activities.

Roskos, Kathleen A., Patton O. Tabors, and Lisa A. Lenhart. Oral Language and Early Literacy in Preschool: Talking, Reading, and Writing, Second Edition. Newark, DE: International Reading Association, 2007.

The authors discuss what teachers need to know about integrating speaking, reading, and writing when working with young children.

Schickedanz, Judith A., and Renee M. Casbergue. Writing in Preschool: Learning to Orchestrate Meaning and Marks, Second Edition. Newark, DE: International Reading Association, 2009.

The authors present a detailed picture of young children's writing development and demonstrate ways to support them.

PROFESSIONAL BOOKS


Strickland, Dorothy S., editor. Essential Readings on Early Literacy. Newark, DE: International Reading Association, 2010.

Strickland has collected fourteen articles from The Reading Teacher that address many aspects of early literacy teaching. The articles include instruction strategies, home-school collaboration, and questions to spark professional discussion.

Strickland, Dorothy S., and Judith A. Schickedanz. Learning about Print in Preschool: Working with Letters, Words, and Beginning Links with Phonemic Awareness, Second Edition. Newark, DE: International Reading Association, 2009.

The authors help teachers understand the strategies that will help young children develop print-related skills.

Vukelich, Carol, and James Christie. Building a Foundation for Preschool Literacy: Effective Instruction for Children's Reading and Writing Development, Second Edition. Newark, DE: International Reading Association, 2009.

The authors present the core content and best practice strategies needed to provide preschoolers with effective early literacy instruction.

Resources for Primary Grade Teachers

Gunning, Thomas G. Creating Literacy Instruction for All Children in Grades PreK-4, Second Edition. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 2012. Gunning provides lesson plans to teach literacy skills to children in the early grades and has extensive lists of children's books.

Watts-Taffe, and Carolyn B. Gwinn. Integrating Literacy and Technology: Effective Practice for Grades K-6. New York: Guilford Press, 2007.

The authors demonstrate ways to plan, teach, and assess literacy in a technology-rich environment.

Resources for Middle Grade Teachers

Atwell, Nancie. The Reading Zone. New York: Scholastic, 2007. The author draws on her vast experience to help teachers create meaningful reading workshop experiences for their students.

Blauman, Leslie, and Harvey Daniels. Kid-Tested Writing Lessons for Grades 3-6: Daily Workshop Practices that Support the Common Core State Standards. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2012.

Thirty-one lessons lead students to great writing.

Miller, Donalyn. The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child. Hoboken, NJ: Joosey-Bass, 2009. Miller writes about how she teaches in a way that enables all her middle grade students, regardless of their skill level, to read and enjoy 40-50 books during the school year.

Peterson, Ralph, and Maryann Peterson, editors. Grand Conversations. New York: Scholastic, 2009. The authors believe that real books and the conversations they inspire are the heart of classroom literacy. This updated edition includes more recent books and the perspectives of two classroom teachers.

PROFESSIONAL BOOKS


Resources for ELL teachers

Ferlazzo, Larry, and Katie Hull Sypnieski. The ESL / ELL Teacher's Survival Guide: Ready-to-Use Strategies, Tools, and Activities for Teaching English Language Learners of All Levels. Hoboken, NJ: Jossey-Bass, 2012.

The authors provide research-based instructional techniques that have proven effective with English learners at all proficiency levels.

Herrell, Adrienne L., and Michael L. Jordan. Fifty Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners, Fourth Edition. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon/Pearson, 2011.

The authors provide specific strategies for working with ELL students and, in this new edition, offer more suggestions for using technology.

Young, Terrell A. and Nancy L. Hadaway, editors. Supporting the Literacy Development of English Learners: Increasing Success in All Classrooms. Newark, Delaware: International Reading Association, 2006.

Several different authors provide specific ideas for helping English Language Learners develop their English oral, reading and writing skills.

Ordering Information ABC-CLIO www.abc-clio.com Customer Service P.O. Box 1911 Santa Barbara, CA 93116-1911 Phone: 800 368-6868 Fax: 866 270-3856

Guilford Press http://www.guilford.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?type=dir&pattern=edu 72 Spring Street New York, NY 10012 Phone: (800) 365-7006 ext. 1

Heinemann http://www.heinemann.com/products/E04166.aspx P. O. Box 6926 Portsmouth, NH 03802-6926 Phone: 800.225.5800 Fax: 877.231.6980 Email: [email protected]

PROFESSIONAL BOOKS


International Reading Association http://www.reading.org Order Department P.O. Box 6021 Newark, DE 19714-6021 Phone: 800-336-7323

Pearson/Allyn & Bacon http://www.allynbaconmerrill.com/ 75 Arlington Street Suite 300 Boston MA 02116 USA Phone: 617-848-6000

Scholastic Professional http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/scholasticprofessional/ 524 Broadway New York, NY 10012 Phone: 800-724-6527

Wadsworth/Cengage http://www.cengage.com/search/showresults.do?N=16+4294921982 10650 Toebben Drive Independence, KY 41051 Phone: 800 354.9706. Fax: 800.487.8488

Wiley/Jossey-Bass http://www.josseybass.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-131451.html Customer Care Center - Consumer Accounts 10475 Crosspoint Blvd. Indianapolis, IN 46256 Phone: 877 762-2974 Fax: 800 597-3299

Living BooksL Classroom Activities Overview

Education

Transcript of Living BooksL Classroom Activities Overview