Using Authentic Literature in the classroom

By: Donna BennardM.Ed. In Curriculum and

Instruction with Literacy Emphasis

Background InformationI am an elementary school teacher, K-8, self-contained classroom. My

teaching experience is as a Kindergarten teacher (5-6 year olds).

I have a bachelor's degree in Elementary Education. I have a Master’s degree in Education, Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in Literacy.

My philosophy of teaching revolves around using living books (authentic literature) to teach. I believe it is the best way to provide students with interesting, current information that relates to them. I also believe it is the best way to create life-long learners and readers.

My goal for this presentation is to inform other teachers what authentic literature is, and how/why use it in the classroom, to include methods to incorporate it into the curriculum.

“The most valuable idea you can bring [to young people] is that something is personally worthwhile between the covers of a book. Students who believe that will continue their education as long as they breathe.” (Jacobs and Tunnell, p264)

What is authentic literature?

• Authentic literature is sometimes called: real books, living books, or trade books.

• Authentic literature does NOT include workbooks, skill cards, textbooks and basal readers (Jacobs & Tunnell).

What is Authentic Literature?

• Authentic literature is typically what you would buy at a bookstore or pick up from a library.

• books • magazines• comic books • newspapers • “Trade books are written by people who have

something to say and hope their words appeal to readers who seek personal knowledge, insight, and pleasure (Jacobs & Tunnell, p 264).”

“Trade books are ‘real’ books to be taken home, read

over and over, and treasured like

old friends.”(Hadaway, Vardell

& Young, 2002)

Why use authentic literature in the classroom?

There are many advantages as to using authentic literature in the classroom to either supplement or use instead of the textbook. I will examine a few reasons and give rationales for these reasons.

• Motivates Students

Why use authentic literature in the classroom?

There are many advantages as to using authentic literature in the classroom to either supplement or use instead of the textbook. I will examine a few reasons and give rationales for these reasons.

• Motivates Students• Gives variety

Why use authentic literature in the classroom?

There are many advantages as to using authentic literature in the classroom to either supplement or use instead of the textbook. I will examine a few reasons and give rationales for these reasons.

• Motivates Students• Gives variety• Easy to read

Why use authentic literature in the classroom?

There are many advantages as to using authentic literature in the classroom to either supplement or use instead of the textbook. I will examine a few reasons and give rationales for these reasons.

• Motivates Students• Gives variety• Easy to read• Can add multi-cultural aspect

Why use authentic literature in the classroom?

There are many advantages as to using authentic literature in the classroom to either supplement or use instead of the textbook. I will examine a few reasons and give rationales for these reasons.

• Motivates Students• Gives variety• Easy to read• Can add multi-cultural aspect• Teaches students how to teach

themselves

Key points in using authentic literature in the classroom.

• To use authentic literature in the classroom, teachers must recognize the inherent difference between trade books and textbooks AND understand the rationale as to why to use trade books alongside textbooks.

• Authentic literature must become a fluid part of the class and curriculum. Students must see how trade books are integrated naturally into learning. (Jacobs & Tunnell, 1996)

• Teachers need to be readers themselves. Students cannot mimic what they do not see and if students see that their teacher reads, they will understand its importance. (Richardson, Morgan and Fleener, 2006)

How to Use Authentic Literature in the Classroom

The Individual Reading Approach1. Readiness – Teacher assess background

knowledge.2. Read – Students select and read book (from

books the teacher has provided).3. Report – Teacher asks students to report what

they learned. Teacher has students go back to their source if conflicting information is reported from different students.

4. Record Keeping – Student keep a portfolio of information learned over a series of lessons.

How to Use Authentic Literature in the Classroom

The Shared Reading Approach1. Teacher identifies important ideas.2. Teacher identified appropriate trade books that

cover those ideas.3. Teacher reads aloud the trade book, before

the idea is covered in the text.4. Once idea is reached in the text, teacher

provides additional trade books for students to broaden understanding of idea.

5. Students personalize their learning through creative projects.

How to Use Authentic Literature in the Classroom, continued

There are other ways in which authentic literature can be incorporated into the classroom:

• Teacher read aloud (cover to cover or excerpts)– Hadaway, Vardell & Young, 2002

• Student recreational reading– Hadaway, Vardell & Young, 2002 and Richardson

• Used as a model for writing– Hadaway, Vardell & Young, 2002

How to Use Authentic Literature in the Classroom, continued

• Research for papers and projects

• Students browsing through books

• Students given time in class to read authentic literature

• Used as Introduction to new theme or topic

How to Use Authentic Literature in the Classroom, continued

• Teaching subjects thematically

• Authentic reading materials accessible in the classroom

• Students given multiple ways to respond to reading

WebliographyWebsites that are helpful in finding quality authentic literature.• http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=bookmediaawards• This website is maintained by the American Library Association. It contains a list

of 17 book awards/medals and 9 book lists, all containing high-quality literature for a variety of audiences. The webpage offers links to each of these awards and lists, which therein contains the current and past recipients of these awards.

• http://www.ncss.org/resources/notable/• This website, maintained by the National Council for the Social Studies, gives the

links to the webpages that archive “Notable trade books” for the last 7 years. The books contained in these notable booklists are excellent lists of books to teach social studies. This list is compiled by the National Council for the Social Studies along with the Children’s Book Council.

• http://www.ncte.org/elem/awards/orbispictus• This website is maintained by the National Council of Teachers of English. It lists

both past and present winners of the orbis pictus award, a non-fiction children’s book award. Also on this website is a link to the award for poetry for children, which is another way to include authentic literacy into classrooms.

• http://www.nsta.org/ostbc• National Science Teachers Association maintains this website and has webpages

that archive 11 years of “Outstanding Science Trade Books for Children.” These lists is compiled by the National Science Teacher’s Association along with the Children’s Book Council and represent noteworthy books to be used in the science curriculum.

WebliographyWebsites that are helpful resources in incorporating literature in the classroom.• http://www.readwritethink.org/ • This website is maintained by in conjunction with the National Council of

Teachers of English and the International Reading Association. It has an excellent archive of lesson plans that use authentic literature. The website also has links to other web resources and student standards for language arts. There is also a section of over 50 student materials (interactive student programs available on the website).

• http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/• This is probably my favorite website. This website has tons of

information about reading to children. There are booklists, biographies, articles, videos, audios, web resources, website links and much, much more all to do with literacy, reading aloud to children and incorporating books into the life of a child. This is a great website to recommend to parents who want their children to not just read, but to be successful in life.

BibliographyHadaway, N. (2007). Lesson 8: Reading and Responding to Literature Across the Curriculum. Arlington, TX: The

Center for Distance Education at The University of Texas at Arlington.This lesson was written by Dr. Hadaway as part of the LIST 5345: Reading and Writing in the Content Area on-line

reading lessons. This lesson covers reading in the content areas. It not only provides a rationale for using authentic literature in the classroom as part of the introduction, but give lists of notable books to use in the content areas.

Hadaway, N., Vardell, S., Young, T. (2002). Literature-Based Instruction with English Language Learners. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

This book is a resource and reference book for anyone who wants to use literature-based instruction with children, especially English Language Learners. This book gives an overview of who English Language Learners are, language acquisition and development (oral, reading and writing), basics for literature-based instruction, to include multi-cultural literature, folklore, poetry, non-fiction literature, and interdisciplinary literacy learning.

Jacobs, J. & Tunnell, M. (1996). Children’s Literature, Briefly. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.This textbook gives a general overview of children’s literature. It devotes chapters to analyzing books in order to pick

out quality books, it gives a brief history of children’s literature, it breaks children’s literature into genres and then devotes a chapter to each type of genre. In the last section, it relates children’s literature to the classroom, helping the teacher to evaluate children’s reading as well as their own reading, the classroom library, and using trade books in the curriculum.

Richardson, J., Morgan, R., & Fleener, C. (2006). Reading to Learn in the Content Areas. Blemont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.

This textbook is geared for content teachers and is a “how-to” text and reference to teach these content teachers how to teach content literacy and incorporate both reading and writing in their classrooms. This book addresses the needs of diverse learners, provides the content teacher with a guide for assessing and evaluating both what the students are learning and the textbooks that they use. This book also teaches how to integrate technology and authentic literature into the classroom. It gives instructional technique ideas such as preparing students for learning, teaching them study skills, assessing what they comprehend, increasing their vocabulary, and assigning them to cooperative learning groups. Lastly the text addresses writing in the content area as well as motivating students.

Images used

• Pile of books, www.bookdist.com/

• Child reading, www.nwiliteracy.org

• Girl Reading by water, http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/photo15811.htm