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March is a month that wears many hats.
Elizabeth pointed out in an earlier post that March is Music in Our Schools Month as well as Literacy Month.
Another one of the themes for March is Women’s History Month. I came across this while looking at Thinkfinity:
The theme for the 2012 Women’s History Month is Women’s Education – Women’s Empowerment.
This month-long event celebrates the fight against cultural and historical prejudices that traditionally created the gender gap in schools, institutes of higher education, and professions. Thinkfinity and its Content Partners have a variety of lessons and resources that showcase the contributions of women to our society and culture.
Here are a few of the resources shared on Women’s History Month page:
Who Was the Most Famous Female Aviator?
View a video about aviation and find out more about Amelia Earhart with this Wonder Of the Day. Then try one of the follow-up activities to explore the topic in more depth. (from Wonderopolis)
Great Women of Our Pasts
Considerthe sacrifices made and obstacles overcome by women who shaped our pastfrom 1754 to the present. Review a list of featured books on this topic
and learn how a genealogical study can provide valuable insights intothe people and events in your family’s past
Females in the Spotlight: Strong Characters in Picture Books
Identify the character traits demonstrated by strong female protagonists in several books, and use the online Character Trading Cards tool to create and share your own trading card.
Young Women in Science: Forging New Pathways
This booklet, designed to inspire young people to consider science as a career, provides a glimpse into the lives of young female scientists from a variety of backgrounds.
Analyzing Character Development in Three Short Stories About Women
Compare the women characters in stories written in different historical times to analyze the effects of gender differences and society’s expectations in the role of women.
Taking Control of Their Lives
Follow the stories of two women from different countries and different generations who improved their literacy skills and became involved in an important health empowerment project that had a personal impact on their own lives
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Here are some books from Big Universe Learning about famous women in history:
My five year old came home from school talking about Dr. Seuss. I suggested that we read a Dr. Seuss book for our bedtime story tonight. Madalyn pulled every Dr. Seuss book off the shelf (I realized that we have a lot and double copies of some of them …. I think I have even more in my “school books” in the basement). The book she finally chose was a collection of Seuss Stories that includes versions of several of the books and some commentary/history.
The “teacher in me” wanted to select one of the not-so-well-known stories, but the “parent in me” let my daughter choose the one she wanted … Green Eggs and Ham.
As I began to read the story to her, I noticed that many of the words in the story were some of the same “word wall words” we have been practicing for her homework. So I started reading most of the sentence and then pointing to the word for her to say. The more words she said, the more confident she became. She even pointed to some of the words ahead and asked if I would let her read those words.
At first, I thought Madalyn might be saying the words from memory (she has an extremely good memory) but I realized she was really looking at the words when she pointed out that box and fox both have -ox at the end. When house was at the end of one line and mouse was at the end of the next line, she also pointed out that they both has -se at the end and then noticed they also had -ou, so they both ended in -ouse.
When we got to the end of the story, Madalyn looked up at me saying, “This is a cute story.” She was involved in the story and interested in the words. Her interest in words makes me smile … as a former reading and writing teacher, I wonder what I can do to encourage and support that interest in words …
There is such a wealth of materials for reading and writing available on this site, so what are some ways we can use Big Universe Learning to encourage and support an interest in words?
If a student knows something about a topic or has experienced (even seen) something related to the topic of a book, he or she will better understand what is happening in the story.
While observing in a classroom a few weeks ago, I saw a quite interesting way of building some background knowledge …
In a first grade class, the teacher was reading Silvie. One of the main characters in this book is a flamingo “of a different stripe”. Flamingos are not something that many of these students knew anything about. So the teacher showed the students the #1 Wonder of the Day on Wonderopolis to help them discover why flamingos are pink. After they explored that site for a few minutes, the teacher switched to a Smithsonian Zoological Park animal webcam showing flamingos. That was a new experience for most of these students!
After finishing that book, the teacher pulled out another short book to read with the students, Shark vs Train by Chris Barton and Tom Lichtenheld . The teacher had the Monterey Bay Aquarium webcam site ready to show students sharks, turtles, and stingrays to help build some background knowledge. Before she was ready for the students to view that site, they heard a voice talking. On the animal webcam she was going to show, they were preparing for an live afternoon feeding of the sardines.
Even though that was not a planned experience, the teacher took advantage of a teachable moment by bringing the outside world into her library through a webcam! She and the students got to see the live feeding!
Since students did not get to see the things she has planned for them to see on the webcam, the teacher showed still images of sharks, turtles, and stingrays. She was prepared and had a backup plan ….which is always important especially when using technology.
Look at the ways technology was used to help provide background knowledge crucial for student understanding and comprehension.
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I was spending some time in a media center at a local elementary school one afternoon, and the media specialist was sharing some of the nominated books for the North Carolina Children’s Book Award Program. This is a children’s choice program sponsored by school and public librarians in North Carolina and is designed to introduce children to current children’s literature and to instill a love of reading.
Holly is going to read aloud nine of the nominated books and then students are going to vote for their favorite stories. Votes from students all over the state will be combined and an award will be given to the author and illustrator of the favorite books.
You could do something like that using Big Universe Learning books in your classroom or school. You could select a certain number of books to read and explore, and then after reading those book, students could vote on them.
Students could vote on which book was their favorite, but you could also introduce some other voting categories to explore story elements (possibly like yearbook superlatives in high school?)
Here are a few ideas:
- favorite illustration
- favorite book cover
- favorite summary on back of book
- favorite book character
- best use of figurative language
- best description
- best plot
- book with the best beginning
- book with the best ending
- book you would like to write a sequel for
- story that would be the easiest to act out
What are some other categories? I am sure students could develop some creative categories …
(Looking at the individual stories, the collected story elements, and the parts calls for some critical thinking and making inferences/drawing conclusions but in an unusual way)
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I had a teacher ask me to help find some resources for them to use this month while they were exploring the history of Marian Anderson. I wanted to give the students more of an experience with her than just reading a biography, so I started searching.
I was able to find video clips of her Lincoln Memorial performance that I didn’t know existed. This will help to put that into context with the time, the location, and to be able to hear her voice as well as see her face. I think it will help students make a personal connection to this event.
Did you know that over 75,000 people attended this concert and millions listened in on the radio? What an impact this must have made, especially with Eleanor Roosevelt helping set it up after Constitution Hall would not let her perform due to her race. I also came across several song recordings, interview recordings, and photo galleries from various sources that could be used in a larger unit.
A study of Marian Anderson can fit into units on music, opera, NAACP, Eleanor Roosevelt, segregation, and many other topics.
If you were doing one of the units listed above, you might be able to use these books from Big Universe Learning:
Someone recently asked me for ideas for a lesson on similes. I like to use picture books to introduce topics, and I think picture books work well with similes.
I came to Big Universe to see if there might be any possibilities. I did an advanced search for figurative language and got this result: Piggies in the Pumpkin Patch.
I read through the book and found that even though I liked the book, it was not exactly what I was looking for right now. Instead of just closing the book and moving to another resource site, I decided to look at other books by the publisher of this book (you can do that simply by clicking on the name of the publisher ).
As I looked through the long list of books, I started noticing several that I have written about before, read with my daughter, and told other teachers about. Here are a few of the ones that I noticed:
Here is a description shared on the Big Universe Learning site by Charlesbridge Publishing:
Charlesbridge publishes high-quality books for children, with a goal of creating lifelong readers and lifelong learners. Our books encourage reading and discovery in the classroom, library, and home. We believe that books for children should offer accurate information, promote a positive worldview, and embrace a child’s innate sense of wonder and fun. To this end, we continually strive to seek new voices, new visions, and new directions in children’s literature.
I think that is a great message from a publishing company. If you would like more information about Charlesbridge, check out their website:
http://www.charlesbridge.com/ and the many books they have here on Big Universe Learning!
I recently came across this image and really like the way it explains the pieces of Balanced Literacy.
I have written several blog posts in the past concerning Balanced Literacy and Big Universe Learning:
My daughter is in Kindergarten and has been coming home the last few days telling me that they are having trouble with Lily because she is not behaving. I started trying to figure out who she was talking about …
There is not a Lily in her class ..
There is not a Lily in her dance class …
There is not a Lily in her daycare class …
So I had no idea who she was talking about … until I looked at the class newsletter yesterday ..
Lily is one of the bears they have been watching by logging in to view a “Den Cam” (that would be a web cam focused on the den of the bears). The North American Bear Center offers 3 Live Den Cams:
- Lily & Faith
- Jewel
- Honey & Lucky
Based on the detailed descriptions we are getting at home, I can only imagine how excited those students are when they see the bears moving and just being bears. Wouldn’t that be a great opportunity to focus on details and descriptive writing? What if each student pretended to be one of the bears? I am sure we could bring in drawing of the bear and surroundings.
Even though my daughter is in Kindergarten, I think about the many grade levels that could use something like this to look at animals, adaptations, environments, habitats.
Check out these books available on Big Universe (fiction and nonfiction):
As we approach a day designated to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. I wanted to share some books designed to help students learn about this great man in history and his beliefs.
On Big Universe Learning, I found the Martin Luther King, Jr. Graphic Biography. I had not encountered that type of book before. I previously wrote a blog post describing some characteristics of graphic novel, so I was interested to read a graphic biography.
Here is the description of the book and collection from the Big Universe Learning site:
Fast-paced and easy-to-read, these softcover 32-page graphic biographies teach students about historical figures: those who lead us into new territory, pursued scientific discoveries; battled injustice and prejudice; and broke down creative and artistic barriers. These biographies offer a variety of rich primary and secondary source material to support teaching to standards.
Using the graphics, students can activate prior knowledge—bridge what they already know with what they have yet to learn. Graphically illustrated biographies also teach inference skills, character development, dialogue, transitions, and drawing conclusions. Graphic biographies in the classroom provide an intervention with proven success for the struggling reader.
From Teacher Created Materials on Big Universe, the Martin Luther King, Jr, book highlights another aspect of his beliefs:
Martin Luther King Jr. grew up knowing that there needed to be a change in the way that African Americans were treated, and he held a dream from the time he was a young boy that he would help make that change happen. Unlike most of the activists in the Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King Jr. was committed to nonviolence.
Another book you can find on Big Universe Learning, Martin Luther King Jr.: A life of fairness is from the People of Character collection from Bellwether Publishers:
Martin Luther King, Jr. dreamed about a day when people would not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. This book introduces young readers to a man who fully believed in fairness.
These books may share the same subject, but they present the information in various ways for different purposes.
Our family recently went to the zoo and got to feed the giraffes. We have been to places before where we got to hold buckets to feed the giraffes, but this time we got to hold banana pieces in our hands for the giraffes to eat. My little one says the giraffe spit her banana out because he did not like it (She actually pulled her hand back when the giraffe’s tongue got close to touching her).
Based on our recent experience and the fact her favorite animal right now is the giraffe, I think that topic could provide a good “literacy hook” right now.
She has been drawing pictures of giraffes recently, so maybe now it is time for her to do some writing to go along with those pictures. I don’t have to ask her to write a lot … just words and phrases to start with. Hopefully those small steps will lead to longer writings in the future.
I think another way to encourage her writing about these pictures is to have books about giraffes available to read and look at. A nice blend of fiction and nonfiction should work well to show the importance of both facts and descriptive language.
Lucky for me that Big Universe Learning has some great books for us to start with:
- Critters up Close! ~ Giraffes from ZooBooks provides simple ways to describe the various actions of these magnificent animals (and my daughter in Kindergarten can read most of it on her own … build some confidence).
- The Giraffe who was Afraid of Heights from Sylvan Dell is a great story about overcoming fears, but it also has some fun facts and puzzles included. (This story is also available in Spanish.)
- ‘Twas the Day Before Zoo Day from Sylvan Dell is about things not going exactly according to plan and might be another fun one to include, especially since there are drooling giraffes!
I think that as both a parent and teacher, I can use the experiences children have to encourage and support literacy development.
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