Read more
Because nonfiction and young readers are a natural fit!
Common Core or not, providing our youngest readers with a thorough grounding in nonfiction is just good teaching. There's no better way to ensure our students acquire the background knowledge and vocabulary so essential to their understanding of subjects like science and social studies. Helen Patrick and Panayota Mantzicopoulos have written this book to assist you with this all-important effort.
Inside you'll find: Criteria for choosing books
Strategies for shared reading and reading aloud
Informational writing activities
Ways to guide parent involvement
Real-life classroom success stories
List of contents
Series Preface to Classroom Insights
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Introduction
1. English Language Arts in the Early Years of School: Priorities and Consequences
2. Do Young Children Find Informational Books Hard to Understand?
3. Are Young Children Really Interested in Informational Books?
4. What Should I Consider When Selecting Informational Books?
5. How Can I Use Shared Informational Book Reading in my Classroom to Build Children¿s Reading Skills and Background Knowledge?
6. How Can I Incoporate Writing With Informational Books?
7. How Can Parents Use Informational Books to Support Children¿s Learning?
References for Children¿s Books
References for Research Sources
Index
About the author
Dr. Helen Patrick is a Professor of Educational Psychology in Purdue University's College of Education. Her teaching and research focus on promoting positive classroom environments that promote students' learning, understanding, and motivation. She has worked in numerous elementary schools in Michigan, Illinois, and Indiana. For the past seven years she has worked with teachers and children in ethnically-diverse kindergartens, focusing on ways to successfully integrate teaching "big ideas" of science with reading and writing activities.
Dr. Panayota Mantzicopoulos is Professor of Educational Psychology in Purdue University's College of Education. Her interests include early personal-social development and learning in diverse environments. Her research has examined the effectiveness of early grade-retention practices, the development of self-competence beliefs, early teacher-child relationships, and shared-reading of informational texts as a context for learning both at home and school. Her most recent work has been associated with the Scientific Literacy Project (http: //www.purduescientificliteracyproject.org/) where she has focused on the integration of informational texts with science inquiry activities and on investigating the development of children's socially derived meanings about science. Visit her at https: //collaborate.education.purdue.edu/edst/youli/default.aspx
Summary
This book bridges the gap between educational psychology theory and classroom practice. Specific objectives give teachers and teacher-trainees access to current advances in research and theory on human learning, teaching, and instruction in an easily understood and usable form.
