When first starting a new unit in a content area, consider layering students’ background knowledge on the subject with a short, powerful topic-related picture book. Nonfiction children’s literature is booming! The topics available are extensive. There are short, factual books on historical figures, world events, geographic places, animal habitats, famous inventions, outer space, body systems, and even mathematical concepts!

To first excite students about a new topic of study and also give them some initial information, check out your elementary school media center or local library. Picture books can become a supplemental reading resource to the traditional textbook.

NOTE: For those of you who have state assessments that require students to read multiple passages and then respond to comprehension questions and extended writing prompts, this is just the type of supplementary text you’ve been looking for.

There are also some fabulous professional resources that are nothing more than books of books. They list great titles organized by topic/standard. One of my favorites is Lester Laminack’s Reading Aloud Across the Curriculum. Check out the table of contents. He has identified relevant picture books for each of these themes. WOW! What a time-saving resource.

Order a copy of Lester’s Reading Aloud Across the Curriculum.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 27th, 2008 at 10:24 am and is filed under Content Areas, Pre-Reading. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.