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Take your students on a fact-filled African expedition with this selection of handsomely illustrated titles that introduce various species, provide insights about their habitats, and highlight environmental concerns and conservation challenges. The books have been selected to support a range of reading abilities and interest levels, spanning from picture books suitable to more detailed accounts.
Thursday, October 18, 2012, 3:00 – 4:00 PM ET How do the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) impact you, your library, and your teachers? Marc Aronson and Sue Bartle will discuss how perspective, multi-modality, and transliteracy will help you build a foundation as you implement CCSS. Take home a few concrete examples to successfully adjust to the instructional shifts in CCSS. Archive now available!
The issues and questions raised by Common Core are not only apparent stateside. Marc Aronson discusses how his trip to Barcelona revealed that there might be an opportunity to collaborate with the Spanish city, and other international locales, to inspire students to be innovators.
What do scientists do in their laboratories and on their research expeditions? How do they become interested in the subjects they pursue? Biographies and introductions to professionals in the field can introduce young readers and listeners to the excitement that motivates a lifetime of study. They can also encourage students to consider such pursuits themselves—now and in the future.
The Common Core (CCSS) has arrived. We’ve had time to study the standards, peruse the list of recommended materials, and explore the suggested curriculum maps and assessments. Now, how do we begin to put this nationwide initiative into operation? What meaningful steps forward can we take? In this column, we’ll focus on the ideas that shape our approach to the standards. All start with the letter “C”—we call them “The 10 C’s.” We begin with the concept that holds all the others together: collaboration.
On the eve of WWII, a German chemist, Otto Hahn, discovered fission. The scientific and political ramifications of this discovery were not lost on the world’s top physicists, but it took time—and a letter from Albert Einstein—for U. S. political leaders and military to understand its significance. Once they did, the Manhattan Project was established, bringing scientists—including many recent arrivals from Europe—to Los Alamos, NM, to design a weapon capable of unleashing a force greater than the world had ever witnessed. Despite being shrouded in secrecy, news of the Manhattan Project spread. In ‘Bomb,’ Steve Sheinkin’s exciting new title, the author chronicles ‘The Race to Build—and Steal—the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon.’
The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy recognize the importance of reading across all content areas, on all grade levels. In this month’s column we highlight the contributions of award-winning scientists – and science authors. Share these videos, audio recordings, book trailers, and other resources to invigorate classroom instruction and conversations while introducing a variety of texts, formats, and perspectives.
As the mom of a now-first-grader, my parenting world is colliding with my professional world. Last year, I eagerly brought my daughter to kindergarten geared not to be one of “those” meddling parents, micromanaging the teachers and hovering over projects. However, I soon realized it was going to be very difficult to keep my professional experiences and opinions to myself when it came to the Common Core. Then again, should I?
This summer, I taught a professional development class for our staff. The goal? To each read two novels and one nonfiction book that we could enthusiastically recommend to our students this year. What we ended up with was a lot more than we’d expected, and it’s worth thinking about offering a similar class at your own school.
Underneath the spaceships, extraterrestrials, and techno bling, these new young adult science fiction novels feature complex characters exploring the question of what it means to be human. Set them on the launch pad of social studies, technology, and literature classes, and blast off into discussions touching on politics, culture, science, the environment—the possibilities are limitless!
What could be better for training for close observation than science and poetry in combination? Here are a handful of picture books with poems and illustrations that illuminate nature and science both far away and in our own backyards.
The plethora of projects and experiments suggested in this handful of recent books offer just such inspiration. Rather than simply providing one bare recipe after another, the collections below combine tested sets of ingredients and clearly described procedures with specific explanations of the physical or chemical principles , relevant historical background, probing questions about results, and tantalizing suggestions for further, more challenging experiments—an approach designed to give children both a stronger grasp on how the natural world works and a systematic method for reaching out to conduct enquiries of their own. More importantly, all convey an enthusiasm for science that requires no intervention from parents or educators to prove contagious.
Rosen Digital has just announced the launch of two new digital resources for middle school and high school students: Financial Literacy, an online database for economics and personal finance; and Teen CyberSmarts, an interactive ebook program that teaches kids about digital citizenship and cyber safety. Both programs have been specifically designed to support Common Core learning standards. And SLJTeen readers have a chance to evaluate both of these for free through October 5, 2012.
The 50th birthday celebration of Norman Bridwell’s iconic Clifford the Big Red Dog will kick off on September 24th at 10 am with a party at Scholastic’s New York City headquarters. And everybody can join in on the “Biggest Birthday Party Ever!” The live event will be streamed to classes across the country. Teachers can register now so their students can watch the festivities and Bridwell’s 30-minute webcast. There’s also a free kit that includes lesson plans, art project ideas, and coloring pages. In addition, Norman Bridwell’s Clifford Collection, six stories originally published between 1963 and 1977, will be released on the same day.
We always warn kids not to “pile on”—adding an extra shove when another kid is already down. But in this case, I have to add my voice to Melissa Jacobs-Israel’s. Melissa has expressed her frustration with the Common Core’s infamous Appendix B: Text Exemplars and Performance Tasks, and I couldn’t agree more.Sadly, Appendix B isn’t down.
As summer wanes, we librarians are organizing our calendars for the coming school year. Consider hosting one or more of the following events to get kids, parents and staff charged up and keeping them close to the library!
The following materials on Afghanistan focus on a variety of topics: the effect of U.S. military presence, the treatment of women, refugee camps, and daily life for Afghan citizens. The resources are ideal for teachers looking to educate students about Afghanistan while also embracing the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).
Last spring the children’s book community lost several beloved authors and illustrators, including the hugely talented Leo Dillon, Jean Craighead George, Ellen Levine, and Maurice Sendak. In honor of their memory and their many accomplishments, TeachingBooks.net is offering video and audio recordings of these creative artists whose work enriched the lives of so many people.
A lonely child, a manipulative villain, and resourceful orphans take center stage in Newbery-Award winner Laura Amy Schlitz’s spellbinding new novel, Splendors and Glooms (Candlewick Press, August, 2012). Schlitz talks about her novel and considers the sources of the chillingly claustrophobic, Dickensian world she created.
As champions of nonfiction literature, Mary Ann Cappiello, Myra Zarnowski, and Mark Aronson have spent the past year speaking to teachers, librarians, and children’s book publishers, advocating for a new role for children’s, middle grade, and young adult nonfiction in all forms (print, digital, audio) in the classroom and in the individual reading lives of children. They are delighted to have the opportunity to join Curriculum Connections for the 2012-2013 school year and share their message with you.
