A Web quest on Picture Books in the Middle and Secondary Social Studies Classroom

By Sharon L. Carter

A social studies teacher at

Lafayette High School in Williamsburg, Virginia

and a graduate student in Reading, Language, and Literacy

at the College of William and Mary.

 

 

Introduction

 

Welcome to a secondary social studies teacher’s web quest.

 

     The use of picture books in secondary social studies classrooms has received recent praise for stimulating discussion, providing various perspectives on historical subjects and strengthening literacy skills in adolescents.   You are probably thinking “What? Use children’s picture books with my high school students! You’ve got to be kidding!”

 

     It’s no joke. Many of today’s picture books are interactive teaching tools with sophisticated themes and award winning artwork.  When used to introduce a lesson, a book’s unique perspective will likely generate student responses more lively than those that follow a lecture or an examination of the textbook.

  For example, Jane Yolen’s Encounter  is a powerful tool when teaching the age of European exploration and the significance of Christopher Columbus. Students will hear the voice of a young Taino boy who is warned in a dream about visitors who arrive in San Salvador on “big white birds” from the sea. This book delicately, yet boldly, informs the reader and listener of exploration’s negative effects on the native people.

 

Baseball Saved Us, written by Ken Mochizuki, and illustrated by Dom Lee, is a story about a family’s sudden relocation to a Japanese internment camp during World War II and the resourcefulness of its inhabitants to fight the boredom and anger that develops. Through this book, and others like it, students learn that history is more than dates and events.  It is about people and how those events affected them.

 

If you are a teacher committed to expanding your repertoire of effective teaching strategies and you realize that student motivation soars when lessons are “slightly out of the box,” then your time with this web quest will benefit you and your students. If you need convincing that reading aloud to older students is beneficial, this web quest will take you to the proof.  If you are a teacher who wishes to use picture books with instruction but you lack knowledge and resources for locating appropriate text, the task will take you there!

 

The Task

 

At the conclusion of this web quest, you will produce a ready to use bibliography of picture books for your secondary social studies course.

 

The Process

 

1.     Open your computer’s word processing program so that you can respond to questions and record your thoughts and ideas during the web quest.

 

2.     On your document, write your initial thoughts and questions regarding the use of picture books for instruction in middle and secondary classrooms.

 

3.     If you have never read a picture book to your secondary students, what are the reasons? Lack of familiarity with titles? Time constraints? Personal preference? Doubtful of the benefits?  If you have attempted to use picture books in your classroom, how did your students respond?

 

4.     Investigate the phenomena by reading 3 articles.

The sites you will visit are:

 Children's Literature in the Middle and Secondary Classroom by Bill Young

Reading Aloud: Are Children Ever Too Old? by Ann Guignon.

Selecting Picture Books by Theresa Perez

 

Consider the following questions as you read.  Type your answers on your document.

 

What are five reasons high school students are not too old for picture books?

 

What did Amy Brecount White learn about her A.P. student?  Do you think students in your classes are similar to White’s student?

 

How are picture books for older students different from children’s picture books?

 

After reading the article by Theresa Perez, copy and paste the criteria for selecting picture books.

 

5. Complete the Task

 

View the bibliography lists of picture books recommended for use in middle and secondary social studies classrooms.  Write down titles, authors, and summaries of books that fit into your curriculum.  You may want to highlight, copy, and paste the information onto your open document.

 

 

Selected Bibliography for Worth A Thousand Words

 

Picture Books for Young Adults

 

A Bibliography of Picture Books for Older Children

 

Bibliographies

 

6 Online bookstores such as Amazon.com and Barnes and Nobles.com provide summaries and reviews for picture books.   Click on one of the links and use its search function to locate your titles.   Read the summaries and reviews to determine if the book is appropriate your classroom. Edit your list if needed.

 

 

Picture books do not need to be read every day or even every week to be effective.  Judicial use is recommended.  In order to provide a rich and meaningful learning experience, Jim Trelease, author of The New Read Aloud Handbook, offers tips for teachers.

 

Evaluation

 

After you create a bibliography of titles suitable for use in your class, consider sharing your resource in at least one of the following ways:

 

1.     READ to your students following the tips offered by Jim Trelease.

2.     Publish your list in your school or division newsletter.

3.     Facilitate an in-service or staff development workshop on using picture books in social studies classrooms.

4.     Publish your list of books on your school, class, or personal web page.

 

References

Amazon.com.(1996-2002). Retrieved November 2, 2002 from http://http://www.amazon.com/.                          

 

Ammon, Bette D. and Sherman, Gales.(1997). Selected Bibliography for Worth A                                                 Thousand Words. Retrieved October 26, 2002 from http://www.srv.net/~gale/picbiblio.html.

 

Bibliographies. (2002). Retrieved November 15, 2002 from http://www.uiowa.edu/~crl/bibliographies/books.html.

 

Bibliography of some picture books for older children. (n.d). Retrieved November 15, 2002 from http://www.libsci.sc.edu/miller/olderpic.htm.

 

Guignon, Ann (2002). Reading aloud: Are children ever too old? Retrieved November 1, 2002 from http://www.usd.edu/engl/young97ar1.html.

 

Henry, Robin and Simpson, Carol. (2001, February) A match made in heaven. Teacher librarian. Retrieved October 27, 2002 from http://web3.infotrac.galegroup.com/.

 

Mochizuki, Ken. (1995). Baseball saved us. Boston: Lee and Low Books

 

Perez, Theresa. (n.d.). Selecting Picture Books for Middle and Secondary Classrooms, Retrieved October 26, 2002 from http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/secpictperez.

 

Picture books for young adults. (2001). Retrieved November 1, 2002 from http://www.lfpl.org/teenpages/booklists/yapictures.htm.

 

Reading On Line. (2002). Retrieved October 19, 2002 from http://readingonline.org/.

    

Richardson, Judy S. (2000). Read it aloud! Using literature in the secondary content classroom. Newark: International Reading Association.

 

Tiedt, Iris M. (2000). Teaching with picture books in the middle school. Newark: International Reading Association.

 

Trelease, Jim (n.d). Trelease on reading.com. Retrieved November 20, 2002 from http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/.

 

Ubbes, Valerie A. (2002). The Children’s Picture Book Database at Miami University. Retrieved November 20, 2002 from http://www.lib.muohio.edu/pictbks/search/heir/soc-studies.php.

 

Wood Karen D. and Dickson, Thomas S. (2000) Promoting literacy in grades 4-9. Boston: Allen & Bacon, 255-256.

 

Yolen, Jane. (1996) Encounter. Harcourt Publishers.

 

Young, Bill. (1997). Dakota writing project. Article- Children’s Literature in the Middle and Secondary Classroom. Retrieved November 1, 2002 from http://www.usd.edu/engl/young97ar1.html.