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Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Revisiting Global Communities

There are so many books out there right now that celebrate Global Communities in an easy to understand and respectful way.  We are teaching this way better than we used to with better resources.  Gone are the days that 7 year olds have to discipher text that is beyond their comprehension.  These books are easy to read and understand with engaging pictures and links to further information.  This entry will introduce some that I use in the library with small groups, for read alouds and books that can be a part of your classroom library all year long.

My Librarian is a Camel - How Books Are Brought to Children Around the World  - Margriet Ruurs

Students are fascinated by all the ways that children access books around the world.  Some favourites are books brought by camels in Kenya and by elephants in Thailand!  A great opportunity for students to see how other kids their age live in different parts of the world.

The Way to School - Rosemary McCarney with Plan International

Captivating pictures and short bits of text are the highlights of this book, making it a good book for your classroom library.  You could read it aloud as well and students could pick a mode of getting to school that they would like to investigate further.  That's inquiry!  Consolidate their learning by making a class book, iMovie, slideshow, greenscreen video or a blog.  An easy peasy inquiry project!

Ruby Tuesday Books
     The Food We Eat
     A Place to Call Home
     Time For School
     Time to Play
     Celebrations and Special Days
     The Clothes We Wear
     Everybody Needs Water
     How We Get Around 

Each of these books highlights information about communities around the world.  The text is grade appropriate for upper grade two and includes amazing pictures.  What I like about this series is that the books are set up identically using the standard non fiction text features.  When I use these books, students come with some knowledge of the text features (title, table of contents, labels, pictures, glossary, index) and we review them.  Then students are put in pairs with a books.

I created a booklet that goes along with each book.  All the booklets are similar so after one booklet, students may choose to read another book and their independence with the text grows.  I have found that this is a difficult task for grade two.  I was lucky that I had 16 kids in total working on the 8 books.  We usually pair a struggling reader with a strong reader and that helps a bit.  The booklets are good for following instructions, using non fiction text features as well as learning about global communities.

The reading strategy that I emphasize during this time is that readers usually do not read a non fiction from cover to cover.  The text features allow you to read parts of the book and still get a good understanding of the topic.

If you are interested in looking at the booklets I created contact me.  I'm happy to share.  I've just noticed that Ruby Tuesday Books has other titles.  I will have to check them out!



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