Diverse Perspectives

It is important for young readers to understand the importance of diversity. I think it is essential for students to learn about diversity in many different ways. Diversity isn't just only about race and cultural differences, there are many other ways to look at diversity such as disabilities and gender inequalities. The benefits for children reading diverse books are that it presents information and knowledge about the historical and contributions of the people of diverse cultures who live in the United States. It also connects children to the world by giving them information and viewpoints of other students. Categories in the predominant groups in the United States are African Americans, Latino Americans, Asian Americans, and American Indians. I think those are some categories that are important for students to read about. I also think that some other diverse perspectives are really important for young children to learn about. These categories consist of:

• Aging: These are books that teach children about elderly and the stages of life. A lot of children only portray elderly people as senile and close to death. 
• Example: The Hello, Goodbye Window by: Norton Juster
• Gender Equity: These books devoid of stereotypes that have traditionally constrained gender roles in society.
• Example: 100 Things Guys Need to Know by: Bill Zimmerman
• Exceptionalities: These books portray characters with physical, mental, or behavioral challenges and giftedness must avoid stereotypes and focus on what they can do. 
• Example: Out of My Mind by: Sharon Draper
• Language: These books are written in English and other language or books about people who speak more than one language.
• Example: I Hate English by: Ellen Levine
• Social Diversity: These are books that portray poverty, low social class, homelessness, illiteracy, or migrant life.
• Example: The Teddy Bear by: David Mcphail
• Family structures: These are books about a variety of family social structures. This includes adoption, divorced families, single-parent families, and more.
• Example: Celebrating Families by: Rosemarie Hausherr

Historical Fiction

Historical fiction books are probably one of my favorite kind of books. I think that it is beneficial to know what has happened in the past. Author's create historical stories and use factual information, but have with a twist of imagination. Sometimes it isn't fun to read historical facts out of a text book, but when they are in a form of a story the reader ends up learning more about the historical fact rather than reading a text book and writing down the definition. The benefits that historical fiction has are that it conveys a sense of life as it was lived, happens to ordinary people, it broadens perspectives, and it helps children understand that the present and future are linked to actions of the past. There are several categories of historical fiction, they are:

• Ancient times: These are stories which take place in ancient civilizations including Ancient Greece, Rome, and Egypt.
• Themes: survival, courage, honor.
• Example: The Bronze Bow by: Elizabeth George Speare
• Medieval times: These are stories that take place during the middle ages. It begins after the fall of the Roman Empire.
• Themes: loyalty, overcoming handicaps.
• Example: Matilda Bone by: Karen Cushman
• Colonial times: These are stories about the settlements of Jamestown, Plymouth, and Boston. This also includes stories about the move westward, American Indians, and the Salem witch trials.
• Themes: courage, survival, and persecution.
• Example: The Courage of Sarah Noble by: Alice Dalgliesh
• Revolutionary Era: These stories are about the events that surround the Revolutionary War.
• Themes: family, freedom, commitment to a cause, injustice.
• Example: Woods Runner by: Gary Paulsen
• Early Frontier Era: Stories about the move westward before the Civil War.
• Themes: friendship, faith, longing for ownership of land.
• Example: Lyddie by Katherine Paterson
• Civil War: These are books that describe the time during the Civil War. They are about slavery, and the war between the states.
• Themes: tragedy of war, and freedom.
• Example: Shades of Grey by: Carolyn Reeder
• Post-Civil War: Stories about the Industrial Revolution, and immigrants.
• Themes: looking for a better life, family bonds, hardship.
• Example: Little House on the Prairie by: Laura Ingalls Wilder
• World War I: Stories about the events of World War I and after.
• Themes: destructive nature of war, survival, prejudice, and discrimination.
• Example: Letters from Rifka by: Karen Hesse
• Great Depression: Stories about the events around the Great Depression and in the 1930's.
• Themes: survival, effects of poverty, and homelessness.
• Example: The Song of the Trees by: Mildred D. Taylor
• World War II: Stories about the events of World War II, Hitler's rise and fall, and Japanese military activity.
• Themes: hatred, prejudice, survival, and suffering caused by war.
• Example: Number the Stars by: Lois Lowry
• Post-World War II: These are stories about the continued problems in Korea, Cambodia, and Vietnam.
• Themes: social change, and humanity.
• Example: The Wall by Eve Bunting
• Civil Rights Movement: These stories are ones about the fight for civil rights that took place from the late 1800's-mid 1960's.
• Themes: human suffering, injustice, and tolerance.
• Example: Role of Thunder Hear My Cry by: Mildred Taylor

Realistic Fiction

Realistic fiction is the realistic sense that the setting, characters, and events are plausible. These stories are fiction because the characters and events did not really happen even though they possibly could happen. The benefits of realistic fiction is that it helps children gain a in-depth understanding of human problems and relationships. It also helps children understand and take comfort in knowing that their problems are not unique and they are not alone in the word. There are many categories within realistic fiction which are:

• Survival/adventure: This usually has a conflict with a person and nature.
• Mystery: Action stories which usually have a logical solution that is foreshadowed through the presentation of clues.
• Humor: The characters in these stories are usually involved in funny situations.
• Animals: Through the relationship with animals the characters in these stories grow and change.
• Sports: The action of these stories revolve around the trill of a particular sport.
• Family: Characters show responsibility, loyalty, or unity to overcome conflicts with their families.
• Growing up: The characters in these stories cope with increasing independence from adults and confront the accompany of conflicting feelings and difficult choices and challenges.

Because of Winn-Dixie

This is one of the books that is on my annotated bibliography. I just finished reading this book a couple nights ago and I LOVED it. I loved it because throughout the book she talks about if she never found her dog winn-dixie that day at the grocery story she would have not met half of the people she knew. I am a very strong believer in "everything happens for a reason" I think that she was meant to go to the grocery store and find that dog because he changed her life. She was new to town and if it weren't for that dog she would not have met some of the people that she did. I think this book is a very good example of the quote "everything happens for a reason"because if she never found the dog then she wouldn't know the man at the pet store and she wouldn't have worked for him. There was a ton of things she did because of that dog and it made me believe in the quote even more. I also love dogs and think that even though some people consider them as "just pets" I think that pets can change a persons life. I love animals, especially my dogs and cat back home. I am not sure my life would be the same without them in my life and I consider them apart of the family. I really enjoyed reading this book and will definitely encourage my future students who like animals to read this book!

Out of My Mind

 

This book honestly opened up my eyes. When I was picking out my books for my annotated bibliography I thought that I would never have the time to finish all of these books plus do all of the work for my other classes. I didn't want to read these books because I felt like I didn't have enough time, but I am so glad that I chose this book and that I have the opportunity to read it. This opened up my eyes and showed me what it is like to be in the shoes of a disabled person. As a future educator I think that reading this book has made me more aware of what disabled people go through in high school, all the stares and whispers that they don't think the person can hear it but they really can. This book really touched me and I felt a lot of emotions throughout this book. I felt as if the main character, Melody was in my school and that I saw what was going on through Melody's assistant. I never realized how much people think down about people with disabilities until I saw it from her point of view. I think it is really sad that some teachers don't have faith in their disabled students and think that because they have a disability that they are incapable of learning. I think that this book really helped me understand what it is like to be in the shoes of a disabled person and as a future educator I will be more aware of how students with disabilities are treated by not only the students, but sadly teachers as well.

Traditional Literature

There is no way to identify an author for traditional tales because they are old stories that have been told over and over again. Here are the categories of traditional literature:

• Fable: A brief story in which the moral is explicitly stated. The type of characters in this category are that animals talk as they are humans. The setting can be any place, anytime. The themes for fable are lessons to be learned that reflect the values of culture. This is not told as fact.
• Myth: This explains aspects of culture or how something came to be in the natural world. People who have super-powers are the characters in this category. The setting for this is "in the beginning". The themes for myth's are supernatural creators; origins of the world, natural phenomena, animals and people. This is told as a fact.
• Legend: Traditional narrative based on historical truth. Historical figures, kings and heroes are the characters for category. Recent past is the setting. A theme for legend is courage/perseverance of heroes. This category is told as a fact.
• Religious Stories: These are stories of important events and people of different religions. Prominent religious figures are the characters set in a biblical time period. Some of the themes are peace, hope, and faith. This is told as a fact.
• Tall Tale: These tales are exaggerated humorous stories of characters that perform impossible acts. The characters are historical figures with superhuman strengths with a North American setting. Frontier settlement and hard work are the themes for this category. This not told as a fact.
• Folktale: This is a fairy, human, or animal tale told over and over again. Humans or animals are the characters that live in a far distant place. Some themes are the universal truths that reflect the values of the times/societies. This is not told as a fact.

Styles of Picturebooks

Style is not a separate element, but the impact of all the elements together. Use of words, figures of speech, sentences, and other language constructions to make the characters, setting, and action come alive. The style of a book refers to that which is distinct about a work of art-that which transcends the implications of its specific codes and makes it out as different from other works. Styles consist of:

• Representational: This style of book displays people, nature, and objects as they are.
• Surrealistic: This is a style that creates a dreamlike state of mind.
• Impressionistic: This style puts an emphasis on light, movement, and color detail.
• Cartoon: This is a style that can tell a story with several illustrations and captions.
• Expressionistic: This style gives an objective expression to inner experience.
• Naive/Folk Art: This style gives the appearance of being childlike, at times lacking perspective or sense of proportion.

Picturebooks

A picture book is conceived of as a unit, a totality that integrates all the designed parts in a sequence in which the relationships among them are crucial to understanding the book. There are many different categories of picturebooks and has a limitless potential. Each aspect of a picturebook serves as a visual sign that affects the way readers construct meaning from the text. Categories are:

• Mother Goose Stories: these teach a lesson or a moral to young readers.
• Concept books: Also known as informational picture books. These books tell a story about a specific concept primarily through illustrations. The goal for these books are to assist children in thinking about colors and numbers.
• Alphabet books: They engage students in connecting letters with objects that being with the letter and create stories.
• Counting books: These books introduce the concept of numbers, the calendar, and the seasons through a story.
• Wordless picturebooks: Uses illustrations to tell a story, this provides an opportunity to explore how stories work.
• Toy books: these books physically engage the reader in the story with pop-ups, pull tabs, flaps, or textured pages.
• Pop-up books: When the book is opened these books have pages with three-dimensional objects that pop up.
• Easy-to-read books: These contain stories that have strong characterization, themes related to the reader, and engaging plots with simple sentences and direct dialogue.
• Picture storybooks: These books integrate words and illustration on each page to tell a story.
• Postmodern books: With use of multiple colors and complex lines and images, these books employ multiple perspectives and/or narrators within a nonlinear story structure.

How to Create a Supportive Environment for Reading

Teachers play a main role in creating a positive environment for students to read. Getting the students motivated and encouraged to read is the most important step in literacy. When students have the opportunity to select their own reading they become more involved with reading.

• A positive attitude: Children come from all different kinds of backgrounds from families who read to them all the time all the way to families who don't even have books available for their children. Attitude and desire is everything, a child's attitude toward reading will show how much effort, motivation, and engagement they will have in reading.
• Motivation: Motivation is a critical part of engagement. When students want to spend more reading, this means that their motivation has increased. Motivation plays a dual role with engagement, engaged children read for a variety of reasons. Motivation is a concern in the classroom because the lack of motivation is a problem teachers face. Five things to motivate children to read would be: 1. self-selection of books, 2. access to a variety of fiction and nonfiction books, 3. books that are personally interesting, 4. access to lots of books, 5. being read to by teachers and family members and when peers shared what they were reading with them.
• Self-selected literature: Children like to read books that are consistent with their development level. Enjoyment of a book can't be forced upon a child, they have to naturally want to read the book to get any pleasure out of it. No matter what teachers or parents do children are always going to pick books that reflect their interests and preferences.
• Range of genre: Teachers need to provide their students with a range of books to cover the interests of all the students. The books need to range from authentic texts, picture books, easy readers, chapter books, informational books, poetry, magazines, newspapers, and biographies. Giving children the opportunity to engage in a range of genres allows them to understand how different genres are organized.
• Time for reading: Giving students the time to read and illustrate their skills and strategies that are important to reading. Students should have the opportunity to choose their own books within their level of reading.
• Vocabulary and concept development: An important factor for students to comprehend the reading is the students prior knowledge. Things that can build up a students prior knowledge are field trips, discussions about the text, and hands-on activities. A teacher can use graphic organizers to help students make connections to the text.

How Children Respond to Literature

Learning and Child Development:
Children that enjoy to read is related with their development. When a child is born they are born with many capabilities such as the ability to organize, classify, and impose order on the environment. Learning is not a result of development but development itself. Vygotsky believed that linguistic, social, emotional, and cognitive development are complementary processes that work together to shape a child's literacy growth. To advance cognitive development in the classroom teachers should do activities having the students interact by having discussions about a book.

Children responses based on background and experiences:
Children that have different background and experiences than another child may have a different taste in books. This all depends on the child's interests, age, background experiences, and culture. Every time a child reads a book they take meaning away from that book, what kind of meaning the child gets out of the book all depends on the child. Children and adults take away different things when reading books. Children respond to books depending on what book it is that they are reading, for example if they are reading a book that they have no interest in then they may not take away any meaning from it. If a child is reading book for pleasure they are more likely to connect to the book and start to feel emotions for characters in the book. For children to be academically successful they must learn to read and respond thoughtfully to assigned literature.

Genre of Children's Literature

All books are categorized into different criteria. This includes categorizing books by genre, and then the categories within the genre such as narratives, non-narratives, and many more. Children's genre consists of traditional literature, fantasy, science fiction, realistic fiction, historical fiction, poetry, and nonfiction biography.

Traditional Literature: Oral and literary heritage of humankind, no known author. Categories within this genre:

• Folktales
• Fairy tales
• Myths and legends
• Tall tales
• Fables

Fantasy: Imaginative worlds, events that could not happen. Categories within this genre:

• Animal fantasy
• Toys and objects
• Miniature world
• Time warps
• Unreal worlds

Science Fiction: Stories about what might occur in the future based on extending physical laws and scientific principles. Categories within this genre:

• Magic
• Quest tales
• Science fiction

Realistic Fiction: Illusion of reality, the characters seem real. Categories within this genre:

• Adventure stories
• Mysteries
• Animal stories
• Stories about growing up
• Families
• Sports

Historical Fiction: These stories are set in the past, could have happened. Categories within this genre:

• Fictionalized memoir
• Fictionalized family history
• Fiction based on research

Poetry: Condensed language, expression of imaginative thoughts and perceptions. Categories within this genre:

• Mother Goose
• Nursery rhymes
• Lyric
• Narrative

Nonfiction Biography: An account of a person's life or part of life history. Informational facts about the real world. Categories within this genre:

• Authentic biography
• Memoir
• Autobiography
• Informational

Children's Literature

Children's books are a fun educational way for children to experience many different types of reading. They could be introduced to a fantasy world all the way to understanding a non-fiction book. When children read there are several benefits such as it increases language acquisition, reading comprehension, vocabulary, fluency, and MANY more! There are elements of children's literature which consist of style, setting, character, plot, and theme.

Style: This is the author's way of writing. Point of view also falls under style because it is the position that the narrator takes when telling the story.

Setting: This is when and where the story takes place. This could be in the past, present, or future.

Character: Characters are the most important part of the story. Authors must create characters so that the reader comes involved with them and being to care about them.

Plot: This consists of a beginning, rising action, climax, and a falling action or resolution. The plot must have a conflict and a resolution for that conflict. Suspense and tension create and interesting plot.

Theme: This is the central idea of the story. Themes include friendship, growing up, overcoming fear, and acceptance of self do not overpower the characters or plot.