Today's students need to be able to do more than score well on tests—they must be creative thinkers and problem solvers. The tools in this book will help teachers and parents start students on the path to becoming innovative, successful individuals in the 21st century workforce. The children in classrooms today will soon become adult members of society: they will need to apply divergent thinking skills to be effective in all aspects of their lives, regardless of their specific occupation. How well your students meet complicated challenges and take advantage of the opportunities before them decades down the road will depend largely upon the kind of thinking they are trained and encouraged to do today. This book provides a game plan for busy librarians and teachers to develop their students' abilities to arrive at new ideas by utilizing children's books at hand. Following an introduction in which the author defines divergent thinking, discusses its characteristics, and establishes its vital importance, chapters dedicated to types of literature for children such as fantasy, poetry, and non-fiction present specific titles and relevant activities geared to fostering divergent thinking in young minds. Parents will find the recommendations of the kinds of books to read with their children and explanations of how to engage their children in conversations that will help their creative thinking skills extremely beneficial. The book also includes a case study of a fourth-grade class that applied the principles of divergent thinking to imagine innovative designs and come up with new ideas while studying a social studies/science unit on ecology.

The Use of Children's Literature in Teaching reveals the impact of politics, professional guidelines and restrictive measurements of literacy on the emerging identities of young teachers. It places renewed emphasis on the importance of creative teaching with children’s literature for the empowerment of teacher agency to enhance the learning of their students. Framing the debate alongside the issue of teacher autonomy, Simpson describes results from a two-year study, which brings together information from interviews, surveys, document analysis and digital stories from Australia, Canada, the UK and the US to assess the role of children’s literature in pre-service teacher education. Through cross-cultural comparison, this research captures the different levels of connection between politics, education systems, higher education and pre-service teachers. It exposes how politics, narrow views of professionalism and program structures in teacher education may adversely affect the development of pre-service teachers. This book presents a strong case that reading and responding critically to literary texts leads to better educational outcomes than basic decoding and low-level comprehension training. As such, this book will be of great interest to researchers and scholars working in the areas of teacher education and literacy and primary education. It should also be essential reading for teacher educators and policymakers.

Focusing on significant and cutting-edge preoccupations within children’s literature scholarship, The Routledge Companion to Children’s Literature and Culture presents a comprehensive overview of print, digital, and electronic texts for children aged zero to thirteen as forms of world literature participating in a panoply of identity formations. Offering five distinct sections, this volume: Familiarizes students and beginning scholars with key concepts and methodological resources guiding contemporary inquiry into children’s literature Describes the major media formats and genres for texts expressly addressing children Considers the production, distribution, and valuing of children’s books from an assortment of historical and contemporary perspectives, highlighting context as a driver of content Maps how children’s texts have historically presumed and prescribed certain identities on the part of their readers, sometimes addressing readers who share some part of the author’s identity, sometimes seeking to educate the reader about a presumed “other,” and in recent decades increasingly foregrounding identities once lacking visibility and voice Explores the historical evolutions and trans-regional contacts and (inter)connections in the long process of the formation of global children’s literature, highlighting issues such as retranslation, transnationalism, transculturality, and new digital formats for considering cultural crossings and renegotiations in the production of children’s literature Methodically presented and contextualized, this volume is an engaging introduction to this expanding and multifaceted field.

Fredericks presents hundreds of hands-on, minds-on projects that actively engage students in positive learning experiences. Each of the units offers book summaries, social studies topic areas, critical thinking questions, classroom resources, and lots of easy-to-do activities for every grade level. The author also provides practical guidelines for collaborative ventures with school librarians, tips for integrating literature across the curriculum, lists of relevant web sites useful in social studies curriculum. Everything is linked to the social studies standards.

This book describes the history and characteristics of ethnic and multicultural children's literature in the U.S., as well as related materials published elsewhere. It relates in great detail the people, businesses, organizations, and institutions that create, disseminate, promote, critique, and collect these materials. Author Donna Gilton gives a detailed history of U.S. multicultural and ethnic children's literature throughout several historic periods, relating these developments to general social and political U.S. history. Chapters illustrate characteristics of U.S. multicultural children's books, the major issues in the field, and multicultural initiatives and mainstream responses, while also providing outlines of research possibilities in the field and suggesting other groups of people who should be emphasized more in the future. In doing all this, Multicultural and Ethnic Children's Literature in the United States brings together valuable and scattered information for the busy and involved librarians, teachers, parents, publishers, distributors, and community leaders who wish to use and promote this material with children.

Articles of this book - Donelle Ruwe Guarding the British Bible from Rousseau; Ruth Carver Capasso Philanthropy in Nineteenth-Century French Children’s Literature; Ken Parille 'Wake up, and be a man'; Claudia Nelson Drying the Orphan’s Tear; Kate Lawson The 'Disappointed' House; Fern Kory Once upon a Time in Aframerica; Laura B. Comoletti and Michael D. C. Drout How They Do Things with Words; Philip Nel 'Never overlook the art of the seemingly simple'; Sandra Beckett Parodic Play with Paintings in Picture Books; Clare Bradford The End of Empire?

Children′s literature is a powerful resource that can inspire a young reader’s lifetime love of reading, but how can you ensure that your literacy teaching uses this rich creative world to its fullest? This book gives pre-service primary teachers an in-depth guide to each major type of children′s book, examining the form, structure and approach of each. From fairy tales and non-fiction to picture books and digital texts, learn what qualities underpin outstanding children′s literature and how you can use this to inspire rewarding learning experiences in your classroom. Key features: Each chapter is full of key book recommendations to help you select excellent age-appropriate texts for your learners An international focus across English-language publishing, covering key books from Australian, US and UK authors A special focus on Australian indigenous children′s literature Busting popular myths about children′s literature to give you a deeper understanding of the form Evaluation criteria for every genre, helping you to recognise the qualities of high quality books This is essential reading for anyone training to teach in primary schools and qualified teachers looking to improve their professional knowledge. Matthew Zbaracki is State Head of Victoria in the National School of Education at ACU, Melbourne.

Due to popular demand, the Butzows have put together more fascinating thematic units that make science more exciting for young learners. Each chapter focuses on an individual book and includes vocabulary; concepts; applications; and a wide variety of activities, including hands-on and inquiry-based topics, games, puzzles, word searches, and more. The authors' approach helps connect the conceptual content to real-life experiences. Physical, life, earth, space, and environmental sciences are included.

First Published in 1995. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.