When I observe a class, I am often amazed at how popular informational books are with students. Our library has several series that cover numerous topics of interest to children. Books in the lower level cover careers, animals, branches of the military, vehicles, sports, machines, and more. These books present information using vocabulary and concepts that can be easily read and comprehended by readers in the primary grades. The students seem to “eat up” the information and work to read an entire series. They are very willing to share their knowledge, too. Of course, there are books for the upper elementary students, as well. Their fascination with discovery, though, seems to have lessened somewhat. This is just my observations about our school, and I'm sure is not the case for all students.
I think some creative learning based projects could be created by using a series of information books. I would enjoy finding books on simple machines to share with a class and then turning the students lose with materials to experiment and learn. The final project could be a demonstration of a machine and a practical use in our world. This type of hands on learning is not only educational, but it can increase creativity and critical thinking skills.
Chapter 12 presents a lot of information about how informational books are written. I was glad to see that the Magic School Bus books were included as being valid informational books. I love reading those books, and I know a third grade teacher who uses them to accompany some of her science and social studies lessons. The kids really seem to enjoy them. I was reminded of some strategies I had used with the special education class I used to work in when I read the “Teaching with Informational Books” section. We would pick a unit, like the Jungle for example, and find as many books as we could about jungle animals. After exposing our students to as much information as was practical, we would allow them to pick their favorite animal, read one or two of the informational books, and then write a report over it that was based on the “main idea with three or four supporting details” model. Then they could continue writing whatever other interesting facts they had learned. It really is interesting how kids respond to informational books without acting like they think they’re too boring! As was pointed out in the text, many of them are more informative and more interesting than a regular textbook.
I'm pretty surprised by the kinds of informational books that are available in school libraries also, and by how many kids actually check them out and read them. I think where I worked, most of the boys would navigate toward the sports books, and girls would check out just about anything. In the IRC classroom I worked for, as I mentioned in my post, we would use the books to accompany our lessons. We used some of the career books sometimes, too.
At the high school level, I've found books ranging from sports to Presidents (even Obama already) and one called "Assisted Suicide." There seem to be books for kids on just about everything, but they can definitely be helpful in a classroom to add information to whatever is in a classroom text.
After reading this section, I have so much more respect for informational books. They encourage self-reliance, and encourage development of critical reading ad thinking skills. Children need these skills so badly these days. As an educator, I will encourage these books more often than I had previously predicted. I enjoy reading informational books that relate to my hobbies, such as drawing. I can draw, but I always enjoy learning new techniques. I always evaluate the books 1st to make sure that the instructions are clear, just as the text suggests. These types of how-to books also require detailed illustrations to help me understand what I am trying to accomplish. I never really thought about checking the copyright dates for younger students. I have also never heard anyone teach this fact to them. This should be encouraged more to students of all ages, so they may learn more up to date facts. I enjoyed reading about all the values informational books have to offer children of all ages. It was also interesting to learn about the importance of organization, illustration and the encouragement of analytical thinking. There is so much to learn from this chapter. All of this information will come in very handy when I begin teaching.
Miranda, I was shocked to read about the Magic School Bus in this chapter so many times. My daughters 2nd grade teacher shows the cartoons when they go along with their lesson. I love how much she learns from them. I thought the idea of textbooks being bad for students was pretty interesting. I think some students would learn science easier from and informational book, than the texts used in some of our classrooms. I am much better at reading informational books then biographies, so this chapter was more interesting to me than the last. Good post!
Chapter 12 was a great way to end the Children's Literature Book, it basically took everything from the previous chapters and made it into a whole. This chapter was helpful for me first of all because of the value of learning informational books. The book has six reasons why information books are important they include; gained knowledge, provide apportunities for new discoveries, introduction of scientific method, encouragement of self reliance, development of critical thinking and reading skills. I believe that these are great values for informational books. The next thing that I learned from the chapter is how to evaluate informational books. To properly evaluate these books will better help to understand the genre.
As a teacher, I will help my students have goals to read several books on their subject of interest with different authors. This will give the students different views on the same subject. Allowing them to help form their own opinion on some subjects.
Miranda, I have read some of the Magic School Bus books to my own kids. But until I read this Chapter and the above blogs, I had never thought of making them part of my classroom lesson. I do like that idea, as I feel that several of them would be beneficial as well. I have enjoyed reading all of the blogs above and the different ideas each of you have suggested. As I stated before, when I got into Children's Literature class, I didn't think about how this book was going to be one I would want to keep close as I taught my classroom students. As many of you agree, this books has a lot of information and book titles that will be helpful.
I never thought of information books as being a genre of their own. I guess I usually thought of them just as non-fiction, but I guess as they said in the book that aspects of informational books can be made up as long as it did not make the information incorrect. I too think that trade books would be better to teach children about science like the book said. I have seen elementary science books and they are not that interesting. They are mainly just dictionaries really. They do not get the child interested and they may decide they don't like science because of uninteresting textbooks.
You are right about the checking copyright dates. I never really considered this either. It is a really good idea especially since many school libraries have really old books. I know that I have seen some that have been more than 20-30 years old. If informational books are that old, it is very likely that the information inside this is out-of-date.
Chp 12. I think informational books are the most useful tool. There are benefits to fiction, and mystery and all of those as far as imagination and creativity. However, informational books do just that, supply information. Information that is stored and used. Information which leads to knowledge. Just my opinion on informational books. Plus as mentioned earlier, the WIDE range of topics are endless.
I found this chapter very interesting. I think informational books are great for children. Informational books have many values, like providing opportunities for children to experience the excitement of new discoveries; it introduces the scientific method and just gaining knowledge, which is never a bad thing. I think informational books can open a child’s mind in many different ways, and teach them that they can look at situations from many different views. I think trade books would be a great way to get children interested in something like science. Some books, especially elementary science textbooks can seem very unappealing to them and may discourage their liking or willing to learn about science.
Informational books are everywhere. These books are also meant for people of all ages. They are a learning experience. I like how it stated that authors of an informational book have to write for children to stimulate their interests. I think that would be a bit of a challenge. I remember reading informational books in school. Unless I picked up an informational book by my choice, I thought it was boring. Kind of like a textbook. It's sad how they don't challenge informative authors to stimulate the interest of college students!
I also enjoyed reading the six ways about informative books being helpful. Who would have thought there is more behind an informative book than just information!
Informational books are great for children to use to expand their knowledge on their interests and to develop new interests. We have many informational books in our home library to include cookbooks, books about animals and plants, marriage and family, and many books on crafts. All three of my children enjoy informational books. My oldest son loves books about space, constellations, and dogs. My daughter enjoys cookbooks and especially scrapbooking books. My four year old son enjoys reading books about cars, trucks, and tractors. I thought the text did a great job of providing us with information about how to evaluate and make sure we are choosing appropriate informational books. It also gave many great titles for many different informational topics. Informational books are extremely important in a school setting and the text provided several examples on how we can incorporate them into our future classrooms. My children love the Magic School Bus series and it was nice to know that our book’s authors also feel that this series is good for children to read.
Stephanie M - I agree that many informational books can seem pretty dry. It is very true that when writing them for children, authors need to be sure that they are written in a format that will keep the childrens' attention. Children can learn so much from reading a good informational book and it's sad to say that many of them seem too much like a textbook and not enough like entertainment.
As a child I loved informational books and I still do. I like to be able to find out facts regarding my interests. I can remember checking out books about tigers and snakes because I thought they were neat as a child. I thought books about Australia were interesting as well. I particularly like how this chapter highlighted the variety of informational books and why they are important to children's literature. I feel informational books encourage a children to continue to explore their interests. I continue to enjoy the application process of the chapters as well. Very helpful for future classroom ideas.
Kristi, I agree with your comment about science books. Our district went to textbooks for elementary science this year. They are very colorful, but do not seem to encourage the hands on activities of the kits we had used in the past. There is so much information out there that is more fun. I agree our classmates about the "Magic School Bus" series. They are so fun and educational.
Chapter 12 discusses informational books. As a child I remember really enjoying informational books. As an adult I do not read them as much but I have used them to teach me how to do crafts such as knitting and quilting as well as help learn new skills for work. Informational books are a great way to learn how to do something and discover new things. I liked the evaluation criteria used for informational books, and it will be helpful in selecting books that will spark an interest in students. I really think that informational books are important to young children. Children are so curious and have a desire to learn about how things work or where things come from. I think curiosity dies down somewhat as children get older. I liked the discussion about incorporating literature into the science curriculum to make it more interesting for students. Instead of using regular textbooks, the use of literature will make learning science more like an adventure.
Chapter 12 is my favorite chapter in the book. It discusses informational books which have always been my favorite as they are very informative in the topics it is discussings. My children at home love these books because it stimulates there minds and teaches them many things that they had no clue about. The chapter highlights what these informational books do for children like encouraging self reliance and the critical thinking skills which can only make the child'd knowledge level go higher. The Magic School Bus was one of my favorites when I was a child and I did not know that they considered it an informational book. I think that as a teacher I would definately use these books to cover different subjects such as science and social studies.
I could not agree with you more in that if they used these informational books during a science lesson students will be more interested in the lesson because they do enjoy learning new things. I believe that the use of these books in the classroom during daily activites will encourage the students to become more involved in the lesson as they will be learning how and why things happen as oppose to just reading it out of textbooks that are basically just a type of dictionary.
Information books handle our need to learn. They give us interesting ways to learn things about the world around us.
The thing that really stuck out in this chapter to me, the stereotype section. It's amazing how important having all races and sexes represented in a book are. I couldn't imagine being a little girl, or a little boy of a race where the books did not represent people like me in a book. I would imagine that if that happened, I would think it was impossible for me to do what I was reading about. Or maybe someone like me shouldn't be reading it.
I have said many times on these posts that when I was a kid I wasn't exposed much to reading. Now I read all the time and I read all kinds of different content. I also try to expose my son to as many books as possible. I think that informational books, organized in the right way, are great books to get involved with. It is something that you will not only enjoy reading with your kids, or just by yourself, but a lot of times you can learn together.
I like your point on critical thinking. Critical thinking is so important in life, and I don't think there is enough emphasis on it anymore. Sometimes I think it doesn't exist at all, especially when I watch all of our politicians go to work.
Information books are awesome. I always had a bunch of them growing up over anything under the sun, animals, science topics, foreign countries. I even keep a five inch thick text book over mythologies from countries around the world. I spent a lot of money getting new informational books for my kids and have rounded up all my old ones from my parents. I even subscribe to the National Geographic because I cannot get enough of them. Anyway as you can tell I loved this chapter it had a ton of information and different ways to apply information books in the class room.
Jason R - I am with you on your thoughts toward Maria’s point on critical thinking. If people would be more practiced at critical thinking our world would be a lot better place. And maybe the politicians would think through how their actions will affect the world around them.
I really like informational books and so this chapter gave me some new ideas on books to look at. My children love them also. They head to the nonfiction section of the library first and then go to the fictional section. I think these types of books encourage children to learn an think about life,nature, history,etc. Some of my sons favorite books are informational books about dinosaurs, he loves national geographic magazines and loves to learn new things. This has crossed over to the tv shows he watches, he watches all the history and nature channels like discovery rather than cartoons. Learning is a process we go through everyday. What better way to learn about something than to read a book.
My kids love the Magic School Bus series. It is nice to know that they are considered informational but that they are so much fun to read. We collect these so it is definitely a book series I will use in my classroom.
I never really knew what informational books were until this section. I thought informational books were old boring books that nobody really cared about! I thought they were for people who just liked to read but after reading this section I realized it was not like that at all. I never really thought about the books I read and how they are informational. I agree with Danica because I remember reading the Magic School Bus series and neverthey were informational books. I love books that are hidden like that!
Okay, so there are so many points that I agree with from all of the above posts. First, I never thought of the importance of the Magic School Bus either. They really would be good to use for instruction. Second, I also didn't consider the importance of checking copyright dates. I do not know why because it makes complete sense. It has to be up to date be helpful. Finally, I also think that if in my past science classes the use of informational books would have been very effective I think. They would be very helpful for critical thinking and relating material. I think I enjoy reading informational books a bit more than biographies. I just cannot get excited about biographies for some reason.
Kids are sponges for sure...Informational books can be their liquid. I have noticed that many boys tend to check out these types of books. Things like the Worlds most deadliest Animals, How to play football. Things like that. This chapter showed some great information. These types of books are good to have on hand to further learn themes we are already teaching.
This was a great chapter. Informational books are mainly what I look for when I book shop for my kids. I always try and find something for their grade level so they are not overwhelmed with difficult words. A lot of the books my 9 year old loves to read are about her hobbies and crafts. She really appreciates the things that she makes especially if she learned how to do them herself. I also try to pick out books about certain subjects she is interested in. She loves geography and history. I love the books that we order from National Gerographics. They have so many pictures and paintings that it is hard to put the book. down. This chapter really helped with choosing other informational books for my kids and future students.
Danica my children also love national gerographic magazines. I get them the one for children although my daughter loves to look at the regular ones too. We pick a show on the History channel, Animal Planet or National Geographics a few time a week. I learn a lot too and I'm sure this will also help in the future.
Informational books are great. My 3 and 5-year-old children love "looking at" these kinds of books. My son has a few national geopgraphic kids magazines and some scholastic books that have pictures and information about animals in particular. They enjoy looking at the pictures and asking me what is says about them. Just as the book says, these types of books provide opportunities for my kids to experience the excitement of new discoveries! I think that illustrations in any book are fun to look at, but especially in informational-type books. They definately add to the clarity of the text. Unlike in other genres of literature, often times we can imagine what we are reading, but if informational books didn't have illustrations, it would be almost impossible to imagine what you're reading about. Even if one could imagine, it wouldn't matter because it most likely wouldn't be accurate. The text gave some great examples of informational books for children of all ages. It was a great source of information and will be even better as I get into a classroom and have to find this type of information for a particular lesson.
Chris C, I found your comment to be enlightening about children "eating up" the information in these types of books. I think that you are absolutely right, however. Often times I think that with boys especially, it is so great to have informational books at their hand. It seems that boys are often the ones who don't enjoy reading and find it hard to find something they really like. Informational books give them pleasure in a lot of things, especially things that you mentioned; sports, vehicles and military.
When I observe a class, I am often amazed at how popular informational books are with students. Our library has several series that cover numerous topics of interest to children. Books in the lower level cover careers, animals, branches of the military, vehicles, sports, machines, and more. These books present information using vocabulary and concepts that can be easily read and comprehended by readers in the primary grades. The students seem to “eat up” the information and work to read an entire series. They are very willing to share their knowledge, too. Of course, there are books for the upper elementary students, as well. Their fascination with discovery, though, seems to have lessened somewhat. This is just my observations about our school, and I'm sure is not the case for all students.
ReplyDeleteI think some creative learning based projects could be created by using a series of information books. I would enjoy finding books on simple machines to share with a class and then turning the students lose with materials to experiment and learn. The final project could be a demonstration of a machine and a practical use in our world. This type of hands on learning is not only educational, but it can increase creativity and critical thinking skills.
Chapter 12 presents a lot of information about how informational books are written. I was glad to see that the Magic School Bus books were included as being valid informational books. I love reading those books, and I know a third grade teacher who uses them to accompany some of her science and social studies lessons. The kids really seem to enjoy them. I was reminded of some strategies I had used with the special education class I used to work in when I read the “Teaching with Informational Books” section. We would pick a unit, like the Jungle for example, and find as many books as we could about jungle animals. After exposing our students to as much information as was practical, we would allow them to pick their favorite animal, read one or two of the informational books, and then write a report over it that was based on the “main idea with three or four supporting details” model. Then they could continue writing whatever other interesting facts they had learned. It really is interesting how kids respond to informational books without acting like they think they’re too boring! As was pointed out in the text, many of them are more informative and more interesting than a regular textbook.
ReplyDeleteChris C-
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty surprised by the kinds of informational books that are available in school libraries also, and by how many kids actually check them out and read them. I think where I worked, most of the boys would navigate toward the sports books, and girls would check out just about anything. In the IRC classroom I worked for, as I mentioned in my post, we would use the books to accompany our lessons. We used some of the career books sometimes, too.
At the high school level, I've found books ranging from sports to Presidents (even Obama already) and one called "Assisted Suicide." There seem to be books for kids on just about everything, but they can definitely be helpful in a classroom to add information to whatever is in a classroom text.
After reading this section, I have so much more respect for informational books. They encourage self-reliance, and encourage development of critical reading ad thinking skills. Children need these skills so badly these days. As an educator, I will encourage these books more often than I had previously predicted.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy reading informational books that relate to my hobbies, such as drawing. I can draw, but I always enjoy learning new techniques. I always evaluate the books 1st to make sure that the instructions are clear, just as the text suggests. These types of how-to books also require detailed illustrations to help me understand what I am trying to accomplish.
I never really thought about checking the copyright dates for younger students. I have also never heard anyone teach this fact to them. This should be encouraged more to students of all ages, so they may learn more up to date facts.
I enjoyed reading about all the values informational books have to offer children of all ages. It was also interesting to learn about the importance of organization, illustration and the encouragement of analytical thinking. There is so much to learn from this chapter. All of this information will come in very handy when I begin teaching.
Miranda,
ReplyDeleteI was shocked to read about the Magic School Bus in this chapter so many times. My daughters 2nd grade teacher shows the cartoons when they go along with their lesson. I love how much she learns from them. I thought the idea of textbooks being bad for students was pretty interesting. I think some students would learn science easier from and informational book, than the texts used in some of our classrooms. I am much better at reading informational books then biographies, so this chapter was more interesting to me than the last. Good post!
Chapter 12 was a great way to end the Children's Literature Book, it basically took everything from the previous chapters and made it into a whole. This chapter was helpful for me first of all because of the value of learning informational books. The book has six reasons why information books are important they include; gained knowledge, provide apportunities for new discoveries, introduction of scientific method, encouragement of self reliance, development of critical thinking and reading skills.
ReplyDeleteI believe that these are great values for informational books. The next thing that I learned from the chapter is how to evaluate informational books. To properly evaluate these books will better help to understand the genre.
As a teacher, I will help my students have goals to read several books on their subject of interest with different authors. This will give the students different views on the same subject. Allowing them to help form their own opinion on some subjects.
Miranda,
ReplyDeleteI have read some of the Magic School Bus books to my own kids. But until I read this Chapter and the above blogs, I had never thought of making them part of my classroom lesson. I do like that idea, as I feel that several of them would be beneficial as well.
I have enjoyed reading all of the blogs above and the different ideas each of you have suggested. As I stated before, when I got into Children's Literature class, I didn't think about how this book was going to be one I would want to keep close as I taught my classroom students. As many of you agree, this books has a lot of information and book titles that will be helpful.
I never thought of information books as being a genre of their own. I guess I usually thought of them just as non-fiction, but I guess as they said in the book that aspects of informational books can be made up as long as it did not make the information incorrect.
ReplyDeleteI too think that trade books would be better to teach children about science like the book said. I have seen elementary science books and they are not that interesting. They are mainly just dictionaries really. They do not get the child interested and they may decide they don't like science because of uninteresting textbooks.
Shadra T,
ReplyDeleteYou are right about the checking copyright dates. I never really considered this either. It is a really good idea especially since many school libraries have really old books. I know that I have seen some that have been more than 20-30 years old. If informational books are that old, it is very likely that the information inside this is out-of-date.
Chp 12. I think informational books are the most useful tool. There are benefits to fiction, and mystery and all of those as far as imagination and creativity. However, informational books do just that, supply information. Information that is stored and used. Information which leads to knowledge. Just my opinion on informational books. Plus as mentioned earlier, the WIDE range of topics are endless.
ReplyDeleteI found this chapter very interesting. I think informational books are great for children. Informational books have many values, like providing opportunities for children to experience the excitement of new discoveries; it introduces the scientific method and just gaining knowledge, which is never a bad thing. I think informational books can open a child’s mind in many different ways, and teach them that they can look at situations from many different views. I think trade books would be a great way to get children interested in something like science. Some books, especially elementary science textbooks can seem very unappealing to them and may discourage their liking or willing to learn about science.
ReplyDeleteShadraT- I also agree about looking at the copyright dates, most of the time I never think to do it.
ReplyDeleteInformational books are everywhere. These books are also meant for people of all ages. They are a learning experience. I like how it stated that authors of an informational book have to write for children to stimulate their interests. I think that would be a bit of a challenge. I remember reading informational books in school. Unless I picked up an informational book by my choice, I thought it was boring. Kind of like a textbook. It's sad how they don't challenge informative authors to stimulate the interest of college students!
ReplyDeleterrballuch-
ReplyDeleteI also enjoyed reading the six ways about informative books being helpful. Who would have thought there is more behind an informative book than just information!
Informational books are great for children to use to expand their knowledge on their interests and to develop new interests. We have many informational books in our home library to include cookbooks, books about animals and plants, marriage and family, and many books on crafts. All three of my children enjoy informational books. My oldest son loves books about space, constellations, and dogs. My daughter enjoys cookbooks and especially scrapbooking books. My four year old son enjoys reading books about cars, trucks, and tractors. I thought the text did a great job of providing us with information about how to evaluate and make sure we are choosing appropriate informational books. It also gave many great titles for many different informational topics. Informational books are extremely important in a school setting and the text provided several examples on how we can incorporate them into our future classrooms. My children love the Magic School Bus series and it was nice to know that our book’s authors also feel that this series is good for children to read.
ReplyDeleteStephanie M - I agree that many informational books can seem pretty dry. It is very true that when writing them for children, authors need to be sure that they are written in a format that will keep the childrens' attention. Children can learn so much from reading a good informational book and it's sad to say that many of them seem too much like a textbook and not enough like entertainment.
ReplyDeleteAs a child I loved informational books and I still do. I like to be able to find out facts regarding my interests. I can remember checking out books about tigers and snakes because I thought they were neat as a child. I thought books about Australia were interesting as well. I particularly like how this chapter highlighted the variety of informational books and why they are important to children's literature. I feel informational books encourage a children to continue to explore their interests. I continue to enjoy the application process of the chapters as well. Very helpful for future classroom ideas.
ReplyDeleteStephanie-
ReplyDeleteI liked how you touched on the fact that informational books are everywhere and they are for all ages. :)
Kristi,
ReplyDeleteI agree with your comment about science books. Our district went to textbooks for elementary science this year. They are very colorful, but do not seem to encourage the hands on activities of the kits we had used in the past. There is so much information out there that is more fun. I agree our classmates about the "Magic School Bus" series. They are so fun and educational.
Chapter 12 discusses informational books. As a child I remember really enjoying informational books. As an adult I do not read them as much but I have used them to teach me how to do crafts such as knitting and quilting as well as help learn new skills for work. Informational books are a great way to learn how to do something and discover new things. I liked the evaluation criteria used for informational books, and it will be helpful in selecting books that will spark an interest in students. I really think that informational books are important to young children. Children are so curious and have a desire to learn about how things work or where things come from. I think curiosity dies down somewhat as children get older. I liked the discussion about incorporating literature into the science curriculum to make it more interesting for students. Instead of using regular textbooks, the use of literature will make learning science more like an adventure.
ReplyDeleteChapter 12 is my favorite chapter in the book. It discusses informational books which have always been my favorite as they are very informative in the topics it is discussings. My children at home love these books because it stimulates there minds and teaches them many things that they had no clue about. The chapter highlights what these informational books do for children like encouraging self reliance and the critical thinking skills which can only make the child'd knowledge level go higher. The Magic School Bus was one of my favorites when I was a child and I did not know that they considered it an informational book. I think that as a teacher I would definately use these books to cover different subjects such as science and social studies.
ReplyDeleteShannaS
ReplyDeleteI could not agree with you more in that if they used these informational books during a science lesson students will be more interested in the lesson because they do enjoy learning new things. I believe that the use of these books in the classroom during daily activites will encourage the students to become more involved in the lesson as they will be learning how and why things happen as oppose to just reading it out of textbooks that are basically just a type of dictionary.
Informational books during ANY science lesson would have helped me!!! The old regular hand me down science books did nothing for me in school!
ReplyDeleteInformation books handle our need to learn. They give us interesting ways to learn things about the world around us.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that really stuck out in this chapter to me, the stereotype section. It's amazing how important having all races and sexes represented in a book are. I couldn't imagine being a little girl, or a little boy of a race where the books did not represent people like me in a book. I would imagine that if that happened, I would think it was impossible for me to do what I was reading about. Or maybe someone like me shouldn't be reading it.
I have said many times on these posts that when I was a kid I wasn't exposed much to reading. Now I read all the time and I read all kinds of different content. I also try to expose my son to as many books as possible. I think that informational books, organized in the right way, are great books to get involved with. It is something that you will not only enjoy reading with your kids, or just by yourself, but a lot of times you can learn together.
Maria,
ReplyDeleteI like your point on critical thinking. Critical thinking is so important in life, and I don't think there is enough emphasis on it anymore. Sometimes I think it doesn't exist at all, especially when I watch all of our politicians go to work.
Information books are awesome. I always had a bunch of them growing up over anything under the sun, animals, science topics, foreign countries. I even keep a five inch thick text book over mythologies from countries around the world. I spent a lot of money getting new informational books for my kids and have rounded up all my old ones from my parents. I even subscribe to the National Geographic because I cannot get enough of them. Anyway as you can tell I loved this chapter it had a ton of information and different ways to apply information books in the class room.
ReplyDeleteJason R - I am with you on your thoughts toward Maria’s point on critical thinking. If people would be more practiced at critical thinking our world would be a lot better place. And maybe the politicians would think through how their actions will affect the world around them.
ReplyDeleteI really like informational books and so this chapter gave me some new ideas on books to look at. My children love them also. They head to the nonfiction section of the library first and then go to the fictional section. I think these types of books encourage children to learn an think about life,nature, history,etc. Some of my sons favorite books are informational books about dinosaurs, he loves national geographic magazines and loves to learn new things. This has crossed over to the tv shows he watches, he watches all the history and nature channels like discovery rather than cartoons. Learning is a process we go through everyday. What better way to learn about something than to read a book.
ReplyDeleteMaria C,
ReplyDeleteMy kids love the Magic School Bus series. It is nice to know that they are considered informational but that they are so much fun to read. We collect these so it is definitely a book series I will use in my classroom.
I never really knew what informational books were until this section. I thought informational books were old boring books that nobody really cared about! I thought they were for people who just liked to read but after reading this section I realized it was not like that at all. I never really thought about the books I read and how they are informational.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Danica because I remember reading the Magic School Bus series and neverthey were informational books. I love books that are hidden like that!
Okay, so there are so many points that I agree with from all of the above posts. First, I never thought of the importance of the Magic School Bus either. They really would be good to use for instruction. Second, I also didn't consider the importance of checking copyright dates. I do not know why because it makes complete sense. It has to be up to date be helpful. Finally, I also think that if in my past science classes the use of informational books would have been very effective I think. They would be very helpful for critical thinking and relating material. I think I enjoy reading informational books a bit more than biographies. I just cannot get excited about biographies for some reason.
ReplyDeleteKids are sponges for sure...Informational books can be their liquid. I have noticed that many boys tend to check out these types of books. Things like the Worlds most deadliest Animals, How to play football. Things like that. This chapter showed some great information. These types of books are good to have on hand to further learn themes we are already teaching.
ReplyDeleteIsn't that funny that something as simple as copyright dates can be overlooked?
ReplyDeleteThis was a great chapter. Informational books are mainly what I look for when I book shop for my kids. I always try and find something for their grade level so they are not overwhelmed with difficult words. A lot of the books my 9 year old loves to read are about her hobbies and crafts. She really appreciates the things that she makes especially if she learned how to do them herself. I also try to pick out books about certain subjects she is interested in. She loves geography and history. I love the books that we order from National Gerographics. They have so many pictures and paintings that it is hard to put the book. down. This chapter really helped with choosing other informational books for my kids and future students.
ReplyDeleteDanica my children also love national gerographic magazines. I get them the one for children although my daughter loves to look at the regular ones too. We pick a show on the History channel, Animal Planet or National Geographics a few time a week. I learn a lot too and I'm sure this will also help in the future.
ReplyDeleteInformational books are great. My 3 and 5-year-old children love "looking at" these kinds of books. My son has a few national geopgraphic kids magazines and some scholastic books that have pictures and information about animals in particular. They enjoy looking at the pictures and asking me what is says about them. Just as the book says, these types of books provide opportunities for my kids to experience the excitement of new discoveries!
ReplyDeleteI think that illustrations in any book are fun to look at, but especially in informational-type books. They definately add to the clarity of the text. Unlike in other genres of literature, often times we can imagine what we are reading, but if informational books didn't have illustrations, it would be almost impossible to imagine what you're reading about. Even if one could imagine, it wouldn't matter because it most likely wouldn't be accurate.
The text gave some great examples of informational books for children of all ages. It was a great source of information and will be even better as I get into a classroom and have to find this type of information for a particular lesson.
Chris C,
ReplyDeleteI found your comment to be enlightening about children "eating up" the information in these types of books. I think that you are absolutely right, however. Often times I think that with boys especially, it is so great to have informational books at their hand. It seems that boys are often the ones who don't enjoy reading and find it hard to find something they really like. Informational books give them pleasure in a lot of things, especially things that you mentioned; sports, vehicles and military.