Children's literature plays an essential role in the literacy development of children. This department column focuses on the teaching and use of children's literature and provides educators with information about a wide range of books across multiple genres that are representative of the diverse world in which we live. A strong emphasis is placed…

The book publishing industry in general and picture book materials for children in particular have undergone rapid and profound changes in recent years with the developments in the digital realm. As a result, teachers, school librarians, and literacy researchers have been largely left to their own devices to figure out basic questions related to…

In this article, we present the Graphical Rating Tool (GRT), which is designed to evaluate the graphical devices that are commonly found in content-area, non-fiction texts, in order to identify books that are well suited for teaching about those devices. We also present a "best of" list of science and social studies books, which includes…

Five teacher educators discuss children's literature addressing Earth's changing climate. They present tools for evaluating the quality of resources likely to help teachers and students stimulate conceptual and emotional development rather than anxiety or oversimplification. An annotated selection of current books along with a checklist to…

The authors argue for the overwhelming importance of finding and including culturally diverse literature into the curricula teachers are authorized to teach. They discuss the implications of use and offer ideas on how to identify quality literature to include in classroom and school libraries.

This article focuses on developing teacher understanding of how to carefully select and use children's picture books about autism as a tool for teaching awareness, empathy, and acceptance in an elementary classroom setting. We describe how the increased rate of autism and growing practice of inclusive educational settings affect classroom practice…

Across the pendulum-like changes in beginning reading instruction over the past 30 years, three interrelated ideas emerge as the key to preventing reading failure in kindergarten and first grade: (1) an interesting, carefully-leveled book curriculum; (2) a leveled phonics curriculum; and (3) a well-trained teacher who knows how to integrate guided…

The author of 80 books, most recently "HYPNOTIZE ME," discusses the unique challenges of engaging reluctant and sometimes openly hostile boys by creating the kind of stories that will hook them in and turn them into lifelong readers.

As portable devices become increasingly available in elementary classrooms teachers are expected to use these new technologies to engage students in both traditional print-based literacy learning and digital literacies practices, such as multimodal composing. Teachers face the daunting task of integrating apps into their current research-based…

One of the key requirements of Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in English Language Arts is that students are able to read and access complex texts across all grade levels. The CCSS authors emphasize both the limitations and lack of accuracy in the current CCSS model of text complexity, calling for the development of new frameworks. In response…

Many sixth grade students think they are telling the truth when they complain, "Reading is boring." However, they don't realize what sort of activities encompass reading. As a teacher with a few years of experience, I am finding new ways to engage reluctant readers and show them reading can take many different forms. In this essay, I…

In this article we discuss the differences between close reading in the primary grades and upper elementary grades. We focus on text selection, initial reading. repeated reading, annotation, text-based discussions, and responding to texts.

There is a wide range in the educational qualities and overall quality of interactive storybook apps for tablet computers (ebooks). Minimally, ebooks for young children present illustrations on a screen, accompanied by an oral reading of the text. Today's ebooks can also include animation, zooming in and out, musical scores, sound effects,…

The challenges associated with boys and reading are focused on such factors as society's lack of focus on literacy skills, parents failings to inspire reading in boys, and internal motivational factors rather than looking at the environments created for reading in and out of school. In this column, several ideas for helping boys develop a…

Early childhood instruction tends to focus heavily on literacy development, sometimes at the expense of rich concept development (CEP, 2007; Neuman, 2006; NRC, 2012; NSTA, 2014). Because of the emphasis on literacy instruction, many early childhood teachers integrate content areas, such as science, in literacy instruction through read alouds of…