Wordless books offer a bounty of riches. The format is accessible to everyone regardless of language or reading ability, making the books ideal for use in international settings, classes with nonnative speakers, or families with adults or children who are struggling or emergent readers. They enrich the aesthetic lives and literacy skills of…

Since ancient times, humans have sought explanations for the mysteries of nature's beauty and variety. Like other kinds of folk stories, pourquoi tales can be considered parables about how humans and animals originated or why they look or behave the way they do. Pourquoi tales have high appeal, are generally simple and straightforward in…

This unit is designed as a planning guide for a literature-based approach to teaching reading, writing, vocabulary, and reasoning. It serves as a model to reinforce the important aspects of literacy through a literature-based approach in which children read authentic literature and engage in authentic tasks relative to that literature. The unit…