Realistic Fiction

Realistic Fiction books depict stories that did not actually take place or occur, but have the potential to have happened. The setting, plot, and characters are fabricated by the author, however, contain an element of realism. There are many ways to teach students about realistic fiction. I could conduct read-alouds, in which I read the realistic fiction book out loud to the class. While reading the book I could stop to ask questions and have the students make predictions of what they think will happen next. In my classroom my students will keep a reading journal to document their reading experiences throughout the year. While teaching realistic fiction, I could have the students either answer a number of questions about the book we are reading or I could make their journal entry more personal by having the students make connections with the setting, plot, and characters.

One thing that I would love to do is to have my students create their own realistic fiction stories. This would be a quarter long assignment that my students would work on. The stories could be anything they wanted as long as they are realistic. When my students are finished writing and illustrating their stories, I would get all of their books published. Once the books are published I could put the students in groups where they read aloud and share their stories with their peers. I really love this idea and will be sure to implement it when I have my own classroom!

Diverse Perspectives in Children's Literature

Cultural, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity has never been more present than it is in our classrooms today. I truly believe that it is my duty as a future educator to get to know each and every one of my students and their ethnic backgrounds if I want them to be successful in our American classrooms. Each individual student has their own cultural background, be it European Americans, Hispanics, Native American, or African Americans, to just name a few. What better way to show these diverse students that I appreciate them and what their diverse cultures have to offer than through the readings of multicultural books.

While reading the chapter on diversity in children's literature, I came across a section that talked about teachers being hesitant when reading "risky" books about different cultures other than their own. I want to make sure that going into this profession I never allow myself to be afraid to share books that will allow students to develop insight into another students cultural world. 

This past semester I read a children's book called Fly Away Home, written by Eve Bunting. The book is about a boy who lives in an airport with his father because they are poor and can not afford a house. His father spends his days looking for a job while the boy tries to not get noticed in the airport. One day the boy sees a bird that is trapped in the airport and feels that he too is trapped, then the bird gets free and the boy begins to feel a sense of hope. There may be children in my classroom who come from low socioeconomic homes who feel that they are trapped, and by reading books such as Fly Away Home it gives the student hope that he too one day will be free or that they are not alone. Another wonderful multicultural book that I love is called The Snowy Day, written by Ezra Jack Keats. It was given to my daughter as a present and we read it together quite a bit. The books tells of a young African American boy who realizes that it snowed over night, the boy is so excited and decides to spend the day exploring outside in snowy neighborhood. I think it is so important that we include multicultural books in our EVERY DAY teachings with our students. Cultures should not only be talked about on special holidays, but should be explored and celebrated on a regular basis.  

The World of Online Children's Literature

There is no denying that technology plays a huge role in society today. Children are learning at very young ages how to manipulate different forms of technology, be it an iPad, smartphone, tablet, or computer. I found it very interesting and kind of alarming to learn from our book that children ranging in ages 8-18 spend an average of 90 minutes using the computer at home, and yet 75% of that time is spent on social networking, computer games, and watching online videos. Most children are not using that time to research information beyond what they can access at school, or to further explore what they are interested in. We as teachers need to teach our students how to use the internet to their academic benefit, starting with literacy.

The textbook talks about introducing students to digital texts. Digital texts can be extremely beneficial to students, we just need to teach the students how to properly access and use them. Online read-alouds,online books, and interactive storyboards are a few digital texts that this chapter discussed. I really liked when the chapter explained the online books. I will definitely use this type of digital text in my classroom with my English language learners (as well as my English speaking students)! One of the many collections that online books offer is the International Children's Digital Library, which includes four thousand books in fifty-four languages! English language learners are able to listen to books in their own language and could then listen to the book in English or vice versa.

 I enjoyed learning about the different ways in which students can read and manipulate literature online. I know that new technologies will continue to evolve and we must teach our youth to use the internet for educational purposes and not just social networking and gaming. Children now have the opportunity to explore and engage an extremely wide variety of online literature, which will in turn create more fluent readers!