Books to Inspire Learning: Nomad Press

Often as teachers we have a terrific theme (Survival, Balance, Interdependence) or topic (Transportation, Inventions, Rain Forest), and plenty of awesome trade books with which to explore that theme or topic, but what we're missing is the "hands-on" component. Hands-on has become almost a buzz word that I dislike when simply slapped onto a math curriculum that might use manipulatives for one lesson each week. But what I mean here by hands-on is projects, experiments, activities, and explorations that use "stuff" to help students truly understand what they're learning.

When I taught third grade, for example, high school students who returned to visit their old classroom didn't reminisce about worksheets, basal reader stories, or spelling quizzes. They instead fondly recalled when we created a working model of the Erie Canal lock system out of milk cartons, or a paper mache mountain to model the water cycle in the Appalachians, or when Mr. Schoch lit the classroom reading rug on fire trying to demonstrate how fire needed oxygen to burn. And that was just September!

You might be saying to yourself, "Keith, I love ideas like that (with the possible exception of setting the rug on fire), but where can I find the time and the ideas to make that happen?" Nomad Press has the answer. I recently discovered this publisher while ferreting out free resources for teachers, and boy, I wish I had owned their books two decades ago when I started out in third grade!

First of all, the books. From their Explore series, Nomad shared with me their Explore Colonial America and Explore Transportation titles. Both contained the coolest projects, experiments, and activities! But the design of the books themselves is very smart. While both books would be helpful to the teacher, they're also are super kid friendly and readable on the elementary level. Both books contain text inserts featuring Words to Know (vocabulary, with easy-to-understand definitions), Guess What (cool facts, which some of my students would read in their entirety before reading the rest of the book), Then and Now (contrasting technology in past and present) and occasional fact boxes, containing relevant whos, whats, whys, and hows. The projects are explicitly titled (Make Your Own Water Compass) while the experiments present titles in the form of a question (What Floats? What Sinks?), getting students into the practice of forming a hypothesis when exploring an unknown concept. (Explore Colonial America also includes "spotlights" on each of the thirteen colonies).

If you want a better sense of what this looks like, Nomad provides free sample downloads of a project or experiment from each book at their site. The site itself is an exemplary resource for parents and teachers. In addition to book summaries and samples, you'll also find neat sidebar features including Latest News (cool facts from science and nature), This Day in History (great topics for discussion and writing), Word of the Day, and Did You Know? Overall, it's an extremely clean site which begs further exploration. Somewhere in that site, yes, they are selling books, but not at the expense of the user experience.

Individual book summaries (such as this one for Amazing Biome Projects) make for interesting reading, because they include not just the book's contents, but also related web sites, related resource books, a media kit containing fact sheets and author interviews, and endorsements. In recommending Amazing Biome Projects, for example, Greg DeFrancis, Director of Education Montshire Museum, said:

This high-powered tour of ecological principles is chock full of information, activities, and science vocabulary. The indoor and outdoor activities connect kids to the science being discussed in each chapter. Science educators and parents will be thrilled with the amount of information the author has packed into Biomes.

If you teach math, science, or social studies, I highly recommend Nomad Press. Give their site a look, try just one of their titles, and I think you'll be hooked! And also, whether you're a teaching novice or an old vet like me, be sure to check out their teacher titles, such as The New Teacher's Handbook: Practical Strategies and Techniques for Success in the Classroom from Kindergarten Through High School and The Power of Positive Teaching: 35 Successful Strategies for Active and Enthusiastic Classroom Participation. Perfect titles for those seeking professional development reading selections for their PLCs.

Pop-Ups that Stand Out!

Matthew Reinhart and Robert Sabuda have created an awesome new pop-up book titled Encyclopedia Mythologica: Gods and Heroes. Now it's rare that I get too crazy about pop-up books, and most teachers in fact would consider them gimmicky and not really worth their time. But check out the video preview provided at the Candlewick site (be sure to go full screen), and I think you'll agree: this is one really impressive book! Students in the middle grades are really drawn to mythology, so this is one more great rendition that should be added to every classroom library.

Although both Reinhart and Sabuda take credit for authoring and illustrating, it's mostly Sabuda that I know as the "pop-up" guy. Check out his homepage to see some of his more impressive previous works, including Encyclopedia Prehistorica Mega-Beasts Pop-Up, Encyclopedia Mythologica: Fairies and Magical Creatures (both with Reinhart), and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: A Commemorative Pop-up (a favorite in my classroom, especially with the emerald glasses).

A great extension of any of these books would be for students to create their own pop-ups. Not as easy as it sounds, unless, of course, you have a resource such as Sabuda's own web site which features printable templates for over two dozen pop-ups. Once students get the hang of the physics behind the pop-up, they're likely to invent their own variations. These can serve as great presentation formats for seasonal poetry, short stories, or book reports, or for creating cards for a special occasion.

Life Lessons from Picture Books

Psychology Today recently published an article titled The Value of a Picture Book: 5 Life-Lessons Your Child Gets From Stories. I first saw mention of this article at Kid Tested, Librarian Approved, another great blog for those of you who want to keep up with current titles and trends in picture books. See? I can play nice sometimes...

Psychology Today writer Pam Allyn discusses how picture books can model universal themes such as empathy (Mama, I'll Give You the World by Roni Schotter), patience (Catching the Moon by Myla Goldberg), importance of imagination (Dream Carver by Diana Cohn), curiosity (Becoming Butterflies by Anne Rockwell) and community (Amber on the Mountain by Tony Johnston). She begins by saying:

Reading a book is a unique opportunity to see the world from another person or thing's perspective. When a child reads a book, whether it is a fantastical story about an object come to life or a very real article about a neighboring country, he or she becomes a part of that world and sees life, however briefly, through the eyes of another. Children are uniquely able to accept and invest in the reality created in what they are reading.

Couldn't have said it better myself! These are just a few of the advantages of picture books I've been preaching through this blog for nearly a year now. Check out the whole article, since Allyn includes more titles for each theme which might find a place in your classroom library.

Looking for other reasons to use picture books in the classroom? Be sure to check out my static site Teaching with Picture Books which describes thirteen reasons why teachers in grades 3-8 should be using picture books in their instruction.

Recommended Picture Books for Black History Month, Part One

Just in time for Black History Month come three excellent picture books which help teachers discuss the experiences of Black Americans by examining both well- and little-known real life events.

My personal favorite of the three titles featured here is Let Them Play. One reason is that it shared a story I hadn't heard before. But what made more of an impression upon me was the reminder that not even children were immune from the racism of 1950s America. Written by Margot Theis Raven and illustrated by Chris Ellison, Let Them Play is the story of the Cannon Street YMCA All-Stars, an all-black team from Charleston, South Carolina with dreams of becoming Little League World Champions.

But what happens when every other team in the sixty-two leagues of South Carolina refuses to play them, going so far as to drop out of Little League to form their own white-only leagues? When the boycott spreads to eleven Southern states, the Cannon Street All-Stars become "the team nobody would play." How can they advance to the World Series in Williamsport if they don’t play a single game?

This book will become a class favorite, one which your students will want to talk about, research, and read more than once. SPOILER ALERT: I highly recommend you visit the site to read more details concerning this little-known event in youth sports, but skip this if you'd rather read the outcome for yourself. (Looking for companion titles? Willie and the All-Stars by Floyd Cooper and Just Like Josh Gibson, written by Angela Johnson and illustrated by Beth Peck, are my immediate suggestions).

Pappy's Handkerchief, written by Devin Scillian and illustrated by Chris Ellison, relates the story of the Oklahoma Land Run and the lesser-known opportunity it provided for many recently freed slaves to finally own land. Through the eyes of one fictitious family, Pappy's Handkerchief tells the tale of hundreds of black families who came to the Territory seeking their dreams. Staking a claim required both risk and sacrifice, and not every family was up to the challenge. But those who dared to chase their dream (literally!) helped to build a new state that would at one time boasted more all-black towns than any other state. Scillian’s word choice is exacting, while Ellison’s paintings bring to life the historical era. Teachers can download a teaching guide containing guiding questions as well as activities which can be adapted by age and grade level.

One interesting extension activity is to see how some residents of Oklahoma (Oklahomans?) reenacted this event in 2007. Students might write about one event from their state's history which is, or should be, reenacted to celebrate its historical significance.

You can also contrast what children learn in Pappy's Handkerchief to Hollywood's representation of that same event. In the Tom Cruise film Far and Away we see not even one black American at the Oklahoma Land Run, although we do catch a glimpse of the Native Americans whose land this once was. (Are you as shocked as I am that we can't trust Hollywood to get history right?).

Most elementary children at one time or another study the Underground Railroad, but few realize that its conductors were ordinary people like themselves: men, women, and children willing to risk their own freedom to help others (the Fugitive Slave Act made it a crime for anyone, even whites, to help escaping slaves). In Friend on Freedom River, written by Gloria Whelan and illustrated by Gijsbert van Frankenhuyzen, young Louis must choose whether to help a runaway family cross the icy Detroit River to freedom in Canada. Although his father has done this many times before, Father is away up north and the night is colder than any other Louis has ever experienced. This book puts faces on a part of our history which really needs to be seen from a personal perspective to be fully appreciated. Be sure to check out the downloadable teacher's guide from Sleeping Bear Press.

In studying the Underground Railroad I'd also highly recommended several interactive sites including National Geographic's The Underground Railroad, Scholastic's Underground Railroad: Escape From Slavery (supported with a teacher's guide as well as printable pdfs for students), and an Interactive Map from Edupace.com. Thinkport's terrific Pathways to Freedom: Maryland and the Underground Railroad contains loads of activities which can be completed both online and off (if you're unfamiliar with Thinkport, check out a recent post from my How to Teach a Novel blog).

I highly recommend these three gorgeous books for your home or classroom library. Sleeping Bear Press has generously offered one copy of each which they'll ship directly to three lucky readers of Teach with Picture Books. To enter, email me by 11:00 PM EST, this Wednesday, February 3rd. Simply write "Black History Books" in subject line, and you're all set. You can include your whole address if you're feeling especially lucky!

Authors and Illustrators Pronouncing Their Own Names

Well, the no nonsense title just about says it all. At this TeachingBooks.Net page you'll find an audio collection of children's writers and illustrators pronouncing their own names.

Time for a quiz! Sound these out before you click on them: How do you say Kevin Henkes? Louis Sachar? Jon Scieszka?

I love this simple site because I totally sympathize. Have you seen my name? Keith Schoch. Just so you know, it's pronounced shoke, which is simple enough, right? But giving a kid with a developmental speech problem a th and a sh in the same mouthful is kind of a dirty trick. If you ever see me presenting, you'll probably notice that at no time do I ever say my full name, but you'll hear my last name eventually when I act out a student asking me a question.

So check this site out and let's stop slaughtering these names!

(By the way, I've got the winners picked for the most recent giveaway, and once I get their permission I'll post those names here. I'm still in the process of notifications and confirmations).