Social Studies Picture Books in Middle School

I’m working with seventh and eighth grade social studies teachers to write several collaborative lessons using picture books for read alouds. Keith Schoch's Teaching with Picture Books blog is a great resource. His Squidoo article "Teaching with Picture Books" was a helpful starting point for our discussion. I also took notes on Lucy Calkins' helpful advice on read alouds from A Guide to the Reading Workshop in preparation for our discussion.

At home, Solana and I have been revisiting Virginia Hamilton’s If the People Could Fly: although there is no traditional history content, the stories are a powerful example of the importance of recording oral history and the notes at the end of each story give information about their historical origins.

I’m finding in general as I read through the picture books that the author’s note at the end, not always easy to understand for younger readers, can provide useful information for older readers on both additional historical context as well as author’s purpose. For example, Michael McCurdy's great-grandfather was a Union soldier and kept a journal during the war: he thought of his grandfather as he created the drawings for the book Gettysburg. Alan Shroeder, after drawing us into the life of the young Harriet Tubman, accompanied by Jerry Pinkney’s beautiful illustrations, lets the reader know what happened in her adult life in his author’s note.

Harvesting Hope: the Story of Cesar Chavez, which is also published in a bilingual edition, stood out among the pile of books I looked through, so I was happy when the teachers chose it as one of the books they’d like to focus on. I’m also really liking Independent Dames, Dolly Madison Saves George Washington, Sybil’s Night Ride and especially They Called Her Molly Pitcher. These are exciting and inspiring stories of girls and women in the colonial period.

Malcolm X: A Fire Burning Brightly by Walter Dean Myers and Leonard Jenkins has a winning combination of artful illustrations, biography and compelling quotes, finishing with a timeline sprinkled with more quotes. Reading this book with students is timely , as there is much discussion currently on the internet of the late Columbia professor Manning Marable’s new biography.

Carol Hurst’s web site is always a great resource for picture books by topic. And I’m lucky to have such a great local children’s librarian.

Trade books in math and science

My challenge to myself this year both as a literacy coach and a parent is to find more interesting books in math and science: there are many out there at all levels. If they match the students' reading level or are read aloud in class, trade books can help students broaden background knowledge, make connections and most importantly, feel excited about the topic! We checked out some recommendations from Science Books and Films that I found in this Edutopia article as well as some of Kathleen Baxter's great "gross out books" recommendations.
Where in Wild-- amazing illustrations that capture the ways both predators and prey use camouflage
What's Eating You? Parasites: the Inside Story-- great use of cartoons and humour to communicate interesting facts about parasites. Solana was fixated on the "Deadly Delivery" malaria page. Another bonus page "The Two-Host Tapeworm Game." Gross but fascinating!
Ouch! How Your Body Makes it Through a Very Bad Day is another winner: up close and personal views of every day body functions, definitely relevant to middle school students.
To be continued!