Chapter 11: Learning with Trade BooksStacie Snavely, Carissa Moser,

& Virginia Dobbins

By PresenterMedia.com

Trade books can provide a valuable complement to most textbooks.

Trade books can provide experiences & perspectives that may be excluded in the textbook.

Trade books can help teachers meet the range of reading levels in their classrooms.

Trade books can help teachers meet all reading levels in the classroom.

When students are given opportunities to interact with quality trade books, they have a better chance of becoming

lifelong readers.

Trade books offer teachers a variety of genres, ranging from easy-to-read titles to extremely sophisticated exploration of

complex texts.

Nonfiction trade books deepen student knowledge of real people, places, and phenomena of the present and the past.

Picture books encompass every genre and cover a wide range of subjects.

Picture books can scaffold student understanding of a range of topics through formats that intrigue rather than intimidate.

Picture books area a great resource for struggling readers and English language learners.

Fiction books help readers to see the world through a different lens, a skill that is necessary for personal and

societal change and development.

Fantasy and science fiction books can serve as a springboard for deeper discussion about big ideas.

Realistic fiction books run the gamut from problem realism, to sport stories, to mysteries, to adventure, to romance.

Historical fiction can put a human face on history in ways textbooks can’t.

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•INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES

• Creating Classroom Libraries and Text Sets• Self-Selected Reading• Teacher Read-Aloud• Group Models for Studying Trade Books

Enhance and extend students’ content area literacy learning.

•CREATING CLASSROOM LIBRARIES

Content area teachers need to acquire books related to their content area.

A classroom library is a critical component of a multitext classroom.

These books can be used to stock classroom libraries, both for large-and small-group reading and for individual inquiry.

By creating classroom library of books at a range of reading levels and in a variety of genres including picture books, poetry, historical fiction, biography, and informational books.

Teachers increase students’ access to books and help motivate them to learn.

Teachers should create text sets related to units of studies, difficultly levels, and include an range of resources.

•SELF-SELECTED READING

Organized, systematic efforts to make independent reading central in the lives of students are essential.

In todays world of standardized test-driven culture, we forget the importance of independent reading.

Effective sustained silent reading benefits:• They increase the amount of time students spend

reading during the school day.• They help students develop interest in a subject.• They build knowledge that helps students read

and learn more about a topic. • They provide a basis for researching a particular

topic.• They familiarize students with different formats

used to report information that can be models for their own research and writing.

•TEACHER READ-ALOUDS

Read-alouds can include books from a variety of genres, including poetry, short stories, fictions, nonfiction, magazine articles, or even plays.

• Hold students’ interest

• Stimulate discussion

• Reflect authors from many cultures

• Match the social and emotional levels of the listeners

• READ-ALOUDSRead-alouds need not be cover to cover. Reading excerpts from book, magazines, newspaper articles, or web pages can sometimes be more effective than longer read-alouds.

www.storylineonline.net

•GROUP MODELS FOR STUDYING

Whole-Group/Single-Book Model

Small-Groups/Multiple-Books Model

Individual Inquiry Model

•WHOLE-GROUP/SINGLE-BOOK MODEL

Common reading experience centered on the same book.

Students participate in large-and small-group discussions about a variety of topics.

Students compare and contrast information in their textbook.

•SMALL-GROUP/MULTIPLE BOOKS MODEL

Students work in small groups to read different books related to a common theme.

They share information from one another with the larger group through creative extensions, including projects dramatic presentations, and debates.

•INDIVIDUAL INQUIRY MODEL

• Individual inquiry is an increasingly popular method to involve students in research by letting them explore issues of personal interest.

• Students generate ideas and questions and pose problems.

• Through their research projects, students investigate topics, collect, analyze, and organize information.

• Students later present this information through a project or report.

• This model can be used with fiction or nonfiction.