Chapter one

Picture Books and Read-Alouds to Support the Language Arts Curriculum

This chapter starts off with a reference to the twelve standards for literacy education developed jointly by the national council of teachers of English and the international reading association.

Standards

1.       Students need to read a wide variety of writings to develop an understanding of the USA and the world. For they can respond to the needs of society, workplace and personal fulfillment. These writings can be fiction, nonfiction, classic or new literature.

2.       Students need to read books from history and contemporary so they can gain an understanding of life trough the human experience.

3.       Students need to use a wide variety of tools to understand what they are reading from experience, other people, and just basic understanding of what the writer is trying to convey.

4.       Students need to understand they need to be fluent in a variety of forms of communication writing, speaking, and body language.

5.       Students learn that there is a wide variety of forms of writing and the need to be proficient in all varieties of the communication.

6.       Students use what they have learned in writing to be critical of the writings that they are reading.

7.       Students learn how to research so they can gain knowledge so they can properly discuss the information that they have learned and pass knowledge they have gained.

8.       Students need to learn to use technology to gain and synthesize information so they can communicate the information.

9.       Students need to be respectful of other people’s cultures, ethnic groups, geographic regions and social roles.

10.    English second language learners use their first language to help them gain a master of English to help in learning subjects across the board.

11.    Students learn to knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a wide range of literacy communities.

12.    Students learn to communicate for the gain and own purposes.

The book begins to discuss the standards by stating as teachers we need to have students read a wide variety of books and from nontraditional sources. I think this is good. The reason is because when I was in going through school I only read two books that teachers assigned to us to read in my twelve years. The first was the Where the Red Fern Grows, and The Sound and the Fury. Now that I am older I have read hundreds of books in Tolkien type fantasy to reading books on philosophy by Augustine of Hippo, Pascal, and Sun Tzu, to scientific books by Hawking, Paul Davies, and Hugh Ross. I have also read the complete works of Shakespeare.

The text goes through the standards in twos, for three and four, using different strategies to comprehend and then communicate the information back. Five and six students should have experience reading aloud and discussing what is being read, for the purpose of seeing how things should be read with different tone in the use of figurative language. Seven and eight discuss how we study and learn to read textbooks and gathering information out of them to use to gain knowledge and pass it on to others. Now nine and ten take information to use in the twenty-first century and how students need to learn in these areas. Then the final two deal with how to interact among peer groups when discuss information.

Now the book is giving an example on how to go through a lesson plan with students with a descriptive example. The authors give helpful hints by giving advice on posting the vocabulary on the board to help with the learning. Then encourage the students to use the vocabulary in their writings to help learn the words.