This ain't your ninth-grade English class: How to do poetry with kids!

As a TRC blog bonus, we're posting a piece about sharing poetry at your Read-Aloud from March 2012.

April is National Poetry Month, providing TRC volunteers with a great excuse to delve into the world of children's poetry. 

In addition to being different than the norm and therefore more likely to spark interest, children's poems have the plus of being short and often spaced widely on the page. The language used is usually repetitive, rhyming and unusually vivid. This (and the fact that there are poems written on nearly every subject you can imagine!) will appeal to all of the kids at your Read-Aloud.


Shel Silverstein's poetry is tried and true. Pick up a copy of the Silverstein classics, A Light in the Attic, Where the Sidewalk Ends or Falling Up. Shel is one of the few authors for kids to merit a posthumous collection, Everything On It (2011). His poetry makes great use of off-kilter or made-up words, plays on word meanings and onomatopoeia.

Jack Prelutsky, the United States' first ever Children's Poet Laureate, is another favorite. Try The New Kid on the Block or Be Glad Your Nose Is on Your Face. 

For a sample of what you're in for, here's an excerpt from a poem of Prelutsky's entitled "As Soon as Fred Gets Out of Bed"

As soon as Fred gets out of bed, 
his underwear goes on his head. His mother laughs, "Don't put it there, a head's no place for underwear!" But near his ears, above his brains, is where Fred's underwear remains.

For older kids at your Read-Aloud, try Jabberwocky, illustrated by Christopher Myers. This urban sports spin on the Lewis Carroll classic will surely get the kids talking. Hip Hop Speaks to Children, edited by Nikki Giovanni, may appeal to the older crowd as well.  

Of course, Poetry Month lends itself as much to activities as it does to reading ideas. Before you start reading, ask the kids what they think a poem is -- you'll be surprised at how many people can't answer this question! 

Lists of rhyming words created by the Sullivan
House kids and volunteers.

Talk about rhyming and make a group list of words that rhyme. Use a white board, chalk board or flip chart. Start with a simple word and write down all the words that rhyme with it. Pick a few lines from your favorite kid's poem and clap your hands as you say them out loud to give everybody an idea of what meter is without even mentioning the term!

After reading as many poems as you and your audience can handle, put them to work writing their own! Have the kids work individually or in pairs to write poems on a subject that everybody knows about, like a favorite food or outdoor place. Here are some tips about writing poetry about gardens you could adapt for your Read-Aloud.

If the kids in your Read-Aloud are younger, write a poem or a story in a group. Pick a subject and have each child add one word that you write on a big sheet of paper in front of everyone. Jack Prelutsky's website offers more ideas for poetry activities, including How to Write a Funny Poem.

If you usually read storybooks at your Read-Alouds, the switch to poetry could be welcome! Take this month as an opportunity to shake things up and get silly with the combination of children's poetry and children.

Post by The Reading Connection intern Anna McCormally.


To receive credit for this online training, please fill out the form here.

Unlocking the Rosetta Stone: How to Share Nonfiction with Kids

In a previous blog post, we opened up the wonderful world of nonfiction books for kids. Nonfiction is important because kids love it, it provides facts and it's plentiful.

Once you've selected some nonfiction books (using the tips and sample series provided in the previous post) you may want to think about how to read nonfiction aloud. It's different experience than reading a fictional picture book or a novel. With a little preparation, you can include nonfiction in your Read-Alouds with ease.



To share nonfiction with kids, think out loud to explain how nonfiction works.


With very young children, that could be as simple as pointing to a picture of a mother animal and its baby and then pointing to their names in the text as you say them. It's also a good idea to explain to young listeners that fiction books are made-up stories, but nonfiction books contain true information.

Mother and baby animal names "Deer and Fawn" and
"Koala bear and Joey" are in the top margin of this book,
I Love My Mommy Because... by Laurel Porter-Gaylord

With an older listener, say 7 years old or older, you could explain what a table of contents is (if the book you are reading has one) as you open the book. Demonstrate how to use it. Also explain features like the index or glossary.

Page through the book, pointing out graphs and sidebars. Explain that sometimes they contain important information not found in the text. Demonstrate how to use them.

Finally, explain concepts of comparison, sequence or providing examples. Show how sometimes the words the author chooses can signal that she is making a comparison, setting up a sequence or providing examples. Point that out when you see it in the text.



The Rosetta Stone, with text of the same
decree in three languages. provided the key
to understanding Ancient Egyptian  hieroglyphs.

By modeling how to read a nonfiction book, you are giving kids the Rosetta Stone--the secret to unlocking the knowledge they seek. Kids don’t know how to do this, but you can show them how if you point out design features, describe how you are looking at graphics, or model using tools like an appendix to find information. 












Ways help kids read nonfiction
By slowing down when you read nonfiction aloud, and spending time on the elements described above, you not only help kids understand what you are reading about, but also help them build their own skills to successfully navigate nonfiction text.

Before you share a nonfiction book with kids, see if you can find examples of some of the things listed below.

  

Vocabulary and Comprehension	Graphics and Illustrations	Design Features (table of contents, index, appendices etc.)
Teach new words in advance and define words while reading	Use visual thinking: Ask What do you see in this graphic? What makes you see that? What else does it show?	Use title and table of contents to get kids thinking about the topic and what they already know about it
Point out and define Signal and Academic words (compare contrast, sequence or examples of a concept)	Does this graphic give examples of what the words say or does it provide extra information?	Point out chapter titles, headings, subheadings and definitions
Find the main idea and point it out, then find supporting ideas and point them out	Where can I find the answer to my question? In the words? In the graphics? In my own head? By combining any of these?	Point out sidebars, insets and captions and explore the information they contain.
Ask questions to see if kids understand what you are reading along the way	Question the picture: Does it make sense? Is it accurate? Does it support the words? Could you make a better picture?	Search for answers to kids questions using the index and appendices

In addition to these elements, the format of the book will affect how you read it aloud. Some children's nonfiction reads like fiction, so you can read it straight through, like Groundhog Day! Other books are better suited to jumping around to answer kids' questions, reading bits and pieces here and there. Be sure to read through books first to get an idea of the best way share them with kids.

      

reads like fiction

reads like a reference book

             VS.

One way to ease into reading nonfiction with kids is to pair it with fiction books on the same topic. Here are two of our favorite books about ice cream.  

Joe runs a soft-serve stand in the summer, but no one knows where he goes in the winter. Rhyming text and double-page illustrations describe where people imagine him to be.








In which Elephant struggles with the dilemma:  Should he share his ice cream with Piggie?  The longer he dithers, the more his ice cream melts.  What to do?

For most kids, ice cream comes from the store.  By providing books about cows, milk, dairy farming and how ice cream is made, kids can learn about the different parts of the process.

Another way to get kids into nonfiction is to create a treasure hunt. Choose a variety of books on a single topic, from a series or by the same author.  Read through them to find a question or two that each can answer. Be sure the difficulty of each question is appropriate for the age of the children you are reading with. Write the questions on index cards, with the title of the book.  

What animal weighs the same as
a ping pong ball?
How long are the tentacles of
the sun jellyfish?
What is the strongest animal for
its size?

Which animals have dangerous kicks?
Which animal kills more people in Africa
than any other?

How many animals called
"Goliath" or "Pygmy" are
in this book?  What do the words
Goliath and pygmy mean?

In addition to specific questions for kids to find in the books, generate some general questions too:

• Which dangerous animal is your favorite and why?
• If you could be one of the animals in the book, which one would you like to be?
• Have you ever seen any of these animals?

When the kids choose a book they want to explore, work with them to find the answers to the questions. The questions you bring with the books are just a tool to get the kids exploring. If they start generating their own questions, follow their lead and look for those answers instead. 

Keep track of the answers to questions, so you can share them with the group at your Read-Aloud. Most kids like providing cool facts to their peers.
 

Kids are bound to get excited about all the things they can learn through a nonfiction book once they know how the books work. Whether you choose to do an all nonfiction Read-Aloud or just to include more nonfiction books related to your theme, be ready to follow the kids' lead, hunt for answers to their questions and provide more books for them to explore.

To receive credit for this online training, please fill out the form here.

The Amazing World of Children's Nonfiction

What do kids love to read, is abundantly available, feeds reading motivation and strengthens comprehension, all at once?  Nonfiction books. Kids love nonfiction and they benefit from reading it, and yet one study shows that first-grade teachers allotted only 3.66 minutes per day for reading nonfiction in the classroom.

  

Why read nonfiction with kids?
Kids are curious. They are hungry to learn facts about subjects that interest them (think dinosaurs, for example). In a recent survey by Scholastic, when asked what kinds of books they want, 43 percent of kids ages 6 to 17 said they want books that will teach them something new. Kids are asking for nonfiction! The great news is that half of the library is nonfiction. There are so many topics and formats to interest kids, literally something for everyone!

We can also see physiological evidence that kids like nonfiction. Brain scans show that the medial ventral orbitofrontal cortex, the part of the brain associated with rewards, lights up when readers “get it." This is in addition to the part of the brain that reacts to pleasure, which also reacts when a kid enjoys a nonfiction book.

medial ventral orbitofrontal cortex

Reading nonfiction builds vocabulary and background knowledge, which play a critical role in reading comprehension. This is important for all kids, but for kids who are learning to speak English, exposure to nonfiction books is one of the best ways to build their vocabulary and background knowledge.

Background knowledge is like learning Velcro: it helps kids catch and connect what they know with what they are learning and also helps them retain new ideas. Sometimes it is hard for kids to build their background knowledge or hard for them to use it, so they need lots of practice. Reading nonfiction can provide that opportunity.

Reading nonfiction also helps kids learn complex sentence structure. In addition, it exposes them to academic language such as "compare and contrast" and "analyze," which they need for test taking. Those words almost never occur in fiction.

What qualities should you look for when choosing nonfiction to share with kids?
When looking through nonfiction books on your chosen topic, look for books that are engaging, accessible, multi-layered and accurate.

• Engaging: having high-quality writing, illustration, design and content, and featuring topics that interest kids

• Accessible and age-appropriate: gather multiple texts on the same topic to provide varying degrees of difficulty and different points of view

                 

One word and bold pictures
for babies and toddlers

Large font, simple text
and experiments
for preK-2nd grade

More information, headings,
and graphics for 2nd-5th grade

  

Small font, lots of text, complex
explanations and experiments
for 4th grade and up

• Multi-layered:  containing layers of information with degrees of difficulty, so you can learn from a quick first reading but also gain more knowledge by re-reading and digging deeper

From Steve Jenkins' Biggest, Strongest, Fastest

Here is an example of a book that provides information in layers.  You can read the large text on each page quickly with a young child.  You can read smaller text and explore illustrations with an older child. You can also dig deep into appendices and charts provided at the end of the book.

• Accurate: Look through books for obvious inaccuracies before sharing them with kids and point out inaccuracies or discrepancies if you find some when reading with kids. Science and countries' borders change quickly these days.

Some of TRC's favorite nonfiction authors include the following:

Byron Barton, Nic Bishop, Lois Ehlert, Steve Jenkins, Gail Gibbons, Anne Rockwell, Seymour Simon and Joan Sweeney.

                         
Favorite Series:

Books in the Let's Read and Find Out series, some of which are pictured above.           

    

DK has made nonfiction books its niche.  They publish nonfiction board books, early readers and formats for older readers. Some of their series are Eye Know, Eye Wonder, See How They Grow, Watch Me Grow, and Eye Witness.

Books in the Magic School Bus series by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen

Magic Tree House Research Guides by Mary Pope Osborne


Scientists in the Field series

Books published by National Geographic Kids, including board books, early readers, picture books and almanacs.





The children's librarians at your library can provide excellent guidance and suggestions if you are looking for nonfiction for a certain age range of kids or on a specific topic. From history to science, math, music, art and biography, there's a kids' book out there to feed your young readers' curiosity.

In our next blog post we'll explore the best ways to share nonfiction with kids.

 To receive credit for this online training, please fill out the form here.

The power of choice

Book choice is part of every Read-Aloud. Choosing a book isn’t the icing on the cake, it’s an important layer of the cake itself! Empowering kids to choose the books they want to read is important to their literacy development and reading motivation.

We know helping kids choose books can be challenging for Read-Aloud volunteers, especially if kids are shy or you don't know them well. There’s a fine line between providing support and guidance and making the choice for the reader. If two kids want the same book, of the remaining books, what's a good substitute?  





Know your customer. 
The publisher Scholastic surveyed kids and found that 70 percent of kids said they wanted books that made them laugh. Check out the graphic to see the other categories kids say they're most interested in.  

Get to know the kids at your Read-Aloud (or in your life). Find out what interests them. Ask them questions about their likes and dislikes. Pay attention to how they react to various books and topics you present. It helps to have a sense of their age, grade at school and reading level, but don't let these factors  prevent a kid from choosing a book outside her “range.” 




Know your stock.
Be familiar with what is available in the give-away bin (or the bookstore or library, whichever is appropriate). As you set out the selection of books, take time to keep your eye out for authors, illustrators and series that kids have asked for or have been excited about. If you are at a library or bookstore, ask the staff about authors, illustrators and series that are especially good or popular. Learn about the different formats and genres available for kids. Check out this blog to build your children's book expertise!

Early Reader

Make suggestions.
You may think of “Customers who bought this also bought…” as an Amazon invention, but booksellers and librarians have been doing it since bookstores and libraries were invented. If you know a kid likes a certain author or illustrator, help him find more work by that person. If you know she liked a particular story or topic, help her find more of the same. If a kid seems curious or uncertain about a book, help him look through it or provide a preview by reading a little bit aloud. 

The key to this process is asking questions and listening carefully to the answers the kids give you. Remember that you can request specific books or series for kids at your Read-Aloud from the TRC office. Just include the request with the kid's name on your Read-Aloud report form or send Stephanie an email.

Encourage the reader to "try it on."


I-PICK is a method for choosing books used in some schools. If you find yourself with a kid stymied over whether a book appeals to her, encourage her to pick it up and take a look. Then walk her through the I-PICK questions. If she answers yes to the last three letters and has a reason (even just "it looks fun") to read the book, then it's a good fit.

Have the child read a page or two of the book to himself.
As he is reading, tell him to put down one finger for every
word  he doesn't know

If a child asks you if a book is too hard for him, have him try the five-finger test and make his choice based on that. But don't prohibit him from taking the book even if it is challenging. Interest and motivation can help a child build tenacity. 









Let it be.
This isn’t a do-or-die situation. TRC kids will get another chance next week to choose another book. Hopefully, the kids in your life will have many more chances to choose and try out books too. Even if you think a book is too difficult or too easy for a child, honor her choice. People are drawn to books for all kinds of reasons: inspiration, comfort, motivation, curiosity, the desire to be one of the crowd. These are all perfectly good reasons to choose books.

 To receive credit for this online training, please fill out the form here.