“What does print nonfiction do for children that a web or mobile resource can’t?”
This question concluded our previous post about children’s nonfiction, in which we chatted with three teachers about why nonfiction is great for kids. Among other things, we learned from elementary and middle school technology teacher Vanessa Vosburg that children’s print and digital nonfiction work together to build vital twenty-first century literacies.
What is twenty-first century literacy?
Ms. Vosburg defines twenty-first century literacy as the ability to participate in and contribute to our information society. “It’s not just creating a PowerPoint based on information you’ve read about animals,” she says. “It’s starting a discussion on the topic, noticing trends and patterns. It’s understanding why those patterns are important and what they mean in the big picture.”
“Previously,” she explains, “elementary school students would memorize facts, like the fact that polar bears live in the Arctic and penguins in the Antarctic. Now, we’re teaching children to participate in discussions and use their innate reasoning skills to understand why a polar bear lives in the Arctic, and why that fact is relevant to their lives.”
Developing twenty-first century literacy is thus as complex a goal as our twenty-first century world. But, parents and teachers: don’t feel overwhelmed! Children’s print nonfiction lays a strong foundation on which kids can build the twenty-first century skills they need to succeed in school—and the rest of their lives.
Reading print nonfiction teaches children “how to teach themselves.”
When asked which foundational twenty-first century skill is most important for children to learn, Ms. Vosburg says, “I want my students to know how to teach themselves.”
So Ms. Vosburg prioritizes showing her students how to “use their computers for research, especially finding reliable sources and incorporating information from multiple sources,” she says. It’s no easy task. “For children, researching a topic online can be overwhelming,” she explains. “There’s so much information readily available in our digital age that narrowing down where to look and then deciphering a digital source can frustrate students, especially younger children. Not only do they need to comprehend the material, but they also need to judge whether or not a website can be trusted as a reliable source. But I’ve found that the wider the variety of nonfiction children have read, the easier it is for them to grasp these skills. Early exposure to nonfiction empowers children to find answers to their own questions for themselves.”
One way reading nonfiction empowers children is by teaching them how information is structured. A novel’s structure is emotional and story-driven; a website or app’s information architecture is intuitive and user experience-centric; but one can argue that a print nonfiction book’s structure is rational, designed to present content in a logical way. Often, a book begins with an introduction that provides context for the argument and ends with an epilogue that recaps the argument and its importance. In between, chapters discuss related, but distinct topics, which logically progress from beginning to end.
For example, our World Atlas begins with three introductory spreads that provide context: “The Story of Our Planet” offers geological context; “Mapping the World,” historical context; and “The Oceans and Continents of the World,” geographic context. The Atlas ends with a glossary that reinforces key terms used throughout the text. Between, distinct spreads feature each region of the globe, moving from oceans to land mass, with Oceania as a transitionary region. Each spread includes the same categories of information—“Physical Features,” “Climate and Weather,” “Natural Resources,” and so on. The spreads move in a logical order from region to region from beginning to end. And the structure itself has meaning: the ocean-to-land organization emphasizes the fact that Earth’s five oceans, despite their lack of permanent human civilization, are just as diverse and important as the seven continents.
Reading a nonfiction book like the World Atlas or Wonderful Words, Ms. Vosburg says, “gives children an overarching view of how information and themes are structured. Instead of seeing facts in isolation—which is easy—they can see how each fact ties into the next, how larger topics flow together and how all the parts combine into the whole.” Children who understand how facts relate to each other and to larger concepts will have greater success doing Internet research, where one keyword search leads down a rabbit hole into a network of diverging, overlapping and intersecting tunnels. When children understand how one small fact can contribute to a larger argument or narrative, they can more readily identify which of the dozen scattered scraps of information they’ve found is most important, and can more effectively combine those scraps into one holistic whole.
As it provides this “big-picture view” of information, Ms. Vosburg explains, reading nonfiction helps children learn to think for themselves. Children who read nonfiction find a larger realm of understanding open before them: they can use their “critical thinking skills to form their own opinions about the information presented and see how it relates to themselves,” Ms. Vosburg says.
Moreover, reading nonfiction helps children use critical thinking skills to identify reliable sources online. “Being exposed early to print nonfiction material increases a child’s understanding of the structure, language and style of digital nonfiction,” Ms. Vosburg says. Since a logical argument or unbiased historical account has the same basic characteristics in any medium, a child who is familiar with print nonfiction will be more likely to gravitate toward logical, unbiased information online. Thus, reading nonfiction in elementary school helps children “overcome many of the common struggles they have with independent research in middle and high school,” Ms. Vosburg says—and throughout the rest of their lives.
Ready to wield the power of children’s nonfiction to empower the kids in your life to build twenty-first century skills? Keep your eyes open for our next post on nonfiction—Ms. Vosburg will share her top tips. You won’t want to miss it!
Have you heard of “book extensions”? During this year’s Summer Reading Program, our Global Program Director Stefanie Paige Grossman explained that “book extensions…are activities based on books that further enhance learning.” From pretend play to Big Kid Book Reports, book extensions reinforce the story’s characters, imagery and themes by prompting children to interact with them in a new way.
“One of the most common ways to follow
up on a book is with a creative art activity,” Stefanie says. “While working on a book-related art activity, you might notice that
your child narrates her own story or talks about new creative ideas, sparked by the book. She’s making valuable cognitive connections!”
A coloring book is a no-stress art activity that can easily fill that rainy-day recess or antsy pre-dinner hour. With this coloring activity starring Barefoot’s favorite cat Cleo, kids can grab their favorite crayons or colored pencils and bring Cleo’s black-and-white backyard back to life.
Get started coloring Cleo here!
Looking for more adventures with Cleo? Check out these Barefoot favorites:
Meet Cleo the Cat’s new housemate Caspar. When Cleo finds out that another animal has joined the household, she isn’t happy, but she soon discovers that new playmates can be fun. The simple, rhyming text is full of action verbs.
Follow Cleo as she investigates the world around her. Cleo wakes up and makes her way outside where she climbs, skips and bounces until she is finally called inside for kisses.
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If you fell in love with fiction as a kid, you might be surprised to learn that children’s nonfiction is booming. This summer, Publishers Weekly suggested that children’s nonfiction is “having its moment,” due in part to Minecraft’s continued popularity and Common Core’s emphasis on nonfiction. Meanwhile, literacy advocates like the Federation of Children’s Book Groups and Scottish Book Trust are raising the profile of children’s nonfiction in the UK.
Still, when you imagine reading nonfiction with your children or students, you might be a bit bewildered. Curling up with nonfiction sounds about as exciting and enlightening as reading a phone book. Why even have the Yellow Pages in the Google age?
But the fact is that nonfiction is good for kids. So is fiction, of course; the two are complementary, not mutually exclusive. As teacher and storyteller Karyn Keene puts it, “Fiction opens other worlds; nonfiction opens this one.”
To find out how nonfiction “opens” our world for kids, we asked teachers to share the concrete ways they see nonfiction impact their students. Here’s what we learned:
Nonfiction sparks kids’ inherent curiosity.
Has a preschooler ever driven you nuts by repeatedly asking, “Why?” If you’ve ever been around a four-year-old for even four minutes, you’re probably nodding. As elementary technology teacher Vanessa Vosburg explains, “Children have a natural desire to learn about the world around them and are highly motivated to explore materials that will answer their questions.” Thus, giving kids easily-accessible knowledge in the form of children’s nonfiction ignites their natural desire to learn.
For example, the labelled illustrations in Wonderful Words give children an easy way to learn the names of different objects, people and places. Familiar sights are labeled, like swings and skateboards; as are potentially less-familiar ones, like hummus and a hearing aid loop sign. When a child learns words for objects she’s never seen, her world expands. With a jolt of joy, she realizes that the adventure of learning will never end.
Nonfiction develops contextual knowledge, helping kids to make connections.
It’s difficult to absorb new information when you have no context for it—no place to put a city on your mental map, or no culture in which to place a person. For this reason, young children have a distinct disadvantage when encountering new places, people or ideas. Fortunately, nonfiction books give children the factual knowledge they need to process new ideas effectively and face the world around them with curiosity instead of fear. As history teacher Emily Anderson explains, reading nonfiction in early grades “helps kids to make connections more easily as they get older.” In other words, the more you know, the more you can know—and the more fun learning becomes!
For example, our World Atlas’ illustrations locate familiar people and places in their geographic context alongside less familiar landmarks, which enables a child to weave new facts into her existing purview. With each colorful spread, the reader’s tapestry of knowledge expands, and with it, her comprehension of our complex world.
Even today’s world needs to be understood in the context of yesterday’s. Since we can’t understand the present without the past, our Atlas explores how each region’s climate and geography has influenced its cultural development. By introducing kids to the forces that shaped the past, we prepare them to understand the present and identify ways that they, too, could impact the future.
Kids discover real-world heroes.
Speaking of the past: There’s nothing more motivational than a true story. Nonfiction shows children “real heroes and real people in both ordinary and extraordinary circumstances,” Ms. Anderson says. When a child reads about the incredible achievements of real people like Rosa Parks, Ada Lovelace, Cesar Chavez or Leonardo da Vinci, he realizes that even he, too, could do the extraordinary.
“Seeing these real people gives kids heroes to look up to, people whose heroics they could achieve themselves,” Ms. Keene says. “Nonfiction could inspire our future social activists or research scientists.” In this way, she adds, nonfiction “opens doors of possibility for children.”
Our world is full of things for children to learn and do and be. With nonfiction books like World Atlas and Wonderful Words, the door to that world is open: all children have to do is step through.
But wait: what does print nonfiction do for children that a web or mobile resource can’t? That was our next question for elementary technology teacher Vanessa Vosburg. Find out her answer in our next post!
For example, our World Atlas’ illustrations locate familiar people and places in their geographic context alongside less familiar landmarks, which enables a child to weave new facts to existing knowledge. With each colorful spread, the reader’s tapestry knowledge expands, and with it, her understanding of complex world.
This fall, decorate your windows with translucent leaves that let the sun shine through! Using office supplies and tissue paper, work with your family to create a stunning window display perfect for seasonal parties. This activity is inspired by Skip through the Seasons, which teaches us about winter, spring, summer, and fall.
What You Need:
• Templates (found here)
• Tissue paper in fall colors
• Plastic sheet protectors (or contact paper)
• Scissors
• Glue
• Tape
What To Do:
1. Print out the downloadable templates. Break open the sheet protectors and apply glue sparingly to one of the inside covers.
2. Tear off pieces of tissue paper and glue them down until you have covered one side. You may need to apply more glue where the tissue paper overlaps.
3. Evenly apply glue to the other inside cover, then fold it over and press down firmly to sandwich the tissue paper. Let dry.
4. Tape leaf templates to the page (Note: You could do this first so you’ll see the templates as you lay down the tissue paper). Carefully cut out the leaves. Make smaller leaves with the scraps.
5. Tape the leaves to your window or use string to make a mobile!
Ready to get started? Download a printable copy of these craft instructions and leaf templates here!
When you’ve finished, we’d love to see what you create! Share your photos with us on Instagram using #barefootbooks!
Want to discover more about the changing seasons?
Consider our popular title Skip through the Seasons.
Whirl through the months of the year in this action packed seek-and-find book that takes young readers on an outdoor adventure as the months pass by. The detailed pictures offer a wide variety of items to spot, while also teaching the changes that happen in nature as the year turns.
We know that parents and caregivers pay attention to providing good nutrition for their children. Raising kids with an appreciation for vegetables can can give their health, and their appreciation for the earth, an advantage. Whether you are trying to encourage your children to eat more vegetables in general or have a child who prefers a vegetarian diet, you’ll find many helpful stories and kid-friendly recipes in our collection to help raise healthy and compassionate kids.
Ages 5 to 7 years
Find out what happens when the old woman, the old man, and all twenty-one animals on the farm try to harvest a rather large root vegetable. This well-loved Russian tale uses humor, counting and repetition to appeal to beginner readers. Book with CD editions include story read by Ellen Verenieks.
Ages 3 to 7 years
Learn the basics of how plants grow in this springtime story. When a young girl plants a seed, she learns she must be patient to achieve results. She is rewarded by a beautiful sunflower, and brings her flower to school to share the seeds with her entire class. Includes notes about roots, shoots, flowers and
seeds.
Ages 3 to 7 years
Encourage budding chefs to create tasty meals with 40 laminated recipe cards that feature nutritious vegetarian dishes from around the world. Unique recipes ranging from the familiar to the exotic are divided into five color-coded categories to reflect the major food groups. Simple step-by-step instructions put kids in control as they learn that cooking is more than an art — it’s a science! Includes 8-page booklet with information on nutrition, kitchen safety and terminology.
For all ages
No matter which stories you choose to share, remember: If you’re reaching for lots of vegetables, your kids will likely take them too.