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Shelby Furlough
Dr. Richard Burke
ENGL 414 A
March 16, 2016
“Comprehensive Plan for Children’s Literature”
Governing Principles:
I really love literature and reading, so I want to bring it into my classroom. Children will
be reading for the rest of their lives so I think that it is important to bring it to them early.
I think that literature can be used as a learning tool for every subject. For math you can
read books, historical fiction or nonfiction can help children learn about certain topics in
history, and books can be used in science as well as every other subject. Reading is just
another great way students can gain information. I want my class to believe that reading
is good and can be enjoyable. I will have many options for the students in my class, that
way they can find a genre or type of book that they prefer and enjoy reading. I also want
them to know that reading can being learning in a more enjoyable way than just
memorizing facts from a textbook or having a teacher lecture about something.
Class Activities:
My goal is to read to my class everyday. I used to have a teacher that would read us a
chapter from a book each day or at least once a week. I loved that and want to share that
experience with my students. The time I read to my students will be when we have extra
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time. Along with that, I will have a part of my day devoted to literature that will last
probably about thirty minutes. I will allow the class silent reading time or time to take
AR tests from books that they have already read. I know that students finish work at
different paces, therefore, I will allow the students to read a book silently at their desks
until we are ready to move on. I think that incentives should be personal and come within
a person. I do not believe that you can make a child love to read if they do not like it, no
matter what you are bribing them with. However, I do believe that I can try to encourage
them that reading can be fun, rewarding, and interesting. I will do this by reading with
them during silent reading time to show them that no matter how old you get, reading is
still fun. I will read them interesting books that have good hooks at the end of the
chapters so the students will be excited when it comes time for me to read to them again.
I will try to pick books that have a lot of adventures so the students can jump into the
book’s world for a while and have fun with their imagination. With each book that we
read as a class there will be fun activities. There may be acting activities where the
students can act out their favorite part of a book. There may be writing activities where
the students can change the ending of a book by writing a new one. There will be
predicting activities, this way the students will want to continue reading to find out if
their prediction was correct. There are countless amounts of activities to do with reading,
I just need to get to know my class and find out what they enjoy so I can better fit the
activities to them. If students enjoy the activities and enjoy the books they are reading, I
believe that they will have a better attitude about reading.
Classroom Setup:
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I plan to have a corner of my classroom devoted to reading. I want to have multiple books
of all genres, all lengths, and different reading levels in the class library. I want the
different genres because some students might like fiction while another likes nonfiction,
or maybe even poetry. I want the range of reading levels in my library because not
everyone in my class will be reading on grade level, some might be above and some
might be below. I would like to have a rug and maybe even a few beanbag chairs back
there so the students will enjoy going to the “library” which will then hopefully lead to
them enjoying reading. I want to have groups assigned during the silent reading time that
I have set in my daily schedule. I will use the groups to determine who gets to go to the
carpet and beanbags in the library for reading time. For example: group one gets the
library during silent reading on Monday, group two gets it on Tuesday, and so on.
Teacher/Parent Relations:
I will send out a newsletter at the beginning of the year, and maybe a few others
throughout the year, explaining how I feel about reading along with other important
things. I will explain in it how reading will benefit their child and how I will be using it in
class throughout the year. I will ask that the parents help their child read at home so they
can become better readers.
Integrating Children’s Literature into Other Subjects:
As much as I would love there to be an interesting novel about everything we will learn
about in history, there is not, nor does the students have time to read them all. If I am
teaching something that may be hard for the students to grasp from the textbook, I will
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try to find a great historical novel that will entertain them and help them understand the
topic we are discussing in history. There are picture books that are great for math,
science, and history that I plan to read to my students. There are also short stories and
poems that discuss other topics that might be helpful for the students. There is always a
way to somehow incorporate language into other subjects, and I plan to do this as much
as possible. By doing that I will be doing two things at once, helping my students
understand a topic in some subject, while helping them become better readers.
Resources:
There are millions of websites that list great books for children. I plan to use them when I
am trying to pick a class book or when I am trying to fill my classroom library. There are
websites that have lesson plans already made up that incorporate language into other
subjects. Those websites will be helpful when I am stuck on how to incorporate language
to some other subjects. Other teachers are probably one of the best resources you can
find. They have tried different things and know what works, they can tell you those
secrets as well as provide you with other great resources. Resources can be everywhere;
you just need to know what you are looking for. Used book stores, garage sales, faculty
dinners, all of these can provide you with great resources that will help you with
children’s literature as well as other subjects, if you use them wisely.