The Semester so far.......

I have been blogging about children's books for 8 weeks or so. That is a lot of children's books read and reviewed! So far this blogging experience has been a growing process. When the assignment was first explained I had no idea what to say about children's books, previously I referred to children's books as cute and fun. Children's books were something fun for kids to read when they were bored and some books contained a lesson that would teach children to not talk to strangers or listen to their mom or dad. It wasn't until I started my language arts, reading course and this course, reading and responding to children's literature, that I learned children's books can be a powerful tool in the classroom. By reading a certain book a teacher is informing students of issues of race, gender, sexual orientation, families, class, and the list can go on. Students will get ideas from the material read in class on how to approach these issues. Being aware of what we read and how it could effect our students is called critical literacy. Teachers have to be aware of this when deciding what books to read aloud or what books should be read in a guided reading group. As teachers we want each of our students to feel valued and if we read a book that doesn't include diversity or read stories only with characters that have two, heterosexual, married parents that might make the children, whose lives don't mimic the characters in the book , feel as though they are weird and different. I don't want any student in my class to have experience the discomfort and awkwardness of thinking they are different, and all these feelings could have been avoided had I been more critical of the texts we read.

Being a critical reader of children's books has been a significant part of the course but I have also enjoyed learning about the components of children's books as well. Noticing illustrations and commenting on them was and will be a big part of my blogs. Illustrations are so key in children's books and adult readers, who focus mainly on the text, the illustrations are pointless. TO children illustrations help them to follow along with the story and to help make sense of what is happening. How well the illustrations are done makes a difference as well as the amount of details included in the pictures. I have learned through different interactions with children and picture books the more detail in the pictures the more engaging it will be for children. They love pointing out fun little details in the pictures and talking about them. By looking at the illustrations and the detail of the illustrations. I have found books where I am absolutely blown away by the illustrations and sought out books illustrated by the same illustrator.

By blogging and looking through various books I have gained a good idea of what to look for in a children's book. I have a better understanding of what the text and illustrations are implying to my students and how that might effect them. I also have a better understanding of illustrations and their importance to the text. I have gained an idea of what authors whose work I really enjoy and which authors I don't enjoy so much. I can then take all of this knowledge with me when I enter the classroom and hopefully it will enhance the reading experience for my students.