Teaching Through Trade Books: Figuring Out Food Chains
Sun, Mar 09, 2014 2:57 PM
Because Children's Literature is Important
All too often I find teachers disregard utilizing children's literature as an effective means to introduce or explain difficult concepts to children. And while we may think that food chains and food webs should be a familiar concept to students, it isn't, and it's a lot more complicated than we think. This article identifies several books that discuss food webs and food chains. In addition, it provides follow up activities, questions, and assessment to do in class, all the while having the books introduce the core concepts to students. What I especially enjoyed about this article was it's ability to phrase why this matters and what the purpose behind the activities are. I think a lot of hesitation to utilizing literature comes from the idea of backward design and thinking about what we want students to know and then the most direct way of getting there, rather than looking for a more creative way of getting there. I plan to utilize most if not all of these books and lessons in my own classroom to ensure that science remains fun and interactive!