We are hearing lots about the Common Core these days, especially the mandate for children to read more nonfiction. Teachers are also being told that students need to examine primary source documents. But how many nine year olds can really read the Declaration of Independence and make sense of it?!
At the American Association of School Librarian's conference this week, I've spearheaded a concurrent session called: Biographies Through Picture Books. We've invited five authors and illustrators to speak about how they draw on primary source documents and give children a real sense of history by showing them these primary sources. I hope you can join us!
Feel free to share this poster:
Biographies through Picture Books
2013 AASL National Conference
Saturday, Nov. 16th
10:15 am - 11:30 am
Hartford, CT
©2013 Mary Ann Scheuer, Great Kid Books
Found all sorts of cool primary source documents to use as an introduction to Horace Pippin during the days leading up to Veteran's Day. Students had a blast looking at WWI diary entries, photographs, artwork and more. They kept notes on what they saw, thought, had questions about etc. Comments were discussed, questions answered----students were introduced to the picture-book biography A Splash of Red and through hearing the story students could determine if their notes were correct and have questions answered. Book written by Jen Bryant
ReplyDeleteBy D. Threadgill
That's so interesting! I loved reading A Splash of Red aloud to students, but wish we had time to delve into it more like you did. Thank you so much for sharing.
DeleteWhat age students were you working with?