Kira Castle

Dr. Burke
ENGL 414A
September 27, 2015
Resources for Childrens Literature
1.) 5 Useful Websites
Website 1
a. Reading Rockets Launching Young Readers!
b. http://www.readingrockets.org/
c. A part of WETAs education website.
d. This website contains an immense amount of articles for
parents and teachers to teach young children how to read. The
subsections of the website include: Teaching Reading, Helping
Struggling Readers, Reading Topic A-Z, and Childrens Books &
Authors. When any of these sections are selected, it brings you
to a different page with very specific articles, that all have very
credible authors (it tells you their name, date, and their
credentials). So for example, if you select Teaching Reading,
some of the articles you could find there are: The Common Core,
First Year Teacher, Reading 101, and so on.
e. I personally think this is a very useful website. It is well
organized and easy to find what you are looking for. The
information provided is legitimate and easy to understand. It also
has a section of blogs, which is a great way to become connected
and find new ideas on a regular basis. Finally, there are a ton of
videos on the site that pertain to the topics desired. I have
always thought that videos are a great way to see and hear how
different people think.
Website 2
a. The Essentials of Language Teaching
b. http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/index.htm
c. A website of The National Capital Language Resource Center,
Washington, DC, 2003-2007
d. This site also contains information about teaching children to
read and write. The difference however, is that it first gives the
principles of teaching, and then practice to go along with it. For
example, some of the principles it teaches are: What Language
Teaching is, Planning a Lesson, and Motivating Learners. The
areas of practice that it gives are in teaching: Grammar,
Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing, and Culture. And finally, if
you select one of these topics, it even has further information
pertaining to it. For example, if you select Teaching Culture, it
offers: Goals and Techniques for Teaching Culture, Strategies for
Learning about Culture, Developing Culture Learning Activities,
Using Textbook Culture Activities, Assessing Knowledge of

Culture, and Resources. There is so much useful information on

the site, and it covers such a wide variety.
e. I really thought this site was helpful as well. It has so much
information that is easily laid out and simple to find. It covers
almost all the questions you could think to ask about the
different subjects. I was also impressed with this sites
credentials.
Website 3
a. Stories and Children Where stories come to life and reading
is fun!
b. http://storiesandchildren.com/
c. Susan Syddall. Bachelor of Teaching Degree and a Masters of
Education. She was a teacher for over 20 years, and writes
childrens books.
d. In this site, it is more dedicated to the idea of reading to and
with children. The section that the author made here are: Book
Shop, Activities for Kids, Articles, Reading Tips, Pintables, and
About (Susan). The section that caught my attention was
Reading Tips, which has subsections such as: 8 tips for Choosing
Childrens Books, Effective Ways to Engage Children in Stories
Daily, and How to Read Aloud with Children. The one that caught
by attention was How to Read Aloud with Children. When I went
to it, it offered wonderful advice, and even had activities to go
along with it. They were free pintables, which make it very
accessible and teacher friendly.
e. This website was wonderful for finding ideas that have worked
for a teacher in the past. The authors insight is easy to
understand, and she gives a variety of advice.
Website 4
a. Childrens Literature Promotes Understanding
b. http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/635
c. Learn NC, a program of the UNC School of Education
d. This site is more about the importance of childrens literature
than it is about how to teach it like the last 3 sites. It is
comparable to a discussion forum in the way it is laid out. It gives
straight up facts about what Childrens Literature is, information
about specifics of Childrens Literature, and addressing broad
issues with teaching. Some of the headlines it has are:
Transformative Reading, Service Learning: A social Action
Approach, Selecting Books to Help Students, and Critical Literacy.
The information is more to understand the whole concept of
teaching children to read rather than giving fun lesson plans. It is
very different than the first three websites, but offers great
background information in this way.
e. What I like about this site is how to the point it is. It is written
almost like an essay, but with headlines to follow along with. I

thought it was very helpful in learning more about the critical

issues and how to deal with them.
Website 5
a. Childrens Books Guide
b. http://childrensbooksguide.com/authors
c. Copyright 2015 for Childrens Book Guide
d. This website is designed to get the user to come across some
of the most famous pieces of childrens literature. The way I
found it was through the article about Famous Childrens Book
Authors. In this section it lists the top 40 or so authors of
childrens books. With each author it gives a short biography and
a review of their work. This is just one small part of the website.
The main sections are: Popular Book Lists, By Subject, Social
Issues and Behavior, and Reviews. The Popular Book Lists have
options like: best childrens books since 2012, best authors of all
time, best books of all time, the Caldecott winners, and so on. In
the section By Subject, it lets you choose the type of book you
are looking for, and then gives you a list of the most popular or
famous ones.
e. I loved this site as well. It is very specific to the idea of finding
great childrens books for students or children in general. Again,
it is very well laid out to make the search process easy. Having
this website would be great to see what books would be worth
the read to the students.
2.) Useful Non-Web Sources
Book 1
a. Teaching Childrens Literature Its Critical!
b. Christine Leland, Mitzi Lewison, Jerome Harste. Published
2013, by Routledge. 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon.
2013 Taylor and Francis. 220 Pages.
c. This resource is very valuable. It covers topics from Why
Reading aloud is Crucial to Supporting Literature Discussions,
with many other ideas in between. The book clearly outlines
everything that is being discussed, and makes it easy to find
information you need. Although I only skimmed through the
book, it was easy to see that it covers a very diverse amount of
information, all regarding teaching children literature. I noticed
that there are a lot of pictures, and diagrams that breaks up the
reading and gives visuals to understand the information better.
Each chapter has good information, and presents it in a way that
is important to teaching.
Book 2
a. Literature and the Child
b. Lee Galda, Lawrence R. Sipe, Lauren A. Liang, Bernice E
Cullinan. Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Copyright 2014.
Belmont, CA. 495 Pages.

c. This book is specified to be directed towards young readers,

however the audience is for those who will be teaching those
young learners. It first introduces why literature is so important
to introduce at a young age, and why literature is important
overall. Then the following chapters each go into detail about
different formats and genres of literature for young readers. The
genres they do are: Picture books, Poetry and Verse, Folklore,
Fantastic Literature, Contemporary Realistic Fiction, Historical
Fiction, Biography and Memoir, and Nonfiction. This is a great
potential to be valuable because of how in depth it goes about
each subject. The more the teacher knows about these topics,
the more it will be passed on to the students.
Book 3
a.
3.) 5 Characteristics of Distinguishing reliable Websites
a. If it provides crucial information such as the author and date
or sources. Furthermore, it is important to make sure that said
author or source it valid in itself. Just having an author does not
make a source valid.
b. The information contains no errors. If a website is riddled with
spelling mistakes, and slang terms, it is likely that it will be a bad
source. Good websites will be error-free and written intelligently.
c. Recently Updated. Finding a site that looks like it has good
information may not be enough if the last update was in 2001 or
so. You want to ensure that you are getting the most up to date
and valid information as possible.
d. What is the main purpose of the site? Checking why the author
wrote the piece is also essential. If it is only for selling a personal
product, or a hobby it may not be as valid. Along with that, if
there are a lot of adds that are distracting and take over most of
the page, you would want to reconsider the use of that site.
e. Who is the intended audience? If it is aimed towards scholars
or a general public makes a difference. Or if it is for people of a
certain geographic area it will also affect the information it
contains. Make sure that the audience is being considered to
ensure that you personally want the information that is being
given.
Sources used:
https://uknowit.uwgb.edu/page.php?id=30276
http://acoachma.tripod.com/
http://www.fcps.edu/LutherJacksonMS/library/techtips/tips/websit
e_validity_guideline.html
https://www.edb.utexas.edu/petrosino/Legacy_Cycle/mf_jm/Chall
enge%201/website%20reliable.pdf