Diverse Early Literacy Books for Social Studies by Jane M. Gangi

Note: This is a bibliography of early literacy books focused on social studies topics and the description of a way to share texts (Check It Out! Circle) that my friend and colleague Jane M. Gangi created and presented at a education conference a few weeks ago.  Jane's are of expertise is in children's literature. She is the author of numerous articles and three professional books including:

Genocide in Contemporary Children's and Young Adult Literature: Cambodia to Darfur (Children's Literature and Culture)   (Routledge, 2014)
(You can read more about this text here.)


Deepening Literacy Learning: Art and Literature Engagements in K-8 Classrooms (Teaching-Learning Indigenous, Intercultural Worldviews) 



Encountering Children's Literature: An Arts Approach. 

Diverse Books for Young Children: Connecting Social Studies and Literacy

Presenter:

Jane M. Gangi: jane.gangi@msmc.edu

Division of Education

Member, Collaborative for Equity in Literacy Learning (CELL)

Hudson Hall, 109D

Mount Saint Mary College

330 Powell Ave

Newburgh, NY 12550

Phone: 845-569-3529

AGENDA

Mirror and Window Books and the Proficient Reader Research

Check It Out Circle: Children’s Literature and the Social Studies. Sibberson and Szymusiak, (2003):

A Check It Out! Circle is another way to support book choice.  We use this activity when we want to highlight a certain author or genre.  If we notice that very few students have read a biography, for example, we will organize a…Circle to introduce them to some biographies that we hope they will choose to read independently. 

Before we begin a …Circle, we collect the same number of books in the genre we are highlighting….as there are students in the class.  Then we have the children sit in a large circle on the floor.  We walk around the circle, give each child a book, and ask them to silently preview the book.  After just a minute, we ring a bell and have the children pass the book to the child on their right.  We continue doing this until every child has had a chance to briefly look at each book.  We limit the amount of time because it gives students just enough time to find something interesting, but not enough time for them to read the books.  As a result, they are often eager to get their hands on the books that particularly interested them.

Following the activity, we usually ask two questions: “Which books did you see that you want to go back to during independent reading time?” and “How did you go about previewing the book in such a short time?” (p. 95)

C3 FRAMEWORK FOR THE SOCIAL STUDIES. Retrieved from http://www.socialstudies.org/system/files/c3/C3-Framework-for-Social-Studies.pdf

Civics: Civic and Political Institutions; Participation and Deliberation; Processes, Rules and Laws

 ¡Si, Se Puede! Yes, We Can! Janitor Strike in L.A by Diana Cohn; Francisco Delgado, illustrator

from The Mangrove Tree: Planting Trees to Feed Families 

Economics: Decision Making; Exchange and Markets; National and Global Economy

1. Chugga-Chugga Choo-Choo by Kevin Lewis, illustrated by Daniel Kirk
2. The Good Garden: How One Family Went from Hunger to Having Enough by Katie Smith Milway, illustrated by Sylvie Daigneault
3. If the World Were a Village: A Book about the World’s People (2^nd ed.) by David J. Smith, illustrated by Shelagh Armstrong
4. The Mangrove Tree: Planting Trees to Feed Families by Susan L. Roth and Cindy Trumbore
5. One Hen: How One Small Loan Made a Big Difference by Katie Smith Milway, illustrated by Eugenie Fernandes
6. Quinito’s Neighborhood/El vecíndario de Quinito by Ina Cumpiano, illustrated by José Ramírez
7. Seeds of Change by Jen Cullerton Johnson, illustrated by Sonia Lynn Sadler

from How Far Do You Love Me? 

Geography: Spatial Views; Place, Regions and Culture; Population; Global Interconnections

1. Alphabet City by Stephen T. Johnson
2. Amazing Faces, poems selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins, illustrated by Chris Soentpiet
3. Animal Poems of the Iguazú/Animalario del Iguazú by Francisco Alarcón, illustrated by Maya Christina Gonzalez
4. Bein’ with You This Way by W. Nikola-Lisa, illustrated by Michael Bryant
5. Celebrate! Connections Among Cultures by Jan Reynolds
6. Efraín of the Sonoran Desert by Amalia Astorga, as told to Gary Paul Nabhan, illustrated by Janet K. Miller
7. A Full Moon Is Rising, poems by Marilyn Singer, illustrated by Julia Cairns
8. The Gum Chewing Rattler by Joe Hayes, illustrated by Antonio Castro L.
9. How Far Do You Love Me? by Lulu Delacre
10. Listen to the Desert/Oye al desierto by Pat Mora, illustrated by Francisco X. Mora

from Shi-shi-etko 

11. Shi-shi-etko by Nicola I. Campbell, illustrated by Kim LaFave

12. Talking Walls by Margy Burns Knight, illustrated by Anne Sibley O’Brien

13. Tan to Tamarind, poems by Malathi Michelle Iyengar, illustrated by Jamel Aikb
By Jan Reynolds:

1. Amazon Basin  
2. Down Under
3. Far North
4. Frozen Land
5. Himalaya
6. Mongolia
7. Sahara

 

from Yum!¡MmMm! Qué rico¡ America’s Sproutings 

History: Change, Continuity, and Context; Perspectives; Sources and Evidence; Causation and Argumentation

1. Drumbeat in Our Feet by Patricia A. Keeler and Júlio T. Leitão
2. My Papa Diego and Me: Memories of My Father and His Art/Mi papa Diego y yo/Recuerdos de mi padre y su arte  by Guadalupe Rivera Marín and Diego Rivera
3. Yum!¡MmMm! Qué rico¡ America’s Sproutings by Pat Mora, illustrated by Rafael López

 

Bebop Books Leveled Books: https://www.leeandlow.com/imprints/2

Resources for Children’s and Young Adult Literature: http://cell.msmc.edu/literature/

There are multiple resources for young children at this site.

Publishers of Multicultural Books:

Lee & Low Books: https://www.leeandlow.com/

Cinco Puntos: http://www.cincopuntos.com/

Groundwood Books: http://groundwoodbooks.com/

Reference

Sibberson, F & Szymusiak, K.  (2003).  Still learning to read: Teaching students in grades 3-6.  Portland, ME: Stenhouse.

Fixing NCLB

Below is a letter a friend and colleague, Jane M. Gangi, wrote to Senator Alexander in response to a request for suggestions and insights into fixing NCLB. You can write your own letter and send it to: fixingNCLB@help.senate.gov. 

I have included Jane's letter as I found it to be so informative and helpful.  Thanks Jane for the permission to publish this letter.

You can also read recent commentary by Jane (and a student of hers, Nancy Benfer) that Valerie Strauss published in The Answer Sheet in The Washington Post here: "How Common Core’s recommended books fail children of color" 

Dear Senator Alexander,

I am writing to urge you to repeal the testing requirements of NCLB. We do not need a standardized test for every child in America, nor do we need to throw away billions of tax dollars by funding corporations that make tests and make computers. We have the NAEP, which disaggregates data by ethnicity, income, and so on. The NAEP is given to pockets of children throughout the country, which statisticians say is enough. It is what is done in Finland; Finland does not test every child.

Instead, use the money we can save by stopping the harmful-to children practices of standardized testing to ensure equity in access to the arts, libraries (including lots of multicultural texts), librarians, field trips, school nurses (children have died without them), labs, playgrounds, infrastructure--those things and people that directly impact children. Provide professional learning for teachers to learn how to help children whose culture and socioeconomic status they do not share. Jan Richardson and Mary Ann Reilly have done phenomenal work with children in high poverty areas (and I can make other recommendations of professionals who are succeeding).

We also need to stop VAM, which the American Statistical Academy labels as junk science. We can tell whether teachers are doing their jobs through growth models such as, in literacy, running records. In our work in Newburgh, we expect children to make gains by starting from where they are and continually growing—instead of, as the common core expects, starting from where children aren’t, which only leads to sad consequences.

Please do all you can to stop Race to the Top—as pathetic a metaphor for education as ever there was. Instead, read this post for what education might be--passion-based. . Under President Obama and Secretary Arne Duncan, common core promoters have made money hand-over-fist while children suffer.

There were no early childhood educators who helped develop the common core and they must be brought on board. Please see Defending the Early Years: http://deyproject.org/. There were no special educators, who also must be brought on board.

On math—we have Jason Zimba, “architect” of the math standards on record as stating that these standards will prepare K-12 student only for community college, which means those who can afford private school, like the Obamas and the Gateses, will ensure their children have access to elite colleges.

Neither of the two “architects” of the English Language Arts, David Coleman and Sue Pimental, have ever taught, which leads to these serious errors:

·         of 171 recommended texts in the common core on the elementary level, there are only 18 authors of color (40% of the nation's children are of color). The proficient reader research has shown very clearly that children must make text-to-self connections. Besides proficient reading, having access to texts that represent them is also essential to identity development. Common Core Appendix B recommendations are flying off the shelves in part, possibly, because teachers think their jobs depend on those books.

·         of 171 recommended texts in the common core on the elementary level, less that 7% represent working class or poor children, when 21+ million children in the nation are poor. A recent report shows that 51% of children are poor.

·         of multiple ways to interpret text, children are confined to only "close reading,” which is one of many ways to read text. Missing are transactional reading, critical literacy, and other approaches more likely to help children love reading.

·         of a variety of genres, children must read 50% informational text on the elementary level and 70% informational text on the secondary level. 90% of writers read literary text in their younger days, 75% of genocide and human rights activists read literary text and viewed the arts when they were young (which evoked them to their life's work), and Silicon Valley geniuses read science fiction when they were young (thus America's ingenuity in creating ideas). At the very moment the US disdains fiction, which has been a key to its success, China now emphasizes science fiction--because China learned science fiction is the key to US creativity. China knows it can make things but also knows that it does not have ideas like we do, which we learned from fiction. 

·         that the common core is in no way internationally benchmarked. Finland does not begin to teach reading until children are 7; the common core has turned kindergarten into what used to be second grade. Shenzen, China, has the highest university pass rate in China: They allow free reading and choice and no tests. China is encouraging the rest of the country to follow Shenzen's lead at the very moment we do not.

Please see Lyndsey Layton’s article for an expose on how the scandal of common core occurred:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-bill-gates-pulled-off-the-swift-common-core-revolution/2014/06/07/a830e32e-ec34-11e3-9f5c-9075d5508f0a_story.html

Please see Superintendent Kenneth Mitchell’s presentation on how much this federal and corporate takeover of education will cost the taxpayer with absolutely no benefit to children:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuS81wZo_yE&list=PL1h2WwSa-8dPkjIsR8MldKlcUAOvTGEI2&index=3

Thank you for your consideration,
Jane M. Gangi, PhD