Title: Exploring Literacy on the Internet.
Subject(s): CHILDREN'S literature -- Computer
network resources;
INTERDISCIPLINARY approach in education --
Computer network resources
Source: Reading Teacher, Sep2000, Vol. 54 Issue
1, p100, 5p, 2bw
Author(s): Karchmer,
Rachel A.
Abstract: Describes several types of
information resources on the
Internet for children literature that can be
used to support
interdisciplinary
instruction. Content of the Web sites; Authors of
the Web sites.
AN: 3530379
ISSN: 0034-0561
Database: Academic Search Elite
EXPLORING LITERACY ON THE INTERNET
Using
the Internet and children's literature to support
interdisciplinary instruction
Recently, a third-grade teacher told me that
she was interested in
using children's
literature to enhance her interdisciplinary
curriculum, but was
not sure where to begin. Becky had always used
works of literature in
reading and language arts and now she wanted to
integrate literature
into math, science, and social studies
instruction. Like many
teachers, she understood the importance of
connecting lessons so
that her students would draw upon natural
relationships between
content areas. In addition, she felt that using
literature to support
content area instruction would help her students
understand how the
material related to the world around them. As Huck,
Hepler, & Hickman (1997) explained,
As children search for meaning in books, they
naturally link what they
are reading to their
own lives.... We want to encourage children to
discover personal
meaning in books in order to better understand their
lives and to extend
their perceptions of other lives. (p. 623)
My interest in technology prompted me to
suggest to Becky that the
Internet was the perfect vehicle for her. Among
other things, the
World Wide Web encompasses vast resources
related to children's
literature, including
complete copies of texts. Through networked
connections, educators
can tap into these accessible materials and
adapt them to fit
their students' needs.
The purpose of this month's column is to
describe several types of
resources on the
Internet for children's literature that may be used
to support
interdisciplinary instruction: central sites, project
sites, author Web
sites, lesson plans, and electronic mailing lists. I
hope this information
will support others as they seek to integrate
the Internet and
children's literature with classroom instruction.
Central sites
Perhaps the easiest way to become familiar with
Internet resources
related to children's
books is to take advantage of the many central
sites that are
available for children's literature. These sites
compile information on
many different areas of literature, such as
authors, illustrators,
books, and teacher resources. Moreover, they
organize this
information within directories to make location easy.
Central sites are good places to start because
it is often quicker to
find something at a
good central site than to use a search engine.
The Children's Literature Web Guide (www.acs.ucalgary.ca/
dkbrown/index.html), created by David K. Brown,
is an easy-to-navigate
central site that
incorporates links to important resources such as
award-winning books,
bestseller lists, authors on the Web, book
recommendations,
journal reviews, and full texts of stories posted on
the Web. For example,
click on the recommended book list and you will
see links to many
different Web sites containing recommended works of
children's literature.
Each site was created by a different
organization, such as
the New York Public Library, and several include
recommendations from
well-known authors like Jerry Pinkney and Jon
Scieszka. Other good central sites include the state of
Literature (tlc.ai.org/childlit.htm#CAI)
and the
Public Library's Overbooked (Book Links):
Children's Literature For
All Ages (www.overbooked.org/allchild.html).
Each provides Internet
users with a wealth of
links to a variety of resources about
children's literature.
Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Site (www.carolhurst.com/) is a
different type of
central Internet site. In addition to providing
links to useful
resources, this site posts original book reviews,
author studies, and
lesson plans by Carol Hurst, an expert in the area
of children's
literature. Hurst and her colleagues have also
constructed lists of
children's literature related to school
curriculum including
math, science, and social studies topics. For
example, according to
Hurst, Mem Fox's Hattie and the Fox (1988) or
Cynthia Rylant's The
Relatives Came (1986) can support math lessons on
data gathering. James
Howe's The Celery Stalks at
Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham (1960), and Vera Williams's
Cherries and
Cherry Pits (1986) can reinforce a unit on the
four basic food groups.
And Mitsumasa Anno's Anno's Medieval World
(1980), John S. Goodall's
The Story of a Castle (1986),
and Jonathan Hunt's Illuminations (1989)
can nicely introduce
the Middle Ages. For your convenience, much of
this information can
be found in a free quarterly newsletter sent to
you via e-mail after
you complete a simple subscription form at the
Web site.
Central sites like those mentioned provide
enough support for the new
Internet user and plenty of possibilities for
those comfortable
sifting through
information on the World Wide Web. They are helpful
places to begin your
search for sites related to children's stories.
Teacher-created children's literature projects
The Internet has changed the way we communicate
with one another. This
is especially true for
educators. Until recently, most staff
development took place
in school buildings, during or immediately
after school hours.
Today, teachers share instructional ideas,
strategies, and
questions over the Internet 24 hours a day. This
phenomenon is what Leu, Karchmer, and Leu (1999) have called "The Miss
Rumphius
Effect." Miss Rumphius, the main character of
Barbara
Cooney's (1981) children's book of the same
name, made the world a
better place by
planting lupine flowers wherever she went. Likewise,
teachers all over the
world have constructed Web pages to showcase the
ideas and practices
being implemented in their classrooms.
Furthermore, many of these teachers include
projects that specifically
integrate children's
literature with the curriculum and invite you to
join.
For example, Susan Silverman, who is a second-grade
teacher, created
Stellaluna's Friends
(www.kids-learn.org/stellaluna/project.htm),
named after Janell Cannon's book Stellaluna
(1993). The project was
posted on Silverman's
Web page and incorporated reading, language
arts, technology, and
science standards of learning. After registering
at the Web site,
participating classes read Stellaluna (1993) and were
expected to research a
bat indigenous to their environment. Students
wrote reports, poems,
and stories and created illustrations
synthesizing the
information they found. Afterwards, these materials
were sent to Silverman
who posted the work on the project Web page.
Students could then see their own work
published on the World Wide
Web, as well as learn from their peers in other
locations.
Another example of an Internet project using
children's literature is
CALDECOTT CLUES (www.sags.k12.il.us/Caldecott%20Clues.htm),
organized
by librarian Patricia Farman. The purpose of this project is to
motivate students to
read Caldecott medal winners, books recognized
for their exceptional
illustrations. Registered classes are expected
to read at least three
award-winning books and construct clues about
the stories for other
classes to figure out via e-mail (see Figure 1).
The clues are posted each week at the Web site,
and the winning class
is recognized.
CALDECOTT CLUES reinforces several language and
technology skills and
also provides motivation for students to read.
There are hundreds of projects like these on
the Internet. To find
them, take advantage
of one of the following central locations: Global
School House Internet Project Registry (www.gsh.org/pr/index.cfm) or
Classroom Connect's
Teacher Contact Database
(www.connectedteacher.com/teacherContact/search.asp).
And, if you
decide to develop your
own project, you can post it there, too.
Author Web sites
There are three types of author Web sites
posted on the Internet
including those
developed by authors, publishers, and admirers of
authors' work. Each
has their purpose and focus. First, sites
developed by authors
provide authentic insight to their lives that is
unavailable through
other venues like printed biographies. For
example, Patricia Polacco's site (www.patriciapolacco.com)
takes the
viewer through
pictures of her hometown, her stimuli for writing, and
her current projects,
all in Polacco's own words. Jan Brett
(www.janbrett.com)
incorporates many of the same components as
Polacco, and she adds
an abundance of resources for teachers to
download. My favorites
include the beautiful bookmarks that can be
printed out and shared
with students and the alphabet cards with
corresponding
illustrations (see Figure 2). There is also an
interactive aspect to
both these sites. Viewers can send e-mail
messages to the
authors asking questions about their lives and their
work. Both Polacco and Brett reply to the messages in a timely manner,
making this a truly
invaluable experience, especially for elementary
teachers who choose to
incorporate author studies into their
curriculum.
A second type of author site is created and
maintained by book
publishers.
Scholastic.com is a good example of this, posting Web
pages with information
about authors such as Harry Potter's creator
J.K. Rowling (www.scholastic.com/harrypotter/index.htm)
and Goosebumps
series originator R.L.
Stine
(www.scholastic.com/goosebumps/indexa.htm).
Although these sites
highlight authors by
posting their answers to frequently asked
questions or hosting
online live interviews, they also include lesson
plans and links
related to the publications.
Admirers of authors' work create the third type
of author site. These
can be teachers,
parents, administrators, or people outside the field
of education who are
interested in highlighting an author's
collection. For
example, an Internet search for the author Tomie
DePaola found over 70
sites mentioning his name. Several, such as
(entercomp.com/users/pinedale/media.htm) and
graduate student Kara
Kuebler's site
(magic.usi.edu/Spring98/214lunch/s5/main.html) were
constructed as
dedications to DePaola's life and books. They
incorporated short
biographies, as well as creative ideas for using
his stories in the
classroom.
However, it is important to remember that
because Web site
construction is fairly
easy and cheap, anyone can make a homepage.
Consequently, it becomes even more important
for us to question and
evaluate the validity
of information posted. Many school districts
currently have
guidelines for teacher and student Internet use, but
many still leave the
decision of site appropriateness to teachers.
Previewing and prior evaluation of sites by the
teacher can help, but
we must not forget to
also teach our students to critically evaluate
information found on
the Web. This can be done by developing
evaluation criteria
for them to look for when viewing sites. Such
criteria can include
the name of the organization that sponsors a
site, the e-mail
address for a contact person, links showing the
credentials of the Web
Master, citations for sources, links to other
reputable sites, and
awards and endorsements from independent
organizations.
In addition, many sites, including those
constructed by authors, are
used as advertisements
to sell books, pictures, or videos. In turn, it
becomes crucial to critically
evaluate online materials in much the
same way that we
evaluate popular media such as magazines, television,
and billboards (Luke,
2000). In order to do that, we must ask
questions like, What
is the purpose of the site? How is it biased? Why
should I believe its
content? Taking a deeper look at the motives
behind Web page
construction will help teachers and students make
more-informed
decisions about the material they collect over the
Internet.
Internet-posted lesson plans
For many of us, beginning a journey on the
Internet is a challenge. We
must learn the basic
hardware and software components while realizing
our students know much
more about computers than we do. One of my best
suggestions for
alleviating the anxieties that might emerge is to take
full advantage of
lessons posted on the Internet. There are thousands
of sites dedicated to
sharing K-12 instructional practices covering
almost every topic
imaginable. The key is finding their location.
Begin by typing "children's
literature" into your search engine (e.g.,
Excite, HotBot,
Netscape, or Lycos). You will most likely receive an
abundance of sites. To
narrow the search, add a particular topic, such
as "children's
literature lesson plans and oceans." This should
eliminate those sites
unrelated to your theme. Now you can skim the
descriptions and only
open those sites of interest.
Following this procedure, using the search
engine HotBot, I found
several interesting
registries of lesson plans related to oceans. For
instance, the Askeric database
(ericir.syr.edu/Virtual/Lessons/Lang_arts/index.html) has a collection
of lesson plans
submitted by classroom teachers from the United
States. Clicking on
the
incorporating some of
the best children's literature. For the novice
Internet user, AskEric
is easy to navigate in that the title of the
lesson is given along
with the appropriate grade level. This makes
searching for
appropriate material much easier.
The
ramseyil/tradless.htm) is similar to AskEric as it provides listings
of lesson plans on
various themes. However, rather than including only
original sets of
materials, this site links you to lesson plans posted
on other registries
like AskEric, Gateway.com, and EduPlace.
This is a
great location for
choosing lessons related to all types of literature
such as tall tales,
nursery rhymes, myths, and fables.
For those of you looking specifically for
lesson plans that
incorporate children's
literature and Internet activities, SCORE
Cyberguides (www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/cyberguide.html)
is a good
resource. Like many
states,
created standards of
learning for each grade level. Cyberguides
combines the language
arts requirements with children's literature and
numerous Internet
activities. For example, after reading
Lobel's Frog and Toad
Are Friends (1970), students view several Web
sites related to
amphibians (URLs provided by Cyberguides). These
sites include
pictures, sounds, and descriptions of various frogs and
toads that nicely
complement the characters in the story. After a
class discussion,
teachers pair students with peers in participating
classes for an e-mail
exchange about the book, friendships, and other
topics of interest.
This provides an authentic opportunity for
students to practice
letter writing just as Frog did when he wrote to
his best friend Toad.
Lesson plans on the Internet save time and
suggest new ways of
teaching with
children's literature. Nevertheless, keep in mind that
you must still adapt
lessons to fit your particular students' needs.
Electronic mailing lists
As mentioned earlier, communication amongst
educators has drastically
changed since access
to Internet connections has increased.
Whenresearching K-12
teachers' reports of their Internet use, I found
that teachers
appreciated the ability to correspond with local and
distant colleagues via
e-mail for several reasons (Karchmer, 1999).
First, like many of us, they had Internet
capabilities at home. This
allowed for
communication to take place outside of the hectic school
day. Second, the
teachers valued how easily they could communicate
with people outside of
their immediate location. Although they enjoyed
sharing ideas with the
teachers in their schools, they welcomed the
opportunity to learn
from colleagues who shared different philosophies
toward education (Karchmer, 1999).
Electronic mailing lists, commonly referred to
as listservs, provide
environments for
people with similar interests to discuss important
topics. Currently,
there are hundreds of education-related lists.
After subscribing, each message you send is
automatically distributed
to every subscriber on
the list. Therefore, your question or statement
could reach several
hundred people, depending upon the number of
subscribers.
There are several mailing lists on the Internet
devoted to
conversations about
children's literature. The Children's Literature
Forum (tile.net/lists/childlitl.html) is
devoted to conversations
about literature
including authors, illustrators, award-winners, and
new publications.
Classroom Connect
(www.connectedteacher.com/listServ/subscribe.asp),
a teacher-friendly
site full of lesson
plans and teacher resources, has a variety of
mailing lists to
choose from. RTEACHER (web.syr.edu/
djleu/RTEACHER/directions.html), a mailing list
for those interested
in traditional and
electronic literacies, is a supportive environment
for preservice and
practicing teachers, researchers, administrators,
and parents.
Taking advantage of the Internet
I meet many teachers like my friend Becky who
want to try new things
in their classrooms,
but aren't sure how to do it. I believe the
enormous drive to
increase Internet access in the K-12 classroom will
help provide teachers
with the tools to make those innovations
possible. As outlined
in this column, there are abundant resources
readily available to
educators. The key is knowing how to locate them.
Through listservs,
Web pages, or traditional conversations we can
share our visions (Leu, Karchmer, & Leu, 1999) for using new
technologies with our
colleagues. With this knowledge, teachers
everywhere can share
the literacies of the future with their students.
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): Figure 1; CALDECOTT
CLUES
(www.sags.k12.il.us/Library/Caldecott%20Clues.htm)
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): Figure 2; Jan
Brett's Web Site
(www.janbrett.com/alphabet/alphabet_traditional_main.htm)
References
Huck, C., Hepler,
S., & Hickman, J. (1997). Children's literature in
the elementary
schools.
Karchmer, R.A.
(1999). Teachers on a journey: Examining the changes
K-12 educators report as they use the Internet
to support teaching and
literacy learning.
Unpublished doctoral dissertation,
University,
Leu, D.J., Karchmer, R.A., & Leu, D.D. (1999). The Miss Rumphius
effect: Envisionments for literacy and learning that transform the
Internet. The
Luke, C. (2000). New literacies in teacher education. The Journal of
Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 43, 424-435.
Children's books cited
Anno, M. (1980). Anno's medieval world.
Cannon, J. (1993). Stellaluna.
Cooney, B. (1981). Miss Rumphius.
Fox, M. (1988). Hattie and
the fox.
Goodall, J.S. (1986).
The story of a castle.
Howe, J. (1989). The celery stalks at
Hunt, J. (1989). Illuminations.
Lobel, A. (1970).
Frog and toad are friends.
Rylant, C. (1985).
The relatives came.
Seuss, D. (1960). Green eggs
and ham.
Williams, V. (1986). Cherries and cherry pits.
The editor welcomes reader comments on this
department. E-mail: djleu@
uconn.edu. Mail:
Donald J. Leu, Jr., Neag
School of Education,
06269-2033,
~~~~~~~~
By Rachel A. Karchmer
Karchmer teaches
reading education at
(Oliver Hall,
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Source: Reading Teacher, Sep2000, Vol. 54 Issue
1, p100, 5p, 2bw.
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