These "bookshelves" have been written to help teach specific literacy content in engaging, relevant, and meaningful
ways using high-quality children’s literature as a starting point for discussion and instruction. Each of the bookshelves
is built around a specific topic, and the developmental needs of K–2 students as well as the content-area standards,
benchmarks, and grade-level indicators were considered when selecting the topics.
Anatomy of a Bookshelf
Each bookshelf includes a brief introduction, book reviews, literacy links, and a list of related ORC resources.
Introduction. The introduction to each piece serves as an overview of the important literacy concepts being
addressed and helps teachers think about the purpose and utility of those concepts. K–2 grade-level indicators have been integrated
into the descriptions of what is being learned in relationship to the concept or topic.
Book Reviews. Here you’ll find a brief description of several high-quality children’s literature books that can
be shared with students as a way of creating a common experience and generating background knowledge, discussion, and interest in
specific literacy topics that must be taught. As you will see, many of the books are found in more than one bookshelf because great
books should be shared more than once and can be used for many different purposes. In addition, we all know that read-alouds are a very
an important part of community building and literacy and content-area learning in any classroom, and the books chosen are a pleasure to
read aloud.
Literacy Links. The literacy links give detailed suggestions about how to utilize the books in the bookshelves to
teach specific literacy content. All the activities involve the students in collaboration as they work to construct knowledge as a
community.
Careful attention has been given to content standards, benchmarks, and K–2 grade-level indicators when writing the
literacy links. The literacy links are written to demonstrate a means of scaffolding student learning, beginning with a high level
of student support and gradually releasing responsibility to the students so that they use their learning in independent reading and
writing. You can make modifications to meet the specific needs and interests of the diverse students in your learning community.
Related ORC Resources. This section provides brief descriptions of resources related to the content being
addressed and will take you to the full reviews on the ORC website of lesson plans and articles that you can use to enhance student
learning.
The Joy of Reading
Though the books are intended to promote discussion and instruction related to academic content standards, it’s also essential not
to let that get in the way of student’s enjoying the books. There are so many things to keep in mind when we teach, it’s sometimes
easy to forget that to create lifelong readers, we must allow students to enjoy, experience, and respond to good books!