Education Commons^™

Critical Literacy: Engaging First Graders In An Exploration Of Race Through Children’S Literature, Kelly Deits Cutler

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications and Presentations

As an educator, I often hear teachers suggest that young children are not “ready” to tackle controversial topics such as race, racism, and racial identity. Reasons are oftentimes stated, such as “that’s not developmentally appropriate” or “they’re too young to understand that concept.” In direct contrast, the last sixty years of educational research indicates that children do understand the concept of race at a very early age (Clark, 1988; Derman-Sparks & Ramsey, 2011; Goodman 1952; Katz, 2013; Proshansky, 1966). Yet often adults, including parents and educators, do not recognize children’s ability to understand race. Most teachers--particularly White teachers--have difficulty talking …

Puzzled - A Children's Book, Ann Conroy

Honors Projects

Research for this project was conducted through online journals accessed via EBSCOhost. The findings contributed background information about Autism, which provided as the guide for writing the script of the children’s book Puzzled. The research also explains the importance of literature for young children.

Cross-Curricular Teaching And Children's Literature: Dixie And Burt Hear A "Quack!", Brittany Skiba

Honors Projects

Motivated by research in the field and subject of elementary education, children’s literature, and cross-curricular teaching with the use of children’s literature, this project involved creating a children’s book with interrelated lesson plans in order to encourage teachers to use lessons that are more meaningful, to enhance learning experiences, and also to provide a quick-and-ready resource tool for teachers to use when preparing lessons. I conducted my research on elements that comprise a good children’s book, creating effective lesson plans, and the benefits of cross-curricular learning. According to an article, “Integrated Learning: Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts,” by …

Accessibility Of Diverse Literature For Children In Libraries: A Literature Review, Renee I. Ting

School of Information Student Research Journal

This literature review addresses the issues surrounding accessibility of culturally diverse children’s literature in libraries, including the importance of making diverse literature accessible, the availability of such titles on the market, library collection development of diverse books, and selection criteria among children. These issues, in sum, determine how many books are available to children, how they are made available, and if children will even choose to read them. The review shows that the data is unclear on many points regarding the benefits of diverse literature, though intuitive claims of the positive influence of such titles are not discounted. It also …

Children's Literature As A Tool To Teach Mathematics, Kara Weinstein

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

Common Core State Standards have changed the way that we teach math concepts in elementary schools. These new educational standards promote teaching math for understanding instead of teaching the standard algorithms that have been traditionally taught. Children's literature is an alternative teaching method. The aim of this project is to examine children's literature with the purpose of teaching mathematic concepts. This project models the components of quality children's literature to create an original book that teaches students grades 3-5 about fractions. 2

An Examination Of Relational Bullying In Award Winning Newbery Books, 1996-2016, Kaysey N. Wann

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Relational bullying, although covert in nature and difficult for adults to notice and identify, is becoming increasingly prevalent among young children and teens. The success of bibliotherapy as preventative and intervention practices for bullying shows that portrayals of relational bullying in quality children’s literature would be effective in reducing and preventing it. However, relational bullying is rarely portrayed in children’s literature. My goal was to find quality children’s realistic fiction literature that portrays relational bullying in Newbery award-winning books, and to bring them to the attention of teachers.

After creating a table to determine what types of bullying, if any, …