Children's Literature Lesson Plans

Every elementary Language Arts teacher wants more than anything to help her student to biome life long readers. It is a proven fact that elementary students read more for pleasure than do middle school or high school students. One reason for this desire to read is that elementary school teachers encourage reading as much as possible. As students get to the higher grades, the emphasis goes from reading for pleasure to reading “classics.” No longer are students allowed to choose books for themselves as they were in elementary. In the defense of middle and high school teachers, they have curriculum guides that force them to expose students to the “classics.” This turn kids off from reading although some do still haunt their library to find books that they really like,

Elementary students don't simply read books for pleasure and never have to do an assignment on the book. Elementary school teachers work very hard to create children's literature lesson plans. They do not use the traditional and ever boring book report lesson plan. By the end of typical book report presentations, no one is still awake. The teacher has to fight nodding off. Therefore, she devises creative and fun projects for their students.

One children's literature lesson that has been used for years is both fun and creative. First the student chooses a book, reads the book, and then creates a grab bag to illustrate his book. He takes a plain white or brown bag and decorates it with illustrations from the book or illustrations he plans on his own. Then he fills the bag with objects that reflect important plot points in his book. The bag and its contents become his presentation. One of the basic rules for the presentation is that the students not give away the end of the book because the object of the presentation is to influence other students to read the book also.

Another fun presentation is to have the students dress up like a character in their book. They explain important plot points from their character's prospective. Again the object is to promote reading. Another important reason to do these presentations is that students really benefit from standing in front of a class to give a presentation. The more they present to the class, the easier it will become.

A great writing assignment after students have read a book, they write fan fiction. They might write another story about the characters in their book or write what happens to everyone after the book ends.

A very creative way to help students with reading and writing is to have students create their own children's book complete with illustrations and text. After the projects are finished, each child can share his book with other students. Posting the projects on the bulletin board will make the students very proud of their book.

Having a children's literature library in the classroom really promotes reading. Children who finish their work early can simply go to the bookshelf and choose a book to read. They should also be allowed to take the books home until they finish it. Sometimes the media center will check out books to the teacher o that she can have her own library.

Reading is an essential part of life. Most of the time readers score better on standardized tests, make better grades, and become life long learners which is every teacher's goal. What ever the children's literature lesson plans, the goal should always be to promote reading.



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