2nd Edition
Choosing and Using Fiction and Non-Fiction 3-11 A Comprehensive Guide for Teachers and Student Teachers
Choosing and Using Fiction and Non-Fiction 3-11 is a guide for primary teachers to the many kinds of texts children encounter, use and enjoy in their nursery and primary school years, providing an invaluable insight into the literature available. Addressing important issues and allowing for the voices of teachers, reviewers and children to be heard, it contains suggestions of best practice which offer a more creative approach to learning.
Including both fiction and non-fiction, with genres ranging from picturebooks to biographies, this fully updated second edition features:
- New coverage on recent books
- Discussion of new changes in concepts of literacy, particularly focused on technological advances in moving image media and virtual worlds
- The balance between print and screen-based texts on developing children’s visual and multimodal literacy
- Annotated booklists for each genre for different age groups
- New sections on equality, diversity and translation
Exploring fiction, non-fiction and poetry, Choosing and Using Fiction and Non-Fiction 3-11 is an invaluable resource, supporting teachers as they help children on their journey to becoming insightful and critical readers of non-fiction, and sensitive and reflective readers of fiction.
Acknowledgements
Preface
Author Biographies
Prologue
Part I
FICTION
1. Introduction to Part I
2. Children’s Literature
The Critical Study of Children’s Literature
Links Between Children’s Literature and Children’s Development as Readers
Reviewing Children’s Fiction
Summary
3. Fiction in the Classroom
Introduction
Resources
The Reading and Literacy Area
The School Library
The Organization of Teaching and Learning
Some Issues and Questions
Making Progress as a Reader of Fiction: Assessment and Record Keeping
Summary
4. Picturebooks
Introduction
Features of Picturebooks
Criteria for Choosing
Choosing Picturebooks for Different Age Groups
Wordless Picturebooks, Classic Picturebooks and Picturebooks by New Illustrators
Using Picturebooks
Assessing and Recording Progress
Summary
5. Traditional Tales
Introduction
Criteria for Choosing
Folk and Fairy Tales
Choosing Fairy Tales
Myths, Creation Stories and Legends
Parables and Fables
Using Traditional Tales
Assessing and Recording Progress
Summary
6. Genre fiction, ‘Popular Culture’ texts and formats and media
Introduction
Choosing Genre Fiction Texts at Different Ages and Stages
Formats and Media
Using Genre Fiction in the Classroom
Assessing and Recording Progress
The Cambridge/Homerton Research and Teaching Centre for Children’s Literature
Summary
7. Longer Stories and Children’s Novels
The Importance of Longer Stories and Novels
Genre Features of Longer Stories and Children’s Novels
Choosing Longer Stories and Children’s Novels
8. Animal Stories
Introduction
Animal Autobiographies
Talking Animals
Stories Based on Close Observation of Living Creatures
9. Realism
Introduction
Domestic or Family Stories
Books about Children Living in Different Cultures and Traditions
Adventure Stories
School Stories
10. Historical Fiction
Introduction
Historical Novels
Time-slips
War Stories
11. Fantasy Stories and Novels
Introduction
Choosing Fantasy Stories and Novels Around Age Seven or Eight
Choosing Fantasy Books about Age Nine and Above
Summary of Chapters 7 to 12 on Choosing Longer Stories and Children’s Novels
12. Reading in a Wider World
Introduction
Discovering Yourself and Others Through Books
Ethics and Cultural Differences
Learning to Emphasise
Human Rights
Books in Translation
13. Using Longer Stories and Novels
Introduction
Reading Aloud
Talk as a Way of Expressing and Developing Response
Improvisation, Drama and Moving Image Texts
Art and Craft
Writing Alongside and After Reading Longer Stories and Children’s Novels
Assessing and Recording Progress
Summary
14. Playscripts
Introduction
Features of Playscripts
Choosing Playscripts
Using Playscripts
Children Writing Their Own Playscripts
Using Shakespeare’s Plays
Using Film Versions of Children’s Stories and Novels
Writing Scripts for Films
Assessing and Recording Progress
Summary
15. Poetry
Why is Poetry Important?
The Oral Tradition
Types of Poetry: The Organization of the Poetry Chapters
Features of Poetry and Teachers’ Knowledge
Choosing Poetry for English Lessons
Choosing Poetry Across the Curriculum
Illustrations in Poetry Books
Creating a Poetry Friendly Classroom
How do We Best Help Extend Children’s Response to and Enjoyment of Poetry?
Performance and Presentation
Inspiring Young Poetry Writers
Assessing and Recording Progress
16. Poems Playing with Language
Introduction
Features of Poems Playing with Language
Criteria for Choosing Nursery Rhymes and Action Rhymes, Nonsense Verses and Limericks, Riddles and Proverbs, and Rhyming Stories
Using Poems Playing with Language
Summary
17. Poems with Distinctive Forms, Rhythms and/or Rhyming Patterns
Introduction
Features of Poems with Distinctive Patterns and Forms
Choosing Patterned Poems for Different Age Groups
Using Poems with Distinctive Forms
Summary
18. Story or Narrative Poems, Classic Poems and Poems from Different Cultures and Traditions
Introduction
Features of Story or Narrative Poems and Ballads
Choosing Story Poems
Using Story Poems
Features of Classic Poems
Choosing Classis Poems
Using Classic Poems
Choosing Poems from All Cultures and Traditions
Using Poems from all Cultures and Traditions
Summary
19. Poems with Freer, Less Traditional Forms and Patterns
Introduction
Features of Poems with Freer Forms and Patterns
Choosing Poems with Freer Forms and Patterns
What a Poem’s Not
Using Poems with Freer Forms and Patterns
Summary
20. Introduction to Part II
21. Children’s Non-Fiction Literature in the Twenty-First Century
Introduction
Print Books and Resources
Electronic Resources
Moving Image Media: DVD, Film and Television
3D Virtual Worlds
22. Models of Non-Fiction Kinds of Learning and Some Guiding Principles
Introduction
Models of Non-Fiction Kinds of Learning
Some Guiding Principles
Summary
23. Non-Fiction and Classroom organization, gender issues and assessment
Introduction
Classroom Organization and Non-Fiction
Non-Fiction in Lessons Across the Curriculum
Gender and Non-Fiction Reading (And Writing)
Assessing and Recording Progress
Summary
24. Classifying Non-Fiction Text Types and Thoughts Towards a Critical Approach
Introduction
Classifying Non-Fiction
Evaluating Non-Fiction: Towards Critical Attention and the Increasing Status of Children’s Non-Fiction
Specialist Reviewers and Children as Reviewers
Summary
25. Introducing Chronological Text Types
26. Young Researchers Read and Write Chronological Ordered Accounts
Introduction
Features of Non-Fiction Recounts
Some Criteria for Choosing
Choosing Recounts for Different Age Groups
Using Recount Texts
Making Progress
Summary
27. Instruction Texts
Introduction
Features of Instruction Texts
Some Criteria for Choosing
Where do Children Find Instruction Texts
Choosing Instruction Texts for Different Age Groups
Using Instruction Texts
Summary
28. Introducing Non-Narrative Non-Fiction Texts
29. Report Texts
Introduction
Features of Report Texts
Some Criteria for Choosing
Choosing Report Texts for Different Age Groups
Summary
30. Explanation Texts
Introduction
Features of Explanation Texts
Choosing Explanation Texts for Different Age Groups
Summary
31. Using Report and Explanation Texts
Introduction
Ways of Enthusing Young Researchers
Some Issues
Assessing and Recording Progress
Evaluation of Resources
Summary
32. Discussion and Persuasion Texts
Introduction
Features of Discussion and Persuasion Texts
Choosing Texts which Include or Promote Argument for Different Ages
Fiction Can Throw up Exciting Themes for Argument
Using Texts to Think About Issues and to Argue a Case
Making Progress
Assessing and Recording Progress
Summary
33. Reference Texts
Introduction Features of Reference Texts
Some Criteria for Choosing
Dictionaries
Thesauri
Activities to Encourage and Support the Use of Dictionaries and Thesauri
Atlases and Map Books
Encyclopaedias
Study Guides
The Importance of ‘Wondering’
Non-Book Print
Summary
34. Using the School and Classroom Libraries
Introduction
Using the Classroom and School Library
Study and Research Skills
Summary
35. Conclusion to Part II
Bibliography
Useful Information and Websites
Biography
Margaret Mallett was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1941. She died in 2017, writing, reviewing and supporting the journal English 4-11 to the end. She was a Fellow of the English Association. After a number of years teaching in primary schools she studied at the London University Institute of Education and at Sussex University. She then spent two years on a SSRC research project, English in the Middle Years of Schooling, writing its published report. Thereafter she was a member of the Goldsmith’s College Education Department for nearly thirty years. There her first concern was always for the students in her care but where she also spent much time thinking and writing about the importance of non-fiction learning in the early and primary years. In retirement she wrote two books which her former students had suggested would have helped them: this book and the Primary English Encyclopedia, now in its fifth edition.
Prue Goodwin is a freelance lecturer in literacy and children’s books. She has helped in the editing of this second edition of Choosing and Using Fiction and Non-Fiction 3-11.
David Mallet was Margaret’s husband for more than fifty years qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1968 and, between working for two different banks, spent thirteen years at the Bank of England. His only published work, unsurprisingly, concerned bank accounting, auditing and regulation. However, much more pleasurably, he also read every word Margaret published. His role was to confirm inter alia, as a beginner in the field, that ‘meaning’ was crisply conveyed, there was no ambiguity and assertions were evidence-based.
Praise for the previous edition:
Winner of the United Kingdom Literacy Association's Author Award 2011 for its contribution to extending children's literacy.
'This book is about making readers. A compact summary of its contents would not do it justice. It is the account of a life's work and it deserves thanks and
readers. *****'. - Margaret Meek, Books for Keeps on-line, Number 185.'This book is a cornucopia of varied pleasures, offering something for all tastes, presented with an awareness of the complexities of the field and communicated with commitment, enthusiasm and deep knowledge'. -
Eve Bearne, English 4-11, the primary school journal of The English Association, Number 42.
