Ex-stinked

Long hiatus, yes, but more due to that overwhelmed feeling than the last post mood.

Funny how one dreads going back to work the evening of January 1, and yet--bingo!--I got the kids excited about something. I started a unit on alphabet books. Yes, alphabet books, inspired by a SLJ article from a while back and a great new collection of alphabet books. Thing is, I keep hearing from fourth grade teachers that their kids can't write a basic sentence, that our kids have low vocabularies, so I started developing a unit with ABC books which will result, hopefully, in vocabulary/parts of speech learning.

Anyway, to begin, I started on the second grade with the dozen or so animal-related alphabet book titles, showed them. They were interested. I mean, these are really appealing books--great illustrations, photos, text. Next I showed them "The Dinosaur Alphabet" as a way to lead into (Gone Wild: An Endangered Alphabet Book) and The Extinct Alphabet Book. So first, I taught the word extinct. Easy enough, since even second graders know that dinosaurs are extinct even if they don't know the word yet for it. Then I put the words "Dangerous Animals" on the board and asked them for a few examples. Then I put the words "Endangered Animals" up, elicited the word among them in common (danger). Then explained difference between the two--an endangered animal is on its way to being extinct. Best discussion I ever had among second and third graders--they were really into reasons for endangerment/extinction. Read the Extinct Alphabet Book, which has great text. Had lots of anecdotes for them in between: the demise of the Las Vegas Frog, the disappeared frogs from the local park, "How can the Jamaican Long-Tongued Bat be extinct if there's one left?" (trick question--the one in the book is dead and preserved in a jar, and besides if you have one, for most species, you can't reproduce.). "Why do you think elephants/the Irish Elk are endangered/extinct?" (tusks and antlers--another new vocab word).

Funniest comment from student in response to "What does the word "extinct" mean?

"Skunks do!"


Back to the subject of alphabet books: the thing is, they are perceived as being for young children (say, preschoolers) but as a slew of articles as well as common sense will tell you, they are not. Yes, Dr. Seuss' ABC is perfect for little ones (I had actually memorized it when Y was a baby we recited it together so many times--and at age six MONTHS when I said the line "Big M, Little M, many mumbling mice making music in the moonlight--mightly nice!" she would point to the stereo when I said the word music.

But seriously, as the scholars put it, alphabet books are more often than not simply vehicles for illustrators and not necessarily helpful in learning to read--for instance, a C word in an alphabet book is usually a hard C although in real life it's often soft. There are some interesting articles out there, many of them quite critical--such as this one.

But so many are great for older children--in expanding topic vocabulary (the P is for Passport or A Desert Alphabet series), expanding verb vocabulary (e.g. in Bad Kitty), teaching alliteration, and as a beginning reference book (Gone Wild: An Endangered Alphabet Book). Really, among a student population like mine, they are really ideal. And from what I've see so far, my students find them very appealing.

I wouldn't recommend the P is for Passport: A World Geography Alphabet/G is for Garden State: A New Jersey Alphabet/Z is for Zamboni: A Hockey Alphabet series for low readers, however--the reading level is very high. The text is very informative--it's a decent informal read--but because it's not laid out/categorized like a traditional encyclopedia it's hard to use as a reference book. Hey editors at Sleeping Bear Press, wake up and make an index for your books next time!