Using the Internet and Children's Literature to Support Interdisciplinary Instruction

Rachel A. Karchmer

Recently, a third-grade teacher told me that she was interested in using children's literature to enhance her interdisciplinary curriculum, but was not sure where to begin. Becky had always used works of literature in reading and language arts and now she wanted to integrate literature into math, science, and social studies instruction. Like many teachers, she understood the importance of connecting lessons so that her students would draw upon natural relationships between content areas. In addition, she felt that using literature to support content area instruction would help her students understand how the material related to the world around them. As Huck, Hepler, and Hickman (1997) explained,

As children search for meaning in books, they naturally link what they are reading to their own lives.... We want to encourage children to discover personal meaning in books in order to better understand their lives and to extend their perceptions of other lives. (p. 623)

My interest in technology prompted me to suggest to Becky that the Internet was the perfect vehicle for her. Among other things, the World Wide Web encompasses vast resources related to children's literature, including complete copies of texts. Through networked connections, educators can tap into these accessible materials and adapt them to fit their students' needs.

The purpose of this month's column is to describe several types of resources on the Internet for children's literature that may be used to support interdisciplinary instruction: central sites, project sites, author Web sites, lesson plans, and electronic mailing lists. I hope this information will support others as they seek to integrate the Internet and children's literature with classroom instruction.

Central Sites

Perhaps the easiest way to become familiar with Internet resources related to children's books is to take advantage of the many central sites that are available for children's literature. These sites compile information on many different areas of literature, such as authors, illustrators, books, and teacher resources. Moreover, they organize this information within directories to make location easy. Central sites are good places to start because it is often quicker to find something at a good central site than to use a search engine.

The Children's Literature Web Guide (www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/index.html), created by David K. Brown, is an easy-to-navigate central site that incorporates links to important resources such as award-winning books, bestseller lists, authors on the Web, book recommendations, journal reviews, and full texts of stories posted on the Web. For example, click on the recommended book list and you will see links to many different Web sites containing recommended works of children's literature. Each site was created by a different organization, such as the New York Public Library, and several include recommendations from well-known authors like Jerry Pinkney and Jon Scieszka. Other good central sites include the state of Indiana's Access Indiana Teaching & Learning Center (AITLC) Guide to Children's Literature (tlc.ai.org/childlit.htm#CAI) and the Chesterfield County Public Library's Overbooked (Book Links): Children's Literature For All Ages (www.overbooked.org/allchild.html). Each provides Internet users with a wealth of links to a variety of resources about children's literature.

Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Site (www.carolhurst.com) is a different type of central Internet site. In addition to providing links to useful resources, this site posts original book reviews, author studies, and lesson plans by Carol Hurst, an expert in the area of children's literature. Hurst and her colleagues have also constructed lists of children's literature related to school curricula including math, science, and social studies topics. For example, according to Hurst, Mem Fox's Hattie and the Fox (1988) or Cynthia Rylant's The Relatives Came (1986) can support math lessons on data gathering. James Howe's The Celery Stalks at Midnight (1989), Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham (1960), and Vera Williams's Cherries and Cherry Pits (1986) can reinforce a unit on the four basic food groups. And Mitsumasa Anno's Anno's Medieval World (1980), John S. Goodall's The Story of a Castle (1986), and Jonathan Hunt's Illuminations (1989) can nicely introduce the Middle Ages. For your convenience, much of this information can be found in a free quarterly newsletter sent to you via e-mail after you complete a simple subscription form at the Web site.

Central sites like those mentioned provide enough support for the new Internet user and plenty of possibilities for those comfortable sifting through information on the World Wide Web. They are helpful places to begin your search for sites related to children's stories.

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Teacher-Created Children's Literature Projects

The Internet has changed the way we communicate with one another. This is especially true for educators. Until recently, most staff development took place in school buildings, during or immediately after school hours. Today, teachers share instructional ideas, strategies, and questions over the Internet 24 hours a day. This phenomenon is what Leu, Karchmer, and Leu (1999; online document) have called “The Miss Rumphius Effect.” Miss Rumphius, the main character of Barbara Cooney's (1981) children's book of the same name, made the world a better place by planting lupine flowers wherever she went. Likewise, teachers all over the world have constructed Web pages to showcase the ideas and practices being implemented in their classrooms. Furthermore, many of these teachers include projects that specifically integrate children's literature with the curriculum and invite you to join.

For example, Susan Silverman, who is a second-grade teacher, created Stellaluna's Friends (www.kids-learn.org/stellaluna/project.htm), named after Janell Cannon's book Stellaluna (1993). The project was posted on Silverman's Web page and incorporated reading, language arts, technology, and science standards of learning. After registering at the Web site, participating classes read Stellaluna (1993) and were expected to research a bat indigenous to their environment. Students wrote reports, poems, and stories and created illustrations synthesizing the information they found. Afterwards, these materials were sent to Silverman who posted the work on the project Web page. Students could then see their own work published on the World Wide Web, as well as learn from their peers in other locations.

Another example of an Internet project using children's literature is CALDECOTT CLUES (www.sags.k12.il.us/Library/Caldecott_Clues.htm), organized by librarian Patricia Farman. The purpose of this project is to motivate students to read Caldecott medal winners, books recognized for their exceptional illustrations. Registered classes are expected to read at least three award-winning books and construct clues about the stories for other classes to figure out via e-mail. The clues are posted each week at the Web site, and the winning class is recognized. CALDECOTT CLUES reinforces several language and technology skills and also provides motivation for students to read.

There are hundreds of projects like these on the Internet. To find them, take advantage of one of the following central locations: Global School House Internet Project Registry or Classroom Connect's Teacher Contact Database (www.connectedteacher.com/teacherContact/search.asp). And, if you decide to develop your own project, you can post it there, too.

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Author Web Sites

There are three types of author Web sites posted on the Internet, including those developed by authors, publishers, and admirers of authors' work. Each has their purpose and focus. First, sites developed by authors provide authentic insight to their lives that is unavailable through other venues like printed biographies. For example, Patricia Polacco's site (www.patriciapolacco.com) takes the viewer through pictures of her hometown, her stimuli for writing, and her current projects, all in Polacco's own words. Jan Brett (www.janbrett.com) incorporates many of the same components as Polacco, and she adds an abundance of resources for teachers to download. My favorites include the beautiful bookmarks that can be printed out and shared with students and the alphabet cards with corresponding illustrations. There is also an interactive aspect to both these sites. Viewers can send e-mail messages to the authors asking questions about their lives and their work. Both Polacco and Brett reply to the messages in a timely manner, making this a truly invaluable experience, especially for elementary teachers who choose to incorporate author studies into their curriculum.

A second type of author site is created and maintained by book publishers. Scholastic.com is a good example of this, posting Web pages with information about authors such as Harry Potter's creator J.K. Rowling (www.scholastic.com/harrypotter/index.htm) and Goosebumps series originator R.L. Stine (www.scholastic.com/goosebumps/indexa.htm). Although these sites highlight authors by posting their answers to frequently asked questions or hosting online live interviews, they also include lesson plans and links related to the publications.

Admirers of authors' work create the third type of author site. These can be teachers, parents, administrators, or people outside the field of education who are interested in highlighting an author's collection. For example, an Internet search for the author Tomie DePaola found over 70 sites mentioning his name. Several, such as Pinedale Elementary School's page [page no longer active] and graduate student Kara Kuebler's site (magic.usi.edu/Spring98/214lunch/s5/main.html) were constructed as dedications to DePaola's life and books. They incorporated short biographies, as well as creative ideas for using his stories in the classroom.

However, it is important to remember that because Web site construction is fairly easy and cheap, anyone can make a homepage. Consequently, it becomes even more important for us to question and evaluate the validity of information posted. Many school districts currently have guidelines for teacher and student Internet use, but many still leave the decision of site appropriateness to teachers. Previewing and prior evaluation of sites by the teacher can help, but we must not forget to also teach our students to critically evaluate information found on the Web. This can be done by developing evaluation criteria for them to look for when viewing sites. Such criteria can include the name of the organization that sponsors a site, the e-mail address for a contact person, links showing the credentials of the Web Master, citations for sources, links to other reputable sites, and awards and endorsements from independent organizations.

In addition, many sites, including those constructed by authors, are used as advertisements to sell books, pictures, or videos. In turn, it becomes crucial to critically evaluate online materials in much the same way that we evaluate popular media such as magazines, television, and billboards (Luke, 2000). In order to do that, we must ask questions like, What is the purpose of the site? How is it biased? Why should I believe its content? Taking a deeper look at the motives behind Web page construction will help teachers and students make more-informed decisions about the material they collect over the Internet.

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Internet-Posted Lesson Plans

For many of us, beginning a journey on the Internet is a challenge. We must learn the basic hardware and software components while realizing our students know much more about computers than we do. One of my best suggestions for alleviating the anxieties that might emerge is to take full advantage of lessons posted on the Internet. There are thousands of sites dedicated to sharing K-12 instructional practices covering almost every topic imaginable. The key is finding their location.

Begin by typing “children's literature” into your search engine (e.g., Excite, HotBot, Netscape, or Lycos). You will most likely receive an abundance of sites. To narrow the search, add a particular topic, such as “children's literature lesson plans and oceans.” This should eliminate those sites unrelated to your theme. Now you can skim the descriptions and only open those sites of interest.

Following this procedure, using the search engine HotBot, I found several interesting registries of lesson plans related to oceans. For instance, the AskEric database (ericir.syr.edu/Virtual/Lessons/Lang_arts/index.html) has a collection of lesson plans submitted by classroom teachers from the United States. Clicking on the READING icon leads you to lists of lessons incorporating some of the best children's literature. For the novice Internet user, AskEric is easy to navigate in that the title of the lesson is given along with the appropriate grade level. This makes searching for appropriate material much easier.

The Internet School Library Media Center site (falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/tradless.htm) is similar to AskEric as it provides listings of lesson plans on various themes. However, rather than including only original sets of materials, this site links you to lesson plans posted on other registries like AskEric, Gateway.com, and EduPlace. This is a great location for choosing lessons related to all types of literature such as tall tales, nursery rhymes, myths, and fables.

For those of you looking specifically for lesson plans that incorporate children's literature and Internet activities, SCORE Cyberguides (www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/cyberguide.html) is a good resource. Like many states, California's Department of Education has created standards of learning for each grade level. Cyberguides combines the language arts requirements with children's literature and numerous Internet activities. For example, after reading Arnold Lobel's Frog and Toad Are Friends (1970), students view several Web sites related to amphibians (URLs provided by Cyberguides). These sites include pictures, sounds, and descriptions of various frogs and toads that nicely complement the characters in the story. After a class discussion, teachers pair students with peers in participating classes for an e-mail exchange about the book, friendships, and other topics of interest. This provides an authentic opportunity for students to practice letter writing just as Frog did when he wrote to his best friend Toad.

Lesson plans on the Internet save time and suggest new ways of teaching with children's literature. Nevertheless, keep in mind that you must still adapt lessons to fit your particular students' needs.

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Electronic Mailing Lists

As mentioned earlier, communication amongst educators has drastically changed since access to Internet connections has increased. When researching K-12 teachers' reports of their Internet use, I found that teachers appreciated the ability to correspond with local and distant colleagues via e-mail for several reasons (Karchmer, 1999). First, like many of us, they had Internet capabilities at home. This allowed for communication to take place outside of the hectic school day. Second, the teachers valued how easily they could communicate with people outside of their immediate location. Although they enjoyed sharing ideas with the teachers in their schools, they welcomed the opportunity to learn from colleagues who shared different philosophies toward education (Karchmer, 1999).

Electronic mailing lists, commonly referred to as listservs, provide environments for people with similar interests to discuss important topics. Currently, there are hundreds of education-related lists. After subscribing, each message you send is automatically distributed to every subscriber on the list. Therefore, your question or statement could reach several hundred people, depending upon the number of subscribers.

There are several mailing lists on the Internet devoted to conversations about children's literature. The Children's Literature Forum (tile.net/lists/childlitl.html) is devoted to conversations about literature including authors, illustrators, award-winners, and new publications. Classroom Connect (www.connectedteacher.com/listServ/subscribe.asp), a teacher-friendly site full of lesson plans and teacher resources, has a variety of mailing lists to choose from. RTEACHER (www.reading.org/publications/rt/rt_listserv.html), a mailing list for those interested in traditional and electronic literacies, is a supportive environment for preservice and practicing teachers, researchers, administrators, and parents.

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Taking Advantage of the Internet

I meet many teachers like my friend Becky who want to try new things in their classrooms, but aren't sure how to do it. I believe the enormous drive to increase Internet access in the K-12 classroom will help provide teachers with the tools to make those innovations possible. As outlined in this column, there are abundant resources readily available to educators. The key is knowing how to locate them. Through listservs, Web pages, or traditional conversations we can share our visions (Leu, Karchmer, & Leu, 1999) for using new technologies with our colleagues. With this knowledge, teachers everywhere can share the literacies of the future with their students.

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References

Huck, C., Hepler, S., & Hickman, J. (1997). Children's literature in the elementary schools. New York: McGraw Hill.
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Karchmer, R.A. (1999). Teachers on a journey: Examining the changes K-12 educators report as they use the Internet to support teaching and literacy learning. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Syracuse University, New York.
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Leu, D.J., Karchmer, R.A., & Leu, D.D. (1999). The Miss Rumphius effect: Envisionments for literacy and learning that transform the Internet. The Reading Teacher, 52, 636-642. Available: www.readingonline.org/electronic/elec_index.asp?HREF=/electronic/RT/rumphius.html
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Luke, C. (2000). New literacies in teacher education. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 43, 424-435.
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Children's Books Cited

Anno, M. (1980). Anno's medieval world. New York: Philomel.

Cannon, J. (1993). Stellaluna. New York: Harcourt Brace.

Cooney, B. (1981). Miss Rumphius. New York: Viking.

Fox, M. (1988). Hattie and the fox. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Goodall, J.S. (1986). The story of a castle. New York: McElderry.

Howe, J. (1989). The celery stalks at midnight. New York: Avon.

Hunt, J. (1989). Illuminations. New York: Macmillan.

Lobel, A. (1970). Frog and toad are friends. New York: Harper Trophy.

Rylant, C. (1985). The relatives came. New York: Aladdin Paperbacks.

Seuss, D. (1960). Green eggs and ham. New York: Random House.

Williams, V. (1986). Cherries and cherry pits. New York: Greenwillow.

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About the Author

Karchmer teaches reading education at Virginia Commonwealth University (Oliver Hall, 1015 W. Main Street, Richmond, VA 23284, USA). E-mail: rkarchmer@hotmail.com.

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For an index of Exploring Literacy on the Internet columns available at this site, click here. To print this column, point and click anywhere on the main text; then use your browser's print command.

Citation: Karchmer, R.A. (2000, September). Using the Internet and children's literature to support interdisciplinary instruction [Exploring Literacy on the Internet department]. The Reading Teacher, 54(1). Available: http://www.readingonline.org/electronic/elec_index.asp?HREF=/electronic/RT/9-00_Column.html

Reading Online, www.readingonline.org
Published September 2000 in The Reading Teacher
Posted simultaneously in Reading Online
© 2000 International Reading Association, Inc.   ISSN 1096-1232