Using labels in the written work is recommended to clearly identify the parts of the task.

Note: Do not use the following types of children’s literature for this task: books written by celebrities; books based on comics, cartoons, toys, athletes, or celebrities; books with religious instruction; or activity-type books. Do not use multiple books written by the same author, even for different genres.

Requirements:

A. Introduce the historical context for quality children’s literature by doing the following:

1. Describe (suggested length of 2 paragraphs) contemporary trends in children’s literature and how they reflect current cultural, historical, or social issues.

Note: Contemporary trends should be based on children’s literature published within the last 15 years.

2. Explain (suggested length of 1 paragraph) how contemporary literature departs significantly from literature produced in one earlier historical time period (e.g., colonial period, early nineteenth century, mid-twentieth century).

a. Contrast one example of literature from an earlier historical time period with one example from contemporary literature to illustrate the difference between the two time periods.

3. Describe how children’s literature awards can help guide teachers’ literature choices by doing the following:

a. Identify three children’s literature awards.

b. Discuss (suggested length of 1 paragraph) how the three awards identified in part A3a can help teachers choose quality literature for use in a K–8 classroom.

B. Identify one children’s book that demonstrates high-quality features in literary and cultural content for each of the following groups:

1. picture books (grades pre-K–2/ages 3–7)

2. illustrated books for primary grades (grades K–2/ages 5–7)

3. illustrated books for intermediate/middle readers (grades 3–6/ages 8–11)

4. novels (grades 5–8/ages 10–13)

5. nonfiction books (grades K–8/ages 5–13)

Note: You must choose a different genre (e.g., poetry and verse, folklore, fantasy, science fiction, contemporary realistic fiction, historical fiction, biography/memoir, nonfiction) for each group.

C. Create an annotated bibliography of the five children’s books identified in part B that you plan to use in your K–8 classroom by doing the following:

1. Provide a full, APA-formatted reference citation for each book.

Note: Entries for illustrated books should include the name of the illustrator with the full reference according to APA Style guidelines.

2. Provide an annotation for each book in which you do the following:

a. Summarize each children’s book (suggested length of 2–3 sentences).

b. Explain how each children’s book demonstrates features of high quality or excellence in literary and cultural content (suggested length of 2–3 sentences).

c. Identify one specific teaching strategy or classroom activity that would help elementary students further understand each specific children’s book being discussed.

i. Explain how the strategy or activity from part C2c would help elementary students further understand each specific children’s book from part C (suggested length of 2–3 sentences).

ii. Explain how the teaching strategy or classroom activity from part C2c would help elementary students further understand their place in their community or the larger world as a result of reading each book (suggested length of 2–3 sentences).

D. When you use sources, include all in-text citations and references in APA format.