Teaching Library Media Skills

by

Carrel Muller Gueringer

Lower School Library Media Specialist
Academy Of The Sacred Heart
4521 St.Charles Av.
New Orleans LA 70115
cgueringer@ashrosary.org

With the book:
 

by
  Jean Cassels
Walker & Co. Publisher

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                     1.  Teaching activities in language arts:

                              Literary allusion is a reference to something already known in literature.

                              Literary allusions to characters; examples:

                                                Mother Goose;  The Big Bad Wolf

                              Literary allusions to poetic language and dialogue; examples:

                                               Art store bill…."One, two buckle my shoe.”

                                               Letters from The Three Bears... “too big, too small, just right”.

                              Literary allusion to stories from folk literature and poetry; examples:

                                               “The Frog Prince” and “Itsy Bitsy Spider”

                              Genre is a category of literary composition.

                              Folk tales: “The Three Bears”;   “The Three Billy Goats Gruff”

                              Fables:       “Tortoise and the Hare”;   “Ant and the Grasshopper”

                              Poetry :     1. Mother Goose rhymes… "Baa Baa Black Sheep”

                                                2. Narrative poetry…"The Owl and the Pussycat”

                                                3. Finger plays…”Itsy Bitsy Spider”

                                
                2.  Teaching activities in social studies / library:

                                A. Biographical allusions to authors and their works …

                                           Example:  The address on Ant’s business card, “1827 Spyri Lane,

                                           Hinzel, Switzerland ” is an allusion to Johanna Spyri the author

                                           of Heidi, who was born 1827 in Hinzel, a village outside of Zurich .

                                           Example: The address on Mother Goose’s letters, “1697 Rue

                                           Perrault, Paris, France”, is an allusion to the author Charles Perrault
                                          
                                          who first published Tales of Mother Goose in 1697 in France..

                               B.  Historical allusion … a reference to an event in history.

                                           Example:  The newspaper clippings for “The Tortoise and the Hare”

                                           echo the headlines from the 1948 presidential election between

                                           Thomas E. Dewey and Harry S. Truman.

                               C.  Geography … making connections between stories/characters

                                           and their country of residence in the book.

                                      1. Place of origin of the stories.

                                      2. Stamps on correspondence represent flags of countries.

                                
                3.  Teaching the use of an atlas and mapping skills:

                             A.  Atlas, its organization and use.

                                       1. Table of contents – contents and organization

                                       2. Index – finding maps – using coordinates to locate cities.

                                       3. Introduce different types of atlas.

                             B.  Mapping skills – transferring knowledge.

                                       1. Reading maps – using contiguous countries or bodies of water

                                       2. Placing marks at the designated cities – tracing a route.

                                       3. Following Dr. David’s trip from Philadelphia through Europe and

                                          back to Philadelphia , then on to the wedding in Tobago .  

                                 

               4.  Teaching the use of parts of a book:  

                           A.  Teach or review parts of a book [Table of Contents and Index]  

                           B.  Use Table of Contents/Indexes in Mother Goose books, poetry anthologies and

                                   fairy/folk tale collections to discover the literary allusions on the end papers.

                          C.  Adapt to the age level, for younger ones provide students a list of poems/rhymes
               
                                  and for older students allow them to discover the titles of the works

                                  alluded to on the end papers.

                          D. Require the identification of the book that contains the work visually alluded to

                                   on the end papers by writing the title and page number.

                          E.  Older students can identify books in bibliographic form.

                   5.  Teaching reference skills:

                         A.  Students use their library’s electronic catalog to search for books

                                   that contain the works alluded to in Jean Cassels’s book.

                        B.  Using the bookbag feature of the electronic catalog, the students

                                   make a list of the works that may contain the original poetry or stories.

                        C.  Using their bibliography, students locate these books on the shelves.

                                 1. Searching the different sections of the library.

                                 2. Practicing the use of the Dewey Decimal System.

                6.  Teaching creative writing, technology and art:  

                        A.  Letters – use templates on computer to write a letter for a favorite

                                           character pretending he/she has a life outside of their story.

                        B.   Business cards – use templates on computer to create business

                                           cards for a favorite character.

                       C.    Art – Create art that connects literary characters to today’s popular culture.

                       D.   Plays – Create a play/reader’s theater for famous characters.

                       E.   Interviews – Create an imaginary interview of a favorite character from literature.

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