REALBOOK NEWS
for adults helping
children
learn English as
a foreign language
or additional
language
May and November
distributed free download Issues from www.realbooks.co.uk
From the Editor - Opal Dunn
REALBOOK NEWS introduces books that you can
use from your first or first lessons with beginners of Nursery or Primary
level. Apart from giving a rough grading of the language and reading level,
REALBOOK NEWS now includes an additional grading indicating if the books are
suitable for Nursery (N) or Primary (P) Level or can be used with either (N/P).
In the beginning stages of learning it is important to check that a
REALpictureBOOK is right for the children you teach as success and interest
motive. Although all the book selection is published in Britain some of the
books originated elsewhere, including Australia, Japan and the US. Issue 13
also includes many books that use different type styles in interesting and
challenging ways for children. The Feature Article discusses
Decoding Type Styles for Meaningful Reading.
In November 2002 REALBOOK NEWS was nominated for a British Council Education UK ELT Innovation Award but was not successful. A pity as REALBOOK NEWS, now in the 6th year of publishing, needs some outside recognition if it is to obtain funding to develop the Newsletter and improve the Website. A big thank you to those of you who wrote in support.
REALpictureBOOKs continue to find a place in many more classrooms, which is exciting for children as research shows that a REALBOOK can change a lesson into a deeper learning experience for a child!
Watch out for these 2 new books on how to
use REALBOOKS with children in the classroom.
·
Tell it again! The New Story
Telling Handbook by Gail Ellis and Jean
Brewster
published by Pearson Education ISBN 0-582-44774-7 for children in the 8-11 age-group.
·
JET: Using Realbooks in the ELT
Classroom by Sandie Mourao
published by Mary Glasgow/Scholastic ISBN 1900702193 for children from 3 to 12 years.
JET is advertising special offers of packs, which include 3 or 9 of the REALBOOKs introduced by Sandie Mourao. For details visit the Teacher’s Resource Centre on website www.link2english.com
At the same time those of you interested in using REALBOOKS should also look at
·
Using Picture Books – Ideas for working with 12 picture books by
Hilary White
published by Step Forward Publishing ISBN 1-902438-44-2 £9.95. Although not written for EFL situations, this book gives a good over-view of the role of REALpictureBOOKs in a child’s holistic development. It also introduces 12 popular picture books and suggests related activities including some five-minute activities.
Anna
Sadowska in
Poland continues her work ‘REAL-BOOKS- REAL VALUES and her project on travelling books in which she links up with teachers
in Lativia (Gunta Krigere) and Estonia (Sirje Lepik) and of course
Poland. These teachers have exchanged books and added their own activities,
feed back and cultural information. One of the books used is Susan Laughs (Issue 9). Anna also works with
children preparing for Cambridge Young Learners English Tests and writes, ‘I have managed to prove that
the story based approach is what really works better than just a course book in
preparing kids for these exams.’ For more information email: ania.sadowska@interia.pl
I have recently received a Report on the
successful Books on Wheels Conference held at Valencia University last June.
Organised by Marisa Gonzalez, the creator of the Books on Wheels Project the Conference, with a Plenary Session and
Workshop by Wendy Superfine, was well attended. This project, which
incorporates REALBOOKS, aims to encourage children to enjoy reading and writing
through making their own books. Recently Marisa lectured at the Barcelona APAC Convention where she explained how to make books with
children and introduced the Books
on Wheels Project and Club that teachers can join. Further information from www.books-on-wheels.net
Children are used to change; most find adapting easier than many older adults! Children spend their early years adapting to newness – new circumstances, new people and new voices. Most seem to take adapting in their stride learning to accept ambiguity as much of what they see and hear may not be clear to them until they have taken part in related experiences. This leaves them open-minded, ready to accept newness with few preconceptions and at the same time be willing to take some of the risks that go with uncertainty.
Children accept the divergence in reading different type styles as a challenge. For native speaker children the initial getting-used to the newness may be difficult, but the challenge is even greater for those who write with non-roman alphabets like Chinese, Japanese, Urdu and Arabic or where eye movements differ as children read from right to left across the page or top to bottom.
The Teacher as a Mediator
The teacher’s role is that of mediator between the child and the REALBOOK, not openly teaching but looking at text and type styles together and talking about them. Children, especially boys, like making their own codes and un-scrabbling other people’s secret languages. This enthusiasm can be re-treaded as children are using some of the same strategies to do this as this when decoding a page of unconventional text in a REALpictureBOOK.
Developing strategies for decoding for meaning
Teachers can help children read more easily and quickly by helping them transfer some of their decoding strategies from their home-language, even if they are only emergent readers. To do this children need the following information in order to talk about the type styles.
Information on the shapes of the standard forms of the alphabet – small and capital letters - as this will be the reference for comparison necessary for decoding. Without a solid knowledge of the standard alphabet shapes decoding takes longer and could be frustrating and so de-motivating.
The names of the letters of the alphabet. Without knowing the names of the letters it is difficult to talk about words and their letter content. The sounds of the letters have a different role and there are some complications - like the two sounds for the letter c. Many parents do not know the letter sounds correctly and often as a result confuse their children. However most adults know the names of the letters, and many can even sing the alphabet song, and can therefore give some backup at home.
Facilitating decoding for
meaning
Every experience helps a child build up his own visual bank of type styles, which form a resource to draw on when decoding. Talk about:
Way of decoding a spread
Any one who is used to reading Picture books with a young child will have noticed that when a child turns a page to a new spread he nearly always looks at the picture first following the same routine of Skim, Scan and Review.
Skim The child gets a general impression looking at the picture first and then the text. (The child is used to getting more information from pictures. Compare this with the adult who generally reads the text first and second glances at the picture regarding it as decorative but not necessary.)
Scan The child looks at the picture scrutinising detail. The child moves from place to place in the picture moving on only when he has obtained sufficient information for his present needs.
Review The child, satisfied that he has gleaned sufficient information, returns to review the whole picture incorporating the connections made between the details and his own experiences.
The child then appears to pass through the same routine in looking at the text, possibly reading sentence by sentence or blocks of text. Where different type styles are used little is known about how he decodes. Does he read the speech bubbles first? Does a general pattern emerge?
Browse The child needs opportunities to
return again and again to the visual experience (Browsing Issue 11) in order to make new connections
and obtain deeper meaning. Picture and text provide multi-layered experiences,
which alter each time the child returns to the book as the child is older, more
mature and experienced. He possibly has added confidence too, as his newly
acquired daily-life experiences make additional connections to the decoding
experience so deepening meaning. What we see is not simply given but is
the product of past experience and future expectations.’ Gombrich.
REALpictureBOOKs provide a drive to communicate through exciting experiences in different forms of visual literacy. Apart from learning English through REALBOOKs, we can help children become confident with newness of both illustration and type styles so that they know how to decode for meaning. In doing so we are helping them develop valuable life-long skills for use in both English and home-language in this media led world where visual literacy is becoming more influential each year.
C Opal Dunn
Children reading Pictures by Evelyn Arizpe and Morag Styles RoutledgeFalmer ISBN 0-415-27577-6
10 BOOKS for Nursery and Primary (front cover)
Everybody
Poos Author-Illustrator Taro Gomi N/P Level
1a
Frances
Lincoln Publishing Hardback
ISBN 0-7112-2046-8 £9.99
www.Franceslincoln.com
Following the success of The story of the Little
Mole who knew it was None of his Business (Issue 11) this simpler book, discussing the different sizes,
shapes, colours and even different smells of a wide selection of animals is
already a great success in the UK, especially with boys who seem to enjoy
discussing poos more than girls. In this book poo is used both as
a noun and a verb.
Fish poo. So do birds. And bugs
too.
A one-hump camel makes a one-hump
poo. And a two-hump camel makes a two-hump poo. Only joking!
Where and how poos are done is also included.
Some children poo on the potty,
others poo in their nappies. The crocodile does it in the water. The boy wipes
himself with paper and flushes it away.All living things eat, so …… everybody
poos
The colourful illustrations add humour to the
already amusing text.
Written and illustrated by a Japanese, Everybody Poos was originally published in
Japanese in 1977. Later published in translation in the US in 1993, it became
‘a best seller’. If you feel parents will not be shocked by your approach to
English, enjoy this together and help crush taboos about natural functions -
after all all living things eat, so … everybody poos.
The Wheels on the Bus Illustrator Paulo Zelinsky N/P Level
1a
This sparkly presentation of the Traditional Song with flaps and arrows that can be moved to bring the bus ride alive makes it attractive to a wider age range. Adapted and illustrated by Paulo Zelinsky with skilful paper engineering by Rodger Smith this book offers children a chance to explore and expand their vision of the bus journey as they sing along with, in some cases, new words many of which include useful phrases. The music is on the back cover for those who are not familiar with this well-known children’s song.
The people on the bus step out and
in, out and in, out and in, all day long.
The driver on the bus says ‘Move
along please! Move along, please! Move along, please! All day long.
The riders on the bus go
bumpety-bump, bumpety-bump, bumpty- bump Until finally you arrive at The Public
library The end of the line. The detailed map on the final page enables
the reader to follow the bus route along its journey aided by flaps, which
prompt the use of the right verse of the song as you go along on the journey. A
great interactive book for browsing! An escape route to another society.
Buzz Buzz,
Bumble Bee.BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZ turn half the
picture page and you have half the face of a cowboy with a bee-like hat Buzz,Buzz Bumble cowboy.Turn the bootom half of the page again and
you have Buzz buzz Bumble catand turn again and it is Buzz Buzz Bumble building. Yes the same bee-like hat on the top of a
sky scraper.Go on to the last page until you come to the whale. Yes Buzz, buzz Bumble whale and there is a whale looking really cute
wearing a bee’s hat! The final page does not divide. It’s a picture of Whoosh! A spouting whale These are just some of the combinations you
can make with 12 pages, 10 of them cut in two. The Black outlined colourful
drawing are full of humour, the vocabulary limited to simple words and phrases.
A great book for beginners to enjoy and remember, especially older Primary
boys. Copy the book format and make your own books. It could be enormous fun
and an opportunity to get rid of frustrations.
Best
Friends Special Friends Author- Illus:
Susan Rollings N/P Level
1b
Orchard books Hardback ISBN 1-84121-156-7 £10.99p
A rhyming text that introduces
you to the qualities of friends and makes you think about all your best friends as well as your special friends. Slow
friends, fast friends, racing round the playground friends. Tall friends, small
friends, some are very clever friends. And on it goes until Old friends, new friends. I
really have a lot of friends. My special friends, surprise, surprise, it’s ALL
my friends! And
guess what? They are celebrating my birthday. The language is easy-to-pick-up and recite aloud as a group; the
illustrations show typical everyday experiences with young children. This book
can make an ideal starting off point for a project about friends and a
discussion about how children feel about each other.
Three
Little Kittens Illustrator Tanya
Linch N/P Level 1b
Gullane Children’s Paperback ISBN
1-86233-314-9 £4.99
Tanya Lynch’s outlined colourful
illustrations put character into the eyes of mother cat and her three little
kittens in such a way that you can really feel the dialogue that is going on
between them.
Three little kittens lost their mittens and
they began to cry. Oh, Mother dear, we sadly fear that we have lost our
mittens.
Lost your mittens! You naughty kittens! Then
you shall have no pie. Mee-ow! Mee-ow! Mee-ow No! You shall have no pie! Well all turns out well in the end
and Mother ends by saying What good little kittens! Now we can have more
pie! Purr-r Purr-r Purr-r. This
well-known, easy-to-act rhyme includes some useful phrases which children, once
they know the rhyme by heart, can easily transfer to other situations in the
classroom or even at home. Good for a mid-term or end of term show.
Do
Your Ears Hang Low? Author– Illus
Caroline Jayne Church N/P Level 1b
The
Chicken House Paperback ISBN 1-903434-63-7
£4.99 www.doublecluck.com
A story about two sweet cartoon-like puppies who make friends through comparing their floppy ears. Originally a song (unfortunately the music is not included) it can also be said as an action rhyme. The 12 suggested hand and arm actions, to be done in pairs, are clearly illustrated on the back spread. The rhyming language is easy to pick up and to make reading aloud easier whilst doing the actions, the text is printed as a rhyme on the front inside cover. Readers and writers of non-roman alphabets may need a little help to begin with in decoding the print style, which uses non-conventional-sized small letters.
Do your ears
hang low? Do they wobble to and fro?
Can you tie
them in a
knot? Can you tie them in a bow? This story then goes on Do your ears hang high? Do they wave up to the sky? Can you wave
them at your neighbour with the minimum of labour? And lift the flap on the final page to find
the amusing answer. A fun way of celebrating love and friendship and great if
you love pets!
Dirty
Bertie Author/Illustrator David
Roberts N/P Level 1b
Little
Tiger Press Paperback ISBN 1-85430-8203 £4.99
No, Bertie! That’s dirty, Bertie! Change the name, possibly to a
boy’s name, and does this phrase sound familiar? Bertie
has some quite common dirty habits that some children, and especially boys,
have like picking up something from a dirty floor, picking a bogey from the
nose and weeing all over the place. Every time Bertie gets up to one of these
dirty habits a member of his family would chorus, NO BERTIE! THAT’S DIRTY,
BERTIE!
Soon Bertie understood and he stopped doing all of these dirty things
except one. He just couldn’t stop picking bogeys out of his nose, when no one
was looking and worst still, Bertie sometimes eats them! UGH! Any
one else you know guilty of doing this?
David Roberts’ outlined
illustrations are fun and the faces, especially the eyes, are most expressive. Poor
Bertie! You can feel what people think about Dirty Bertie and how
Bertie himself feels about his
dirty tricks. A great book to read
aloud as children can join in the chorus, which is highlighted in unusual capital
letters. There are also a lot of expressive sounds that tell us about Dirty Bertie’s tricks - aaagh! eek! yuk! bleugh! and of course
UGH! Children love this story and the chorus soon gets transferred to both
home and school!
We’re
going to Feed the ducks N/P Level
1b
Author
Margrit Cruickshank Illustrator Rosie Reeve
Frances
Lincoln Hardback ISBN 0-7112-1961-3 £9.99
A circular ‘old fashioned’
type of well-told story that ties up all the ends and leaves the reader with a
feeling of satisfaction. Full of repetition the story counts up to five and
down again in an easy-to-understand way that makes it natural for children to
pick-up a lot of the language. This story, about an older sister who takes her
little brother to
feed the ducks, is sensitively illustrated by a talented new artist to
picture books, Rosie Reeve, with young children of her own.
We’re going to feed the ducks! And off the
two of them go hand in hand. Look! What a friendly brown dog! says the little brother,
but his sister drags him away. No! We’re not going to feed the friendly brown dog. We’re going to feed
the ducks, and on they go meeting TWO squirrels, THREE sparrows, FOUR pigeons and FIVE seagulls on the way. All the
animals followed them and surrounded them asking them for bread. Oh, all right then. There you are,
seagulls! There you are, pigeons! There you are, sparrows! There you are,
squirrels! Now we can feed the ducks! Oh! Sorry ducks. The bread’s all
gone!
So what did they do? A model story form that can be used as a base for making
class stories which can even go beyond five to ten animals.
If
you see a kitten Author
Illustrator John Butler N/P Level 1a
Puffin Paperback ISBN 0-14-056776-3 £4.99
A great,
easy-to-understand story that is excellent for joining in and letting off
pent-up energy as well as frustrations. John Butler’s fine, life-like
illustrations make you feel you could touch or even stroke some of the friendly
animals. Reminiscent in form of Eric Dahl’s Brown Bear, What can I
see? John Butler uses different language to tell his story.
If you see a cuddly
kitten …… and then turn to the next page to see the kitten
and say ‘Ahhh!’ But not only do
you see a cuddly kitten but some footsteps and a
curly pink tail which help you to understand If you see a pongy pig… Turn the page and say ‘Pooo! ‘ to the pongy pig. The story
continues each time introducing a new animal on one spread and suggesting what
you should say to it, when you actually see the animal, on the next spread.
If you see some
slimy slugs …..say ‘Yuk!’ If you see a pretty peacock …. Say, ‘Oooh!’
If you see a prickly
porcupine ….say ‘Ouch!’ If you see an enormous elephant say ‘Wow!’
And if you see a
crotchety crocodile …. Say, ‘HELP! By the end of the story children will have
picked up 10 different expressions for conveying emotions and feelings, which
is a good start for a beginner!
Whose
Tail Is That? Author Christine Nicholls Illus: Danny Snell N/P Level 1a
Happy
Cat Paperback ISBN 1-903285-44-5 £4.99
First published in
Australia this is a tale about two little monkeys who ran off to play in the
wild and get lost. A friendly white bird came along and asked if he could help
them. The two little monkeys declared, We’ve lost our mother. We want her back.
Look! In the bushes.
Whose tail is that? said the bird A lions tail! ROAR And so
the hunt continued Look! In the tall reeds. Whose
tail is that? A crocodile’s tail SNAP. The tails of many
different and interesting animals turned out not to be that of their mother.
Finally they found the tail that belonged to their mother and all ended well.
Great life-like illustrations, this is a fun book to read aloud. Children soon
join in especially with the animal noises. An excellent story for picking up possessive
forms naturally. Support this by making some animal tails and playing a game
asking- Whose tail? zebra’s tail.
14 BOOKS for Primary (back cover)
The
Great Race Maze Author- Illustrator
Anna Nilsen P/Level 1b
Little
Hare Paperback ISBN 187700307-7 £3.99
Get ready to race around the world! Quite a challenge that involves looking very carefully at each maze. Begin at the green flag and navigate your way through to the red flag. Beware of dangerous detours and hazards on the way. The twelve vividly illustrated mazes with humorous details will stimulate plenty of questions. If you get lost on the way or can’t find the starting or finishing flags, the solutions are at the back of the book together with twelve extra puzzles. The journey will take you from The Artic, to New York, The Amazon, Europe, London, Moscow, India etc and finally to Sydney. You may need some survival language including prepositions of place like ‘go over the bridge, go on the road, in the boat’. Many children, especially boys, will want to create their own journeys having learned how to do it from one of these spreads. Why did the author decide to stop at these twelve places on a world journey? Children can suggest a different selection for a journey round the world starting and ending in their home-town or country.
The
Holes in Your Nose Author-Illus:
Genichiro Yagyu P/Level 2`
Holes
in the nose come in all different sizes and shapes. Almost all animals have two
holes in their noses. But some have only one. This book goes on to discuss all the things that
happen through the holes in your nose including nosebleeds. It then goes on to
show a picture of where the holes lead to: The inside
of your nose and the inside of your mouth are connected at the back of your
throat. The inside of your nose is full of funny-shaped bumps. The air you breathe in
passes between these bumps.
Children are fascinated by these clearly explained facts and explicit illustrations about how their body works. More of the Japanese author’s culture comes through in this book than in Everybody Poos, but it is portrayed in a way that children from different societies will find interesting and soon absorb. For example on page 5 Grandpa is seen playing the Japanese game Go, on page 13 the little girl holding chopsticks is eating a very typical Japanese meal and on page 17 what they suggest you say is not babble, but part of one of the Japanese Alphabets called hiragana Na ne nu nay no, ma me moo may mo. First published in Japan in 1981 as Let’s talk about the holes in our nose, this book was translated and published in America in 1993, where it also became a top seller. An interesting and different read.
All
Kinds of Bodies Author-Illustrator Emma Brownjohn P/Level 1b
Another
great lift-the-flap book from Tango Books! This time not by Emma Damon (Issue 7
All Kinds of People), but Emma Brownjohn. The fine paper engineering needs
careful handling as there are not only flaps up and down but other forms of
intricate paper folds, which add to the excitement of discovering about other
people’s bodies and comparing them with your own.
Some bodies are thin. Turn the flap. Some bodies are
larger.
Some bodies are long and lanky. Turn the flap. Some bodies are
short and stocky.
All bodies have faces….. All faces have
eyes……… Some faces have a small nose…Some faces have …turn the flap to see the different
types of lips.
Bodies come in different sizes and shapes and
colours. But under the skin we are all the same! AND EVERY BODY IS BEAUTIFUL! The flap-up diagram of the bones
and organs in our body – all named – is for great reference as are the DID YOU
KNOW ? 4 points.
The adult skeleton has 206 bones. Half the
bones are in the hands and feet …… …………
The lively amusing illustrations are easy to
decode and easy to copy, too. A
wonderful kick-start to discussion followed by project work that includes
something for both boys and girls. A book to browse over, which children will
enjoy and parents too, if the children can take it home to share.
Animals Scare Me Stiff Author-Illustrator Babette Cole P/Level 1b
Red Fox Paperback ISBN 0-09-940497-4 £5.99
www.kidsat randomhouse.co.uk
Babette Cole is one of Britain’s prize wining author-illustrators. Her books are to be found in every children’s books shop and library, but few are suitable for EFL beginners as the text is often longer and culturally specific to British society as are many of the illustrations. This humorous book is great and will appeal to older Primary children especially boys.
Tom is followed by a dog. He thinks. It will eat me. Then a horse joins in. Then a bull…. A snake slithers up. Tom feels sick. They squeeze you to death, snakes do! And so it goes on until The animals come right up and sniff Tom. He is so frightened he sinks to the ground (he does not see the ants). Tom gives a terrible scream and tears off his trousers. What happened to the animals and also to Tom? Children love the illustrations and soon pick up the short text by heart. Children need time to browse over the details of these atmospheric illustrations if they are to get the most from this story.
How
do Dinosaurs say Goodnight? P/Level 1b
Author
Jane Yolen Illustrator Mark Teague
Collins
Children’s Books Paperback ISBN
0-00-713728-1 £4.99
www.fireandwater.com
Have you ever thought how a baby dinosaur
would go to bed? Well this book takes you into the homes of ten different baby
dinosaurs from a Stegosaurus to a Triceratops. The author, a Caldecott Medal
winner in the US, takes us through many familiar good night antics, which are
all explained in rhyming easy-to-pick-up language.
How does a Dinosaur say Goodnight, When Mama
comes in to turn off the light?
Does he fall on the top of his covers and
cry? No Dinosaurs don’t. They don’t even try.
They give a big kiss. They turn out the light
They tuck in their tails. They whisper ‘Good night!’
They give a big hug, then give one kiss more.
Good night. Good night, little dinosaur.
The full spread illustrations of baby dinosaurs in western bedrooms are amusing and will fascinate any child even if they are only vaguely interested in dinosaurs. This is a rhyme with a difference that could be fun to act out in the classroom with or without simple costumes. A chart on the first page helps the reader identify all the dinosaurs.
What
colour is love? Author Linda Strachan
Illus: David Wojtowycz P/Level 1b
Bloomsbury
Children’s Hardback ISBN £9.99
A story about feelings told through jungle animals that might lead
to all sorts of interesting discussion. What colour is Love? Could it be
green? asks a small elephant. Wrinkly Grandad replies I don’t know if
that is true, but grass is green – so love might be blue. The little
elephant then asks the tiger. What colour
is love? Could it be blue? The
Tiger replied I can’t tell you the
answer, my little fellow, the sky is blue – maybe love could be yellow? Could
it be yellow? Could it be red? Could it be white? Could it be pink? Tired and
exhausted at the end of the day, I know who to ask said Small elephant Smooth and Grey and off he
went to find his mother who surely must know the answer. She did. What colour is love? Every colour, all
around …. Because nothing else matters when it’s Love that you’ve found. The semi-rhyming text makes it
easy-to-pick-up and it is supported by vibrant illustrations. So what colour is
love and what colour do you love best? A good book to find out more about
feelings.
Lucky
Socks Author Carrie Weston Illus:
Charlotte Middleton P/Level 1b
Gullane
Children’s Paperback ISBN 1-86233-398-X £4.99