Literacy Matters - Winter 2020

Children’s Books Based in South Carolina As this publication is based on South Carolina, I wanted to address some specific books that focus on historical events related to the South Carolina SCCCRS. This is a brief list of children’s books based in South Carolina. There are many children’s novels that focus on providing a personalized account of various historical events. When integrating events such as WorldWar II, I choose novels that were set in Europe to use with

my fifth-grade students. When covering social studies, topics such as community and state books taking place within the state can be helpful in providing more individualized accounts and illustrations relevant to our South Carolina students.

TABLE 1: Children’s books based in South Carolina

Reading Matters Authenticity Matters

TITLE

AUTHOR

PUB DATE BOOK TYPE

TOPIC

Melinda Long

2010

Picture Book General Characteristics of SC

12 Days of Christmas in South Carolina

Alan Schroeder

1995

Picture Book

WWII

Carolina Shout

Carole Boston Weatherford

2006 2005

Picture Book Picture Book

Segregation

Champions on the Bench

Kate Salley Palmer

Revolutionary War

Francis Marion and the Legend of the Swamp Fox

Anne Rockwell

2013 2005 2002 2005 2004

Picture Book Picture Book

Segregation Segregation

Hey, Charleston!

Margot Theis Raven

Let Them Play

Carol Crane

Picture Book General Characteristics of SC Picture Book General Characteristics of SC

P is for Palmetto

Kate Salley Palmer

Palmetto: Symbol of Courage The Story of the H.L. Hunley and Queenie’s Coin

Fran Hawk

Picture Book

Civil War

Jacqueline Woodson

2016 1997

Novel Novel

Segregation Segregation

Brown Girl Dreaming

Joyce Hansen

I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly: The Diary of Patsy, A Freed Girl, Mars Bluff, South Carolina

Elise Weston

2009 2008 1999

Novel Novel Novel

WWII

The Coastwatcher

Walter Dean Myers

Segregation Segregation

The Glory Field

Anna Myers

The Keeping Room

Conclusion

learning goals for a given academic year; however, the individual students that comprise a classroom must guide how those standards are taught. This approach to planning lessons aims to create purposeful and engaged readers while helping students meet literacy standards. Utilizing children’s literature to address social studies content also seeks to provide students with multiple sources of information about the same topic as well as providing varying perspectives and genres about a single topic. Using multiple literature sources within the social studies classroom can allow for more in-depth analysis and understanding of content if materials and content are intentionally chosen and implemented.

As explained at the beginning of this article, motivation to read is crucial to students at the elementary level, especially since reading motivation is proven to decrease with age. By creating lessons that are relevant to students’ lives and incorporating their interests, teachers can increase motivation through the ideas outlined in the expectancy-value theory. Teachers must work to engage students by increasing motivation while also covering state standards within their curriculum. I have purposefully included examples from my teaching career, including first and fifth grade, to demonstrate the ability to utilize authentic tasks through the elementary grades. Standards create an outline of

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