Scenario

You are a teacher at an early learning center that serves children from infancy through early elementary (K–3) age. You have a passion for children’s books and have worked hard to educate yourself on the characteristics of quality children’s literature across multiple genres. To communicate your love of books and reading to the children you work with, you have also developed your skill and talent for reading aloud to children. Through tone, cadence, animated expressions, enthusiasm, or even earnest solemnity, the artistry of storytelling can create a unique shared experience while nurturing positive dispositions toward reading and language learning.

With this knowledge and experience in mind, you decide to share what you have learned about quality children’s literature and quality read-aloud experiences with your colleagues through a PowerPoint Presentation in two parts.

Part One recommends quality fiction and nonfiction books across multiple genres for a specific age group, and explains information and examples for evaluating children’s literature based on guidelines for quality;
Part Two features an audio recording of up to 10 minutes of you reading aloud a quality fiction or nonfiction book and explains how to evaluate the read-aloud experience based on criteria for engaging children and celebrating the joy of reading.
Note: For this Assessment, you will need to choose a target age group (e.g., infants/toddlers; preschoolers) for your presentation. Select the age that interests you most, with which you have the most experience, and/or that is most appropriate for specific books you would like to feature in your presentation.

To complete this assessment, you will read a book aloud to a child or small group of children. Think about a child or small group of children you know (relatives, friends’ children, etc.) who are in one of the target age groups below:
Infants and toddlers
Preschoolers
Kindergartners
Early elementary (first, second, and/or third graders)
Identify four children’s books appropriate for your target age group:
Two or three fiction books, each representing a different genre (e.g., fantasy, folklore, realistic fiction);
One or two nonfiction books, each representing a different genre or topic (e.g., biography; informational book on a specific theme, such as animals, families, different cultures).
Evaluate each book using the resource “Ten Steps for Reviewing Children’s Books” at https://www.uua.org/files/documents/derman-sparkslouise/1206_233_review_books.pdf and other appropriate criteria from any of the other resources provided in Topic 1, Activities 2 and 3, of this Competency.
Ensure that the four books you select represent the following:
Each book meets guidelines for quality, including two specific examples you can explain in your evaluation;
Each book is characteristic of the specific genre;
Each book has qualities that make it a good choice for promoting children’s positive dispositions toward reading and language learning;
At least one book is an excellent choice to read aloud for Part Two of your PowerPoint Presentation. Note: In making your selection, keep in mind that your audio recording of the story should not be more than 10 minutes, in order to successfully embed the recording in your PowerPoint document. You are encouraged to time yourself in a practice reading of a story before you select it. Many picture books and other types of books for young children of 32 pages or less should fit within the time limit. If you select an information book with sections or a chapter book for primary-grades children, you might choose an especially appealing section or chapter to read aloud. Be sure that the portion you read makes sense to the listener and lets you do your best job reading aloud.