Reading With Purpose

From the authors of the popular blog and resource for teachers, The Classroom Bookshelf, this book offers a framework and teaching ideas for using recently released children’s and young adult literature to build a culture of inquiry and engagement from a text-first approach. Reading With Purpose is designed to help K–8 teachers tap into their inner reader, to make intentional text selections for their students, and to create joyful and purpose-driven literacy learning experiences. The heart of the book is organized according to four purposes for selecting and using literature: care for ourselves and one another, connect with the past to understand the present, closely observe the world around us, and cultivate critical consciousness. Each chapter includes classroom stories, accessible research, reasons for why this matters now, and criteria for selecting for this purpose. A final section provides teaching invitations that pair with suggested books but can also be used with any high-quality book teachers may already have in their classrooms.

Book Features:

• Builds on important work from thought leaders, urging teachers to create their own reading identities so they can help their students do the same.
• Describes a simple, sustainable framework teachers and teacher educators can use immediately to make more purposeful text selections.
• Provides myriad teaching ideas, narrative anecdotes from diverse classrooms, student work samples, and reflective questions.
• Offers a list of recommended, recently published children’s and young adult literature.

Erika Thulin Dawes is a professor and chair of the Language and Literacy Department in the Graduate School of Education at Lesley University. Katie Egan Cunningham is an associate professor of teacher education at Sacred Heart University. Grace Enriquez is a professor of language and literacy at Lesley University. Mary Ann Cappiello is a professor of language and literacy in the Graduate School of Education at Lesley University. Together, they are the coauthors of The Classroom Bookshelf blog.

“This is a book that will send readers to library shelves and bookstores and will prompt furious writing in notebooks and on sticky notes, brimming with fresh new ideas about how to recognize and honor the students in our classrooms and how to center purposefulness in our invitations to them to read and think about literature. These ideas may constitute a mind shift, or they may be an elaboration and reinforcement of existing dispositions and practices. Either way, they are bound to inspire some magnificent teaching with literature.”
—From the Foreword by Xenia Hadjioannou, associate professor of language and literacy education, Penn State University, Berks Campus and president, Children's Literature Assembly, NCTE

“The four purposes for reading children’s books presented here provide a theoretical and practical frame for reinvigorating our teaching and connecting to children’s lives and learning. The authors bring the rationales for the four purposes alive through examples of books, classroom practices, and life experiences.”
—Kathy G. Short, Regents Professor, University of Arizona

“Reading With Purpose: Selecting and Using Children’s Literature for Inquiry and Engagement is appealing, accessible, and filled with important and useful material. Getting to the heart of why teachers choose books is critical and those who read this engaging text are likely to be more thoughtful about their book selection processes (for example: which authors and illustrators they include or exclude, the value of sharing culturally diverse perspectives via text sets, using literature to connect children to the past as well as the world around them, and more). I highly recommend this book for classroom teachers as well as professors of literacy education and children’s literature.”
—Jonda C. McNair, Charlotte S. Huck Endowed Professor of Children's Literature, The Ohio State University

Contents

Foreword Xenia Hadjioannou  ix

Acknowledgments  xi

Introduction  1
Who We Are: The Classroom Bookshelf Story  3
Why This Book?  4
Purposes for Reading  5
Using This Book  6

Part I: Purposes for Selecting and Using Books

1.  A World of Purpose in the Pages of Books  11
Classroom Story: If I Were a Book  11
What Matters Most  13
Braided Purposes: The Reader, the Text, the Context  16
Many Books, Many Purposes  21
Purpose Matters: A Community of Readers  22

2.  Center Care for Ourselves and One Another  25
Classroom Story: Nurturing Care  25
Why Center Care?  28
Why Now? Supporting the Whole Child  29
Centering Care: Understanding Ourselves and Connecting to Others  31
Selecting Books That Center Care to Teach and Reach the Whole Child  38

3.  Connect to the Past to Understand the Present  40
Classroom Story: The Value of Knowing the Past  40
Why Connect to the Past?  42
Why Now? Barriers and Bridges  43
Connecting to the Past  45
Selecting Books That Connect to the Past to Better Understand the Present  55

4.  Closely Observe the World Around Us  57
Classroom Story: Idea Making and Learning to Look Closely  57
Why Closely Observe?  58
Why Now? The Climate Crisis and Disconnect With the Natural World  59
Close Observation: Strengthening Our Connection to Our World  61
Selecting Books That Inspire Close Observation to See the World in New Ways  73

5.  Cultivate Critical Consciousness  75
Classroom Story: Raising Critical Consciousness Across the Curriculum  75
Why Cultivate Critical Consciousness?  77
Why Now? Agency, Equity, and Justice in an Ever-Changing World  79
Cultivating Critical Consciousness: Creating a Better World for All  84
Selecting Books That Cultivate Critical Consciousness Toward Creating a Better World for All  91

Part II: An Invitations Approach to Encourage Purposeful Reading

6.  Invitations to Use Books to Center Care for Ourselves and One Another  95
Text Sets  95
Content Connections and Disciplinary Literacies  96
Critical Literacies  97
Reading Process  98
Visual Literacies  99
Writing Development  100
Multimodal Response  100
Social–Emotional Learning  102

7.  Invitations to Use Books to Connect the Past to the Present  107
Text Sets  107
Content Connections and Disciplinary Literacies  108
Critical Literacies  111
Reading Process  112
Visual Literacies  112
Writing Development  113
Multimodal Response  114
Social–Emotional Learning  115

8.  Invitations to Use Books to Closely Observe the World Around Us  116
Text Sets  116
Content Connections and Disciplinary Literacies  117
Critical Literacies  119
Reading Process  120
Visual Literacies  121
Writing Development  122
Multimodal Response  124
Social–Emotional Learning  125

9.  Invitations to Use Books to Cultivate Critical Consciousness Toward Creating a Better World  127
Text Sets  127
Content Connections and Disciplinary Literacies  128
Critical Literacies  131
Reading Process  132
Visual Literacies  133
Writing Development  133
Multimodal Response  135
Social–Emotional Learning  136

In Closing  138

References  139
Children’s Books  149

Index  157

About the Authors  164

Download Materials and Invitations in PDF format.