Using Fiction Books to Teach Real Standards

Do you have a hard time getting excited about teaching the same content every year?

Get passionate about your subject area by bringing your favorite books into your classroom content. Empower your students to study content area standards using multiple perspectives.

Overview and Purpose

The purpose of this mini-course is to show educators and learners how to relate content specific standards to the topics of fictional books.

By theming standards to the topics of fiction, learners can work with content objectives in different ways using different perspectives.

Needs Assessment

^{The educational problem of bridging academic content with novels can be summarized by motivation and familiarity with fiction, science fiction, and non-fiction books.}

In today's society, people are more motivated to watch videos, listen to podcasts, and read summarized information than reading lengthy novels. This means that it may be difficult to catch the learner's attention and motivation to read novels in school. But, aligning them with academic content can make novels more appealing in relation to mundane worksheets and textbook reading.
Multiple studies show that, "Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction (CORI) increases information text comprehension and student motivation, in comparison with traditional instruction (TI)."

Performance Objectives

^{After completing this mini-course, learners will be able to:}

Choose fiction, science fiction, or non fiction books that align with content area standards.
Align unit standards with specific sections of the book to create a parallel curriculum between the reading and course objectives.
Use events throughout the book to practice individual standards and objectives

This Course includes the following 2 Units

`^{Click the title of a unit to go to its page}`

^{Unit 1:} ^{Choosing Books that Fit Your Content Standards}

This unit will show educators how to choose genres & reading levels that best align with the content standards that they will be teaching.

By the end of this unit, instructors will be able to answer the following question:

"How do I prepare to choose a book that will parallel to my content standards?"

Prerequisites: Before proceeding with this lesson, instructors will need to have an idea about the standards that they will be teaching. Instructors also need to be familiar with Google Slides.

Novel and standard alignment through activities

^{Unit 2: Creating Units That Parallel With Book Chapters}

^{This unit will demonstrate how to break down a fiction book into chapters that align with specific standards and discuss how educators can use specific sections of their novel to practice individual objectives by supplementing chapters and themes using guiding questions and activities.}

By the end of this unit, instructors will be able to answer the questions:

"How do I align a book to fit my specific units of study?"
"How can I use what we have read in my subject area lessons?"

Prerequisites: Before beginning this unit, instructors should be familiar with Google Docs.

Julia Lee Tash's Portfolio Page

_{Extended Resources}

Perkins & Blythe (1994)
Larson and Lockee (2020)
source;Jurassic Park:
Penn Middle School
Source; Scissors & Crayons
John T Guthrie,
Susan Lutz Klauda, (2014)
Bloom, B. S. (1956). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives
Brooke Vitale, Children’s Book Editorial Services, (2021)