Module 1

  • Module Summary

     

    To read a book for the first time is to make an acquaintance with a new friend; to read it for a second time is to meet an old one.

     

                                                                —Chinese proverb

    A World of Books harnesses Grade 1 students’ inherent desire to read and learn. Through inspiring texts, students journey to new places, meeting diverse characters whose lives change positively and irrevocably because of books. With each new text, students construct more knowledge and collect more evidence about how and why children everywhere read in order to answer the Essential Question: How do books change lives around the world?

     

    The module begins with an exploration of museum masterpieces through the lens of the alphabet in Museum ABC. These beautifully curated works of fine art offer students a rich opportunity to engage with an accessible text with increasing depth, mining the works of art for details and understanding. All the texts that follow paint a picture of the joy and power that books bring to children everywhere. The three narrative picture books, Tomás and the Library Lady (based on the experiences of a Mexican boy from a migrant family), Waiting for the Biblioburro (based on the experiences of Ana, a Colombian girl from a rural village), and That Book Woman (based on the stories of packhorse librarians in rural Appalachia) show, in exquisite detail, how books transform each character’s life. In My Librarian Is a Camel, students discover a world of ways that children access books and the heroic efforts of those who dedicate their lives to bringing the joy of reading to all. With the final book, Green Eggs and Ham, students experience the power of books for themselves as they delight in how this timeless classic with an inspiring message can impact their lives.

     

    Students then share their knowledge and joy through the End-of-Module (EOM) Task: an original narrative story about a character who is changed in some way by books. Each student designs a cover page for this narrative inspired by Museum ABC, showing four characters reading joyfully: “B is for Books!” With this new perspective, the instruction that students encounter in subsequent modules and years of study will be richer because of their enduring understanding about the power of a book.

  • Texts

     

    • Picture Books, Literary
    • Tomás and the Library Lady, Pat Mora; Illustrations, Raul Colón
    • Waiting for the Biblioburro, Monica Brown; Illustrations, John Parra
    • That Book Woman, Heather Henson; Illustrations, David Small
    • Green Eggs and Ham, Dr. Seuss

     

    • Picture Books, Informational
    • Museum ABC, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
    • My Librarian Is a Camel, Margriet Ruurs