Things to consider when selecting literature:
_Texts are chosen because they are
judged to have potential for enriching the lives of students, expanding
the scope of their experience, and because they represent effective and
interesting features of form and style. (National Curriculum, 2011)
A Guide to Selecting K-6 Quality Literature:
Is the book interesting enough to read more than once?
Could it sustain a staggered reading with the thought or imaginative space becoming larger at each stage in the text?
Are the illustrations suggestive rather than defining; innovative rather expected, intriguing rather than decorative?
Does the text suggest multiple levels of meaning and/or different competing meanings?
Does the style of illustration enhance the story, themes settings and text?
Do the images add to meanings of the story or merely support them?
Does the language of the writing offer its own visuals for the minds eye?
Does the text enable explorations of historical, cultural, structural and comparative ways of knowing and understanding?
A Guide to Selecting K-6 Quality Literature:
Is the book interesting enough to read more than once?
Could it sustain a staggered reading with the thought or imaginative space becoming larger at each stage in the text?
Are the illustrations suggestive rather than defining; innovative rather expected, intriguing rather than decorative?
Does the text suggest multiple levels of meaning and/or different competing meanings?
Does the style of illustration enhance the story, themes settings and text?
Do the images add to meanings of the story or merely support them?
Does the language of the writing offer its own visuals for the minds eye?
Does the text enable explorations of historical, cultural, structural and comparative ways of knowing and understanding?
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Laetitia Kilpatrick (K-6 Assistant Principal) and Sue Morton (primary teacher/librarian)