In these days of shrinking education budgets, teachers have to be creative in plugging up the holes in still trying to deliver a quality education to their students. Never has the budget hurt more than in building classroom libraries. After all, building a love for reading in even the most reticent students is every teacher's hope.
So what can a teacher do when money is not there to realize this dream? Turn to the internet. I have a site that will not only build a "library for you" (ages 3-13), but also, in many of the books listed, provide those resources in different languages. The site is entitled
The International Children's Digital Library. Twenty languages are listed though not every book has 20 translations so you will have to scan for the books that have the language versions you are searching for. Imagine the delight of a new student with no English entering your class and finding a book in his/her language to read during silent reading time! Think about how your struggling readers will feel knowing that you have found books online that they can read and that have age appropriate themes. You might be able to turn kids on to reading!
Now, what if you only have one computer? Hook your computer up to your LCD projector and take some of those illustrated books on themes of importance to the students. Make the photos an open discussion on the issues addressed. Chart vocabulary. Help them clarify the message of the photo and then set up small groups to address the feelings they experienced in studying the photo. Provide them with
graphic organizers to scaffold their writing attempts. For the weakest ones, add sentence starters or sentence frames to provide that necessary assistance to enable them to be full participants in the writing. The possibilities are great here:)
I hope you like the sites!
Denise
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