English/Language Arts

English/Language Arts is a very important genre, because many of the Common Core Standards for other content areas are based off of English and Language Arts. Language Arts refers to the study and improvement of the arts of language, and the five strands of the language arts are: reading, writing, speaking, listening, and visual literacy. When teaching informational texts, reading is an obvious focus point, because we want students to comprehend the information that they are presented. Reading allows students to grasp the meaning of written or printed characters, words, or sentences. Books in this genre can easily be implemented in classroom instruction by teaching lessons on grammar, story structure, writing essays, and looking for text evidence. The ideas are endless. Not only are there great informational texts for students that are available, but there are also many resources for teachers that are very well written and can assist in classroom instruction. When searching for English/Language Arts texts, it is important that they are appealing to students and are easy to follow. Many of the concepts can be confusing, so the text must be presented in a way that is easy for students to understand and remember.

Some of my favorite book choices:

Hairy, Scary, Ordinary: What is An Adjective?
By: Brian P. Cleary

Cleary, Brian P. (2001). Hairy, scary, ordinary: what is an adjective? Minneapolis, Minnesota: Carolrhoda Books.


Interest Level: Ages 7-11
Grade Level: 3.1
Lexile: 790L
Guided Reading: O

Brian P. Cleary has an excellent series called Words are Categorical that includes books such as Hairy, Scary, Ordinary. This series introduces young readers to different types of words through rhyming verse. Paired with comical illustrations, these books show readers that language can be fun and entertaining. Hairy, Scary, Ordinary helps students expand their adjective vocabulary with such words as silly, fizzy, and spunky that are printed in color so that the adjectives on the page stand out to the student. These books are an excellent resource when introducing a new concept like nouns, verbs, and synonyms. The series is quite extensive and complete. Each book has a definition of the concept, and then shows many examples throughout the colorful text.


The World of Brian P. Cleary 

Grammar is Great!
By: Ruth Thomson

Thomson, Ruth. (2004). Grammar is great.  London, UK: Belitha Press Ltd.


Interest Level: Ages 7-10
Grade Level: 2 and up
Lexile: Not Available
Guided Reading: Not Available

The illustrations and simple text in this book will help teach young readers the basic rules of grammar, explaining how to use capital letters, commas, nouns, and verbs. The focus of the book is how to use grammar to improve writing skills. All aspects of grammar are introduced and explained in a practical and easy to understand way. One of the best features of this text, though, is that it uses games and tasks to reinforce the material that is taught throughout. This text could easily be used when trying to help students use grammar more effectively to improve their writing.