Big Books
Writing and Software / Interactive

Big Books Traditional Stories

As a Schools Library Service which is highly used by over 100 primary and secondary schools we have lots of knowledge of area shortage – especially in Literacy. 

The new range of big book traditional stories is welcomed – they have been very high demand items. I’m glad that Kingscourt are continuing to print new big book titles as many other publishers seem to be scaling back and concentrating on CD-ROMs but experience tells us that there is still a very high demand in this area. 

Richard Frost, Tower Hamlets Schools Library Service, London 

Tadpole Diary Big Book

Science: The tadpole that grew and grew.

The benefits of the methods of formative assessment can equally be seen in science teaching and factual writing. Formative assessment is not a panacea for all classroom ills, but there is growing evidence that it improves results as well as making schools more attractive places for teachers and children. Teachers make the "moment of learning" central to the way they plan and deliver lessons in key concepts. Again, examples of the methods in action best introduce these techniques. There has been frog-spawn in infant classrooms as long as there have been glass jars. Last summer, Year 2 pupils at Southwark Park School in London used the centuries-old experience to produce some up-to-date literacy work in science. They spent two literacy lessons focused on the book Tadpole Diary (a giant book published by Kingscourt/McGraw-Hill, £19.95). They talked about how the author and designer had taken different kinds of reader into account - incorporating diagrams, sequencing sentences, placing text within boxes, using photographs as well as drawings. They explored the characteristics of the book, and discussed the difference between the language of fiction and non-fiction.

As the pupils watched the eggs turn into tadpoles, teacher Clare Wood encouraged them to take notes. Then each child was given an eight-page blank booklet in which they had to produce their own account of the frog's life cycle, to plan and complete the task as they liked. They could ask for advice on planning, but the decisions and criteria for success were to be their own. Their readers were to be the rest of the class, and then other people in the school. The children discussed how to adapt the narrative models they had seen. They saw how their own experiences as observers could be shared with readers, through the organisation of a booklet that would be both subjective - "it's the way I want to describe what happened" - and objective - "someone who reads it will know what happened" - at the same time. When the three-day task was completed, the children held a "book launch", where they were encouraged to offer positive criticism of what they saw and read. The booklets were delightfully varied. Pupil Xi-Yin had spent a lot of time on preliminary planning, and made sure that her contents page was completed before she began writing the book itself. She clearly had her readers in mind. "Look, some of the tadpoles have hatched!" uses the imperative verb and the vocative exclamation to bring you directly into the experience. Her final sentence - "The tail shrinks and it's a frog" - is a dramatically succinct ending. Another child with special educational needs relied on a very simple text, mainly single words or short phrases, but put much effort into sequencing the pages. Many children positioned a cyclical diagram in a key position such as the first or last page. Striking illustrative metaphors - "At first the tadpole is wrapped up in an egg" - mingled with technical terms such as froglet or spiracle, taken from books on display in class. Many relied on the direct address to engage the reader: "If you look closely, it's getting bigger"

Tom Deveson, TES Teacher

Wake up Isabel
Isabel is awake and wants the household to join her - but their eyes stayed shut! Eventually everyone is awake, everyone that is, except Isabel. Available as a big book.

Who will be my mother?
Lamb can't find his mother and asks various animals if they will be his mother. The patterned language and predictable structure help children to develop a variety of reading cues.

Smarty Pants
This Story Chest Read together book has a rhyming text and encourages children to predict what we will see smarty pants do next. "I am a" and "see me" are sight words repeated through the text..

Farm Concert
The animals are making a lot of noise until the farmer, who can't sleep, tells them to be quiet.
This book has a predictable structure and a patterned text. It is suitable for teaching print concepts; 1:1 word match; and the sight words went and the.

Times and Rhymes
This rhyming text is based on popular nursery rhymes and encourages children to predict the next rhyme.
An excellent book for encouraging children to listen to and join in with rhymes.
It is best used after some revision of nursery rhymes to ensure the class or group are familiar with the rhymes.

The Gingerbread Man
A teaching objective for weeks 9 and 10 is for pupils to compare oral versions of a story with the written text. This version of the Gingerbread man is available as a big book from Kingscourt/McGraw-Hill.
Collect different versions of the Gingerbread man and the Three Little Pigs as texts for week 9 and 10.
The Three Little Pigs text is included in The First Story Book illustrated by Stephen Cartwright.

Sandwich That Max Made
This book, which is available as a big book, is modelled on The House that Jack built. It is an excellent resource for developing children's understanding of a sentence. The last page contains 9 lines of writing although it is still only one sentence.

Goldilocks and the Three Bears
This traditional story provides an opportunity for the retelling of a traditional tale
You can either tell the story or find a printed version to read.

Who's in the Shed?
This old favourite never loses its charm with its combination of rhyming text and peepholes to encourage the reader to predict who is in the shed.

The Monster's Party
Another old favourite from the Story Chest series, this book has a patterned text suitable for reinforcing the sight word "can". It provides a good model for making your own class or individual book.

The Jigaree
This book, about a space creature that dances, swims and skates, has a repetitive text suitable for introducing "can" as a sight word.

Planet Earth
A excellent layout provides a model for investigating the features of non-fiction texts. The clear format presents the style and structure to support non-narrative writing, and is useful for cross curricular opportunities.

Rover the Guard Dog
This play script has a strong narrative structure and provides a model for writing new scenes to change the events. It provides good examples of characterisation through limiting the characters' speech ñ a good idea for inexperienced playwrights!

Thrills and Chills
A large selection of poetry by a variety of classic and modern poets are offered in this Big Book anthology. The poems illustrate different patterns of rhyme, verse and descriptive language to use as a model for writing.

Fliers and Leapers
A selection of classic and modern poems for the entire year, focusing in the Spring term, on examples of oral and performance poetry from different cultures.

The Royal Dinner
The chef has a problem – the royal family all want something different for their dinner. This rhyming story provides a neat solution for the problem and can be used as a starting point for writing instructions.

Amazing Journeys
This factual recount provides opportunities for pupils to focus on the features of non-fiction texts and to begin to ask questions prior to reading.

Literacy Matters

Wordless Big Books

The wordless book can be exploited in many ways in any language. If you have a wordless big book in the English Department it can also be used for MFL. Native speakers can be encouraged to be creative and imaginative in writing and speaking. The class can discuss the story and pictures as a class or in groups. The teacher can ask basic questions about each page, for example, What colour is? How many chairs in the picture? Describe the people.

On a higher level with support from the teacher, simple sentences can be formed to describe the picture and tell the story – depending on what stage / level students are. The wordless book supports consolidation key words and phrases as well as encouraging creativity and imagination.

Liz Luka, MFL Consultant, Haringey LA