Booksource’s 2022 Literacy Takeaways

Booksource Banter Blog helps educators select the best classroom library books for their students, manage their classroom libraries and foster engaged reading. Here’s a roundup of the best literacy takeaways of this year!

1. The Lifelong Benefits of Reading

While strong reading skills support academic success, engaged reading benefits students long after they leave the […]

Printables & Booklists: How to Teach Your Students About Voting

We know it is hard to talk about political elections and voting, especially in the classroom, but no matter what age group you teach, there are many resources you can use to help your students understand our democratic process.  

Books are one of our favorite tools for introducing any number of topics, because you can draw from engaging fiction and nonfiction titles at the right […]

10 Ways Teachers Are Using Nonfiction Science Books During Reading Instruction

With today’s emphasis on literacy instruction in the early grades, elementary teachers often wonder how they can make time to teach science. Instead of sacrificing instructional time for science so teachers can spend more time in reading instruction, why not use nonfiction texts to combine science objectives with reading instruction? 

We asked classroom teachers to share with us how they are integrating […]

By |March 11th, 2020|Content Areas|0 Comments

Booksource Makes It Easier to Teach Science & Literacy Together

Booksource has proudly launched our Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) Boxed Sets for grades K-2. These Boxed Sets support current NGSS curriculum and can be used to help teachers incorporate more nonfiction and science content area reading into daily instruction.

Why did we create the NGSS Boxed Sets?

Did you know that current research shows that […]

By |January 31st, 2020|Content Areas, STEM|0 Comments

Our Top 5 Takeaways from NSTA 2019

Booksource exhibited at NSTA’s national conference for the first time this year, and we had a blast! (NSTA is the National Science Teachers Association, for those of you who can’t keep up with all the education conferences and their acronyms.) We spend a lot of time talking literacy with the ELA crowd, so this was […]

By |April 18th, 2019|Content Areas|0 Comments

Telling History’s Story through Primary Sources

By Emily R. Smith, Teacher Created Materials

Every year, I tell my students that by the end of the year they will all love social studies. One year, David, my natural-born scientist, rolled his eyes and looked at me like I was crazy. (This is the student whose history museum exhibit included mummifying a teddy bear.) […]

By |September 12th, 2017|Content Areas|1 Comment

Mining for Gold: Gold Rush-Themed Lesson Ideas That Start With Books

On January 24, 1848, gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill in California, sparking one of the largest migrations in America’s history. Americans and immigrants flocked to California by the thousands, hoping to strike it rich as miners in the gold fields or as merchants selling supplies.  

Although it seems like ages ago, students can find […]

By |January 10th, 2017|Content Areas|0 Comments

Crises and Crusades: Support Content Area Literacy with These Historical Titles by Albert Marrin

Albert Marrin is a well-regarded author of juvenile nonfiction. Having penned over three dozen titles, he is not only prolific but also award-winning, and clearly dedicated to bringing history to life for his readers.

I recently spent some time with three of Marrin’s titles: A Volcano Beneath the Snow, FDR and the American Crisis and Thomas […]

By |December 30th, 2016|Content Areas|0 Comments

Using Picture Books Across Content Areas: Classroom Strategies for Grades K-5

“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”
~ Dyer 2009
From the very first moment we started working together as math and reading specialists, we intently focused on our respective content areas. As we planned and worked with teachers individually around reading or math lessons, we never quite saw […]

By |November 9th, 2016|Content Areas|0 Comments

Inspired By Picasso: Using Art and Literature to Teach Content Area

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up. -Pablo Picasso

October 25, 2016 marks the 135th anniversary of the prolific Pablo Picasso’s birth, long ago in Spain. Picasso was a formally educated artist, trained in prestigious, elite art schools at a very young age at his father’s […]

By |October 22nd, 2016|Content Areas|1 Comment