Informational Text Book Club: Atlas & Almanac

What is an Atlas or Almanac?

Atlases consist of a variety of maps, which cover a wide range of topics. You can find atlases that cover population, natural resources, livestock, travel and roads, economics, and politics. Almanacs are often published annually and cover more general interest areas. Some examples of what an almanac may include are, sports, farming, bugs, fashion, world records, and technology.

Criterion for Quality and Selection:

Accuracy is the most important criterion when it comes to selecting atlases and almanacs. The world always seems to be changing so atlases are constantly being updated, and as I mentioned above, almanacs are being published yearly. As educators we need to make sure our students are learning the accurate information, and this can be done through current text.
Since there are so many different kinds of atlases and almanacs out there, it's important to find the ones that match what the students are learning and serve a purpose towards their learning. If you are teaching a lesson on science, have bug almanac; if you are teaching a lesson on natural resources, have an atlas that shows individual countries information.

Use in the Classroom:

In my classroom, atlases would most commonly be seen in a social studies lesson. They allow students to look at continents, countries, and cities all in one general location. Depending on the content within the atlas, students can learn a lot about a specific region. Students could use atlases to plan a trip to a region they found and provide reason for their decision based on what they see in the atlas.
Almanacs can be used in practically any content-area, and be very informational to students. They can look up information pertaining to a specific interest area, and learn real up to date knowledge.
Nowadays with all the technology out there, I would definitely utilize online atlases in my classroom. Students can quickly type in a city or country and an image will come up on there screen in seconds. This is be very beneficial when located cities within countries or learning about country locations.

TEXT EXAMPLES:
Pickering, M. (1996). Picture reference atlas. Chicago, IL: World Book & Two-Can Publishing.

There are a number of really great text features included in this book, including, a table of contents, a fascinating facts page, an index that includes the page number for cities and also the grid reference to find them on the map.
On every page there is a "Factfile" and a "Fact Finder".

Example Factfile-"France is visited by more tourists each year than any other country in the world"
Example Fact Finder-"Which tombs near Cairo were built over 4,000 years ago for ancient Egyptian kinds? (See square K 4.) K 4 is the coordinates on the map that gives the students the answer to the question.

On each page the map of a different continent, or part of a continent, is shown and there are a number of icons within the different countries. These tell the student what important monuments, resources, and animals you could find in each of the different countries.

This book would be a great resource for students to look at when they complete work early, specifically social studies lessons. Teachers could assign a country for the students to look at and answer the "Fact Finder" questions.
Another way to use the text would be for research projects. Students could learn a lot about a specific country just by looking at the maps provided in the text.

Understanding the organization of each page and what each of the little icons means.

At the beginning of the book there is a page that explains each of the different aspects of the atlas. This is something that the teacher would need to go over with the students prior to reading the book.

Knowing what the purpose of an atlas is. With technology nowadays many students won't use atlases to locate countries and their cities. There would need to be specific lesson covering the purpose and usefulness of atlases.

Allen, J. (1994). Student Atlas of World Politics. Guilford, CT: Dushkin Publishing Group.

I would not use this text as a read-aloud in the classroom. It is more of a resource tool for students to refer to.

The table of contents explains each of the different chapters and includes a number of different maps covering different subjects.
A crucial text feature included in this text is a key for every map explaining the different colored regions.
After each chapter there is a set of tables that show the information in numbers instead of illustrations. This would be great for differentiation for students that are visual, and students with a strong math skills.

Preteaching of the content pertaining to the different maps such as, population density, territorial changes, GNP, and international trade. These are all content areas that aren't common in the classroom, but would be focused on in certain upper level social studies courses.

Informational Text Book Club