Informational Text Book Club: Encyclopedias

What are Encyclopedias?

Encyclopedias provide a reader with a bunch of information on one specific topic. If students are interested in a certain topic, such as dinosaurs, oceans, animals, space, etc., and want to know everything about them, find an encyclopedia about it. Nowadays there are a number of great encyclopedias that are made just for kids, with a lot of pictures, fun facts, and bright pages!

Criterion for Quality and Selection:

My number one criterion for selecting an encyclopedia is appeal. Many students may see encyclopedias as another textbook, when they most definitely are not. The pages need to be appealing and eye-catching in order for the students to want to pick them up and read them.

Examples: bright pages, bold, clear fonts, correlating illustrations, fun facts, etc.

Organization is also extremely important when it comes to selecting an encyclopedia for my classroom. Since there is so much information in an encyclopedia there should be a clear table of contents and index for easy access to the content.

The content should also have some form of organization throughout the text, whether it's alphabetical or categorized.

Use in the Classroom:

The main use of encyclopedias in my classroom would be as a reference tool. If students were doing research, or just interested in a topic, I would point them in the direction of an encyclopedia.
When starting a new chapter/section in the textbook that students have never learned about, pulling from an encyclopedia could be very beneficial. It is a different perspective from their textbooks, and most children's encyclopedias include more pictures and fun facts for the students to visualize and remember.

TEXT EXAMPLES:

Sabuda, R., & Reinhart, M. (2005). Dinosaurs: Encyclopedia prehistorica. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

On every page there is at least 4 detailed dinosaur popups, including descriptions and the name of the dinosaur. This will get students really excited about reading the text and seeing what popup is on the next page.
The text includes pronunciations for every breed of dinosaur mentioned.

Understanding the organization of the text. There are so many popups on each page it may be difficult for the students to know where to look first.

Spelman, L. (2012). National geographic animal encyclopedia. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic.

The beginning of the text provides a "How to Use this Book" page. There are example pages from the text with little explanation boxes and arrows pointing to the correlating pieces of the text.

This is great for young readers because they could become overwhelmed when reading an encyclopedia since there is so much information.

The first few pages of the text give general information about all types of animals before jumping into the bulk of the text.

Animals are organized by taxonomy (mammals, amphibians, fish, etc.) and includes their general and scientific names, along with fact boxes that explain habitat, diet, lifespan, and size.

There are also fun facts by some of the animals detailing if they are the smallest, the fastest, or the tallest!

When doing research on endangered animals, the students could use this text to figure out which animals are endangered. They could also look at the animals' habits to make educated guess as to what is caused their endangerment.
This text would also be great to have students explore prior to going on a field trip to the zoo. They could get to know the animals and where their natural habitat is located before seeing them on the field trip.

Preteaching about the differences between mammals, amphibians, fish, reptiles, insects, and birds. This will help the students locate the desired animals quicker.

Informational Text Book Club