Abstract
While a large number of students entering fourth grade have the reading skills to decode the grade level textbooks, many lack sufficient subject matter knowledge and academic vocabulary to comprehend what they read. Reading aloud informational trade books to students in the primary grades, increases their conceptual understanding in the content areas by building needed background knowledge and vocabulary. This project (a) develops a rubric to evaluate trade books to use as read alouds to teach content-area subjects or supplements regular textbooks and (b) provides an annotated bibliography of informational trade books to teach first grade California science standards through reading aloud to an entire class. Methodology After an extensive review of the literature, an evaluative rubric was developed to assess the appropriateness of informational trade books to be used as a read aloud to teach subject-matter content such as science or social studies. The rubric assessed four major areas: accuracy, content, academic language, and visual features. Key aspects of the accuracy section included assessing the accurateness of the textual and visual information. The content category focused on the amount of scientific content and concepts contained in the book and how they were presented. The amount of background knowledge needed and the density of specialized vocabulary were the focus of the academic language criteria. Page layout and the level of connection between the graphics and the text were the visual features’ components that were assessed. The rubric was trial tested against a researched-based science trade book evaluation rubric found in the literature. It was then used to determine the appropriateness of over two hundred informational trade books on topics related to first grade California science standards. Those that met the majority of the criteria were listed in an annotated bibliography that contained information on the title of the book, author, publisher, date published, ISBN, interest level, book level, informational genre, and a synopsis of the book. Conclusions Reached Only 23 books, slightly more than one out of every ten books, met the rubric criteria. Two highly weighted areas of the rubric, accuracy of content and absence of irrelevant details were the most common reasons why books were not considered suitable. Several books were eliminated because they were not appropriate for whole class read alouds due in most cases to the density of information and amount of text the books contained. It should be noted that narratives with science content were not evaluated but might contribute to students’ subject matter knowledge. In addition, books that were deemed unsuitable for whole class read alouds, might be appropriate for small group instruction. Applying the rubric to other grade levels of science and to other subject areas are important areas for further research and study.