Sharing Books, Talking Science: Exploring Scientific Concepts with Children's Literature

Science is everywhere, in everything we do, see, and read. Books―all books―offer possibilities for talk about science in the illustrations and text once you know how to look for them. Children’s literature is a natural avenue to explore the seven crosscutting concepts described in the Next Generation Science Standards*, and with guidance from Valerie Bang-Jensen and Mark Lubkowitz, you will learn to develop the mindset necessary to think like a scientist, and then help your students think, talk, and read like scientists. 

Sharing Books Talking Science is an engaging and user-friendly guide that provides practical, real world understandings of complex scientific concepts using children’s literature. By demonstrating how to work in a very familiar and comfortable teaching context―read aloud―to address what may be less familiar and comfortable content―scientific concepts―Valerie and Mark empower teachers to use just about any book in their classroom to help deepen students' understanding of the world.

Valerie and Mark supply you with everything you need to know to get to the heart of each concept, including a primer, questions and strategies to spot a concept, and ways to prompt students to see and talk about it. Each chapter offers a list of suggested titles (many of which you probably already have) to help you get started right away, as well as “topic spotlight” sections that help you connect the concepts to familiar topics such as eating, seasons, bridges, size, and water. With Sharing Books Talking Science, you will have the tools and confidence to explore scientific concepts with your students. Learn how to “talk science” with any book so that you can infuse your curriculum with scientific thinking...even when you aren’t teaching science.

*Next Generation Science Standards is a registered trademark of Achieve. Neither Achieve nor the lead states and partners that developed the Next Generation Science Standards were involved in the production of this product, and do not endorse it.