Choice Of Books Research Articles

Editors’ choice of books 2019

Editors’ choice of books 2019

Expository Texts in First-Grade Classroom Libraries: Issues in Teacher Selection

In 2010, the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were adopted by most states in the US. The authors of these standards called for a shift from previous standards by recommending that young children experience a 50-50 balance between informational and literary reading. For this mixed-methods study, researchers examined the contents of 23 first-grade classroom libraries 8 years after the implementation of the CCSS to determine the percentage of expository texts found in these libraries and if these percentages differed based on the SES of the school or the number of years a teacher had been teaching. In addition, researchers interviewed twelve selected classroom teachers to gain an understanding of how they selected books for their libraries and what influenced their decisions. Results indicated that 22.8% of the texts found in first-grade classroom libraries were expository and there was no difference based on SES of the school or years a teacher had been in the classroom. Teacher interviews indicated that book cost, reading level, student interest, and genre (both narrative and expository/nonfiction) influenced their library text selections. Only two teachers indicated that the CCSS impacted their book choices.

First-Year Students’ Views on Prescribed Book for Translation Practice: A Case Study of a South African University of Technology

Translation as a field of study is fairly new in South Africa because before 1994, the official languages were English and Afrikaans and everybody was expected to know and use those languages. Consequently, there is not much about translation practice that is written by South African authors. Following this, translation books from outside South Africa are generally used and prescribed, thus stifling inherent experiences, since little is written by the South Africans themselves. A total number of 46 language practice students participated in this quantitative study. This study explored challenges encountered by first year language practice students, when using their prescribed book, at the Central University of Technology, Welkom Campus. Results indicated that students were not benefitting maximally from using the prescribed book, which is by any standard an excellent book. The socio-cultural experiences of the students were missing, thus prevent students’ from mastering the subject content better. From the data collected, it is recommended, amongst other recommendations, that a bias towards books reflecting South African experiences be prioritized as well as also allowing students to participate in making book choices.

The Quantity and Quality of Teachers\u2019 Self-perceptions of Read-Aloud Practices in Norwegian First Grade Classrooms

Read-alouds are a frequent practice in early childhood classrooms and provide great potential for developing literacy skills for young learners including vocabulary, comprehension, text structure awareness, visual literacy, and fluency. Yet, any potential benefit of read-alouds depends on how the teacher enacts a read-aloud, particularly in regards to the amount and type of talk that surrounds the practice. Despite frequent use, read-alouds have not been systematically considered in Norwegian early childhood classrooms, which is the goal of this study. Specifically, 299 first-grade teachers completed a survey on read-aloud practices in December, as well as provided information on the most recently read-aloud texts in both December and May. Quantitative results were analyzed descriptively while qualitative results were analyzed via open coding. Findings indicate that read-alouds are most used as a tool for engaging and managing students rather than as a formal instructional practice. As read-alouds most typically occurred during lunch time, texts were selected primarily for entertainment and teacher talk occurred most frequently for the purpose of defining words. Conversely, teachers reported comparatively minimal use of planned (instructional) stops and reported limited focus on literacy elements. The analysis of book choices indicated that teachers used few informational texts and frequently relied on older, well-known children’s literature. Implications for this study are that although read-alouds provide much potential benefit for young learners’ literacy development, Norwegian teachers could capture underutilized benefits of this practice through greater planning and intentionality.

Mechanisms mediating the relation between reading self-concept and reading comprehension

Reading self-concept is an important predictor of reading comprehension and vice versa. However, the mechanisms that are at work in this relation have yet to be identified. In line with the self-enhancement approach, we propose that in the reading domain, amount of reading, book choice (text difficulty and book length), and intrinsic reading motivation should function as mediating variables in the relation between reading self-concept and reading comprehension. We tested this hypothesis with longitudinal data gathered from N = 405 German students in Grades 7, 8, and 9. The results showed that reading self-concept had a positive effect on reading comprehension, intrinsic motivation, book length, and amount of reading. However, indirect paths between reading self-concept and reading comprehension were found only for intrinsic motivation, not for amount of reading or book choice. The results are discussed in the context of students’ reading comprehension development, and consequences for research and education are derived.

La enseñanza de la interculturalidad a través de la literatura: nuevos desafíos

La enseñanza de la literatura en las escuelas secundarias de la República Checa, contribuye de manera relevante a ofrecer nuevas perspectivas educativas a los jóvenes checos. En tal sentido, esta enseñanza funciona como atesoran en el mundo, desde la Odisea de Homero, por ejemplo, a través del drama Shakesperiano y Fausto de Goethe, a las novelas de Balzac o de Zola, a los autores del siglo XX que se dedicaron a la causa humanista desvelando las facetas ocultas de la existencia humana. El propósito de nuestra reflexión sobre temas interculturales es, en primer lugar, analizar la contribución de la lectura al nivel de conocimiento, proponer la posibilidad de utilizar textos literarios para demostrar hasta qué punto el diálogo entre culturas, está incluido en las propias obras, y, por último, considerar qué textos literarios contemporáneos a escala mundial podrían enriquecer de manera relevante la selección de libros recomendados a los jóvenes checos. La conclusión será una síntesis tratando de comparar la situación de los estudiantes checos con la de los jóvenes franceses. También se resalta el papel de la traducción no sólo en la enseñanza de la literatura, sino en el conocimiento del Otro. The teaching of literature in secondary schools in the Czech Republic (note that this is in the course of Czech literature courses and taught in Czech) contributes in a relevant way to open to young people new worlds. It works starting from the treasury of the world thought, Homer’s Odyssey for example through Shakespearean drama and Goethe’s Faust, to the novels by Balzac or by Zola, to the twentieth century authors who engaged in the humanist cause by unveiling the hidden facets of human existence. The purpose of our reflection on intercultural topics is first of all to analyze the contribution of reading to the level of knowledge, then to propose the possibilities of using literary texts to demonstrate how much the dialogue between cultures is included in the works themselves, and finally, to consider which contemporary literary texts on a world scale could enrich in a relevant way the choice of books recommended to young Czechs. The conclusion will be a synthesis trying to compare the situation of Czech students to that of young Frenchmen, for example. It will also highlight the role of translation not only in teaching literature, but in knowing the Other.

BIG THEMES IN CHILDREN'S BOOKS. Selected Articles by Lilia Ratcheva

Reviewed by: BIG THEMES IN CHILDREN'S BOOKS. Selected Articles by Lilia Ratcheva Marin Bodakov BIG THEMES IN CHILDREN'S BOOKS. Selected Articles. By Lilia Ratcheva. St. Kliment Ohridski University Press, 2019, 432 pages. ISBN: 978-954-07-4814-6 Wisdom between Theory and Practice Years ago, in an interview for the Kultura weekly, I asked Lilia Ratcheva how one could avoid people looking down on children's literature. She answered: "By speaking and writing about children's books. By cultivating respect for these books in society and educating readers about criteria for evaluating books and illustrations. By enhancing the literary and artistic culture of children and training experts in children's literature. Obviously, parents, however intelligent and well educated they may be, cannot follow everything. … Even librarians and teachers cannot read everything. They should read selectively. There just has to be some selectivity, some criticism, some references." Big Themes in Children's Books sets an example of how to pursue this complex mission. So why is Lilia Ratcheva's book important to contemporary Bulgarian literature and culture? At first glance, it is a collection of articles and papers presented at prestigious forums on children's books. In practice, however, this volume functions as a history of contemporary children's books. One should not use the word Bulgarian to describe the scope, because Ratcheva does not at all restrict her studies to a single, essentially small and peripheral, national culture like Bulgaria's. In her intellectual paradigm, there is no distinction between "small" and "big" literatures—therefore, she draws parallels between works whose authors look in the same direction, no matter where they live. There is yet another significant feature to Big Themes in Children's Books: it avoids the dominant Bulgarian misconception of children's literature as a kind of dry run for writing big, "real" literature, literature for grown-ups. The years after the transition to democracy were full of hardships for contemporary books for children in Bulgaria. Such books changed logically from a jealously guarded terrain for the ideological indoctrination of adolescents under state socialism to something quite outside the sphere of interest of operational criticism. Children's literature itself, on the one hand, ran into overproduction in the turbulence of emerging market relations, and on the other, went into a dire decline in quality and taste. Everyone could suddenly be an author for children. A polarization emerged into relatively few high-culture children's books and numerous popular massmarket children's books. In Bulgaria, there is a lot of precise scholarship on individual topics in [End Page 99] children's literature, but a lack of literary journalism and professional criticism to help situate authors and their works within larger literary, historical, social, and cultural contexts, thus allowing for a historicization of the present. Ratcheva is an extremely astute observer of the works within their contexts. For this reason, she avoids simplifying generalizations and prefers to consider specific authors and works, to draw precise and very inventive parallels, to blur the lines between home and abroad. Her background knowledge is more than excellent and she is a wise practitioner who refuses to get stuck in the local receptive mores; therefore, she can afford to write clearly, soberly, and without the pretensions of academic jargon, as article after article reveals a nuanced panorama of an significant segment of literary production. In fact, it is worth clarifying also that in the predominant Bulgarian tradition, text and image in children's books are not considered together. Literary history in Bulgaria, fixed upon the text, rarely sees the illustration. Ratcheva, however, deals precisely with their symbiosis and interaction and applauds the happy partnerships between writers and artists. In Bulgaria, picturebooks are already being taken seriously as books, partly due to Ratcheva's efforts. The book marks yet another breakthrough: in standard school curricula in Bulgaria, literature is treated as a tool to teach history and instill patriotism, and this is mostly done through the often hysterical praise of the past. Ratcheva, by contrast, shows what elements in current books on contemporary topics can be deployed by teachers, why, and how. Her choices of literature and books point to an extreme sensitivity...

Toward a Liberal Analysis of the Law

This paper looks to explore the effects of James Buchanan's book Cost and Choice since its publication. I discuss how Cost and Choice has had a limited impact on the treatment of welfare economics within Law & Economics. I then elaborate on Buchanan's discussion to highlight other issues within the field and how they provide some insight into Buchanan's conception of the rule of law. This paper also discusses some implications for Law & Economics analysis moving forward.

“I Love Paw Patrol!”: Book Selection and the Allure of Popular Media Characters Among Preschoolers

ABSTRACTIn this quantitative study, we report the book preferences of a diverse group of preschool children (N = 61) from two distinct early childhood settings: an urban Head Start and a private preschool. Children participated in a book selection task and were also asked a series of questions about how and why they chose the book. Parent questionnaires were gathered to provide information on children’s home language, race/ethnicity, gender, and book and media exposure. All children overwhelmingly preferred books featuring popular television characters on the cover. Gender emerged as the only relevant socio-demographic feature, with girls being more likely than boys to choose a book with a popular media character. Overall, children’s book preferences were more similar than different despite the diversity of the sample. Furthermore, these results expand the notion of genre in relation to children’s book choices.

EVOLUCIÓN DE LOS MÉTODOS DE FLAUTA DESDE EL SIGLO XVIII AL XX Y SU USO EN LOS CONSERVATORIOS SUPERIORES DE ESPAÑA

Este artículo realiza un repaso de los métodos y libros de estudio más destacados de la historia de la flauta travesera, desde el siglo XVIII al XX. Se trata de un recorrido por la evolución del instrumento y las preocupaciones de los autores que han escrito para la didáctica del mismo. Además, se complementa con la información de su uso en la actualidad en los conservatorios superiores de música españoles. Tanto de los métodos en sí, como de las metodologías o ideas que instruyen a los profesores y su elección de libros para la clase.

Optimization of Literated Culture Through The Utilization of The Reading Area at SDN 3 Mojorebo, Wirosari District, Grobogan Regency

This study aims to describe 1) the efforts of the school to introduce a culture of reading 2) optimize the reading culture 3) obstacles in optimizing the use of the reading corner area 4) solutions to obstacles in optimizing the reading culture. The type of research used is qualitative research. The informants in this study were principals, teachers and children who had problems learning to read. Research results show that: 1) Efforts from the school to foster students' reading culture are conveyed by the principal by inviting publishers to provide choices of books to be given to students. 2) the benefits of reading corners provide a new atmosphere in the classroom, also when there is free time can be used to read. In addition, making students enjoy reading by being guided by the teacher. 3) Obstacles in optimizing literacy culture, namely the difficulty of fostering a reading culture early on. 4) Solutions in optimizing the culture of literacy, among others, the teacher provides reading books that are appropriate to the needs of students and try to add a collection of reading so that students do not get tired of reading in the reading corner

Censorship and literary translation in Turkey: translating obscenity after The Soft Machine and Snuff court cases

In 2011, the Turkish publishers (Irfan Sanci and Hasan Basri Ciplak) and translators (Suha Sertabiboglu and Funda Uncu) of the books The Soft Machine and Snuff were taken to court on the grounds of obscenity. This article investigates the effects of these court cases on Turkish publishers’ and translators’ subsequent publication/translation behaviours regarding their choice of books to publish/translate and strategies for publishing/translating obscenity. The study is informed by corpus methods and the results are discussed in the light of interviews conducted with Sanci, Sertabiboglu and Uncu. The study concludes that although the publishers and translators under investigation continued publishing/translating books containing obscenity, their publication/translation behaviours changed to some degree after the court cases.

How caregivers perceive and mediate children’s books featuring media characters in the United States

ABSTRACTCaregivers manage pre-school children’s media choices; however, most research has examined electronic and digital media, while books remain the predominant medium for this age group. We explore how caregivers perceive and mediate children’s books, with an emphasis on those portraying popular media characters, through two qualitative studies. Through non-participant observation at the public library, we capture how caregivers and children negotiate and choose books. While a few caregivers employed restrictive mediation, most valued children’s book choices, irrespective of content. Our interview study of parents largely supports the findings of our observation study. Some parents revealed their concerns about age-inappropriate or problematic characters and passively avoided the books with those characters. However, parents primarily respected their children’s book preferences. The ways in which caregivers shape their children’s media and book reading are discussed.

Tankönyvválasztási szempontok a Playway to English nyelvkönyv elemzése kapcsán

In our rapidly changing world the usage of foreign languages is getting more and more indispensable. During the application to higher education institutions the language exam certificate is rewarded by extra points, and it will be compulsory for higher education application in the near future. The coursebook market offers a wide choice of language books for schools. But the course book list issued centrally defines it for the educational institutions what kind of books their teachers can teach from. This list contains several publishers and titles, from which the schools (and teachers) have to find the most suitable one(s) (as long as they choose the option of using a coursebook at all). But how? We would have liked to examine this question in deatils through the analysis of coursebooks entitled Playway to Engish, during which – besides the analysis of the books – we have compared their content to the local curriculum of a school and asked the colleagues’ opinions about their usage in everyday life as well.

Kazakh thematic in Russian and foreign publications

In the historical development of the early XX century Kazakh Soviet literature reached ideological and artistic heights, allowing to enrich the values of the All-Union fiction. The choice of books translated into Western and Eastern languages is not accidental. Thanks to the Russian language, which became one of the international languages, the area of communication​ with the literature of different countries expanded. In the article the authors refer to the works of foreigners interested in Kazakh literature, traditions and culture, and talk about the great personalities of our country. Kazakhstan is one of the first countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States in terms of the number of works published abroad. A comparative analysis of the facts and data from various and numerous sources seems to the author to avoid the subjective interpretation of the questions of this study and to exclude biased judg-ments and conclusions. The author made an attempt to create a holistic view of the Kazakhs based on the analysis of a huge amount of ethnographic and historical material contained in the works of Russian scientists, travelers, officials, just witnesses and the military. For foreign historians the niche of Kazakh literature was filled with its unique history, unique spiritual life and an amazing aesthetic world.

Book Reading Choices of University Students in Jordan

It is widely believed that today’s university students are so enamoured of social media and other online attractions that book reading is no longer included in their leisure-time activities, particularly in the Arab world where smartphone penetration is high and interest in reading is perceived to be low. As teachers, we have an obligation to ensure our students are reading books of their own choosing. This study investigates the book-reading choices of a convenience sample of 100 male and female students attending a private university in Jordan to determine 1) what those choices are, 2) what patterns we can detect among their choices and 3) what language and format they prefer to read in. Results show that students look West for most of their book choices, at the expense of their own literature and authors, that their gendered choices reflect many of the patterns already established in the literature, that they prefer to read printed rather than digital books and that third-person narrator voice is most commonly used in the novels they read. The study also suggests that book choice may have less to do with book-based appeal factors (such as, author, protagonist, etc.,) and more to do with the overall reading experience, and that the narrator voice used in the novels students read can contribute to the richness and overall value of that reading experience.

Do low-brow tastes demonstrate stronger categorical differentiation? A study of fiction readership in Russia

In his paper establishing the foundations of omnivorousness theory, Richard Peterson suggested that the system of tastes is organised as a pyramid “with one elite taste at the top and more and more alternative forms at about the same level as one moves down the pyramid toward its base”, with tastes at the bottom “mark[ing] the status boundaries between taste groups defined by age, gender, race, region, religion, lifestyle” (1992, p.254). Whereas high-status individuals are likely to consume a few genres at all levels of the taste pyramid, low-status ones tend to patronise only one genre situated at the bottom. One of the predictions following from this model concerning the omnivorounsness of privileged groups has been tested in numerous studies, but the thesis of low-brow tastes having stronger structural embeddedness has been researched much less extensively. If Peterson is correct, we should find that the consumption of high-brow objects strongly correlates with status characteristics such as education where the consumption of low- and middle-brow does not; by the same token, the consumption of low-brow objects would correlate with gender, age, ethnicity, or other groupings where the consumption of high-brow objects does not. In this paper, we use a dataset from a St Petersburg public library system to analyse 1 300 000 book choices of over 100 000 readers to find out whether these predictions hold. We find that there is indeed a strong negative correlation between the attractiveness of authors for predominantly educated readers and the gender and age specificity of their audience. We discuss three possible theoretical explanations of this finding which can be discerned from the literature: (1) “group” and (2) “grid” interpretations, using the terms from Mary Douglas’s cultural theory, and (3) the opposition between relaxational and self-cultivating usages of culture. We argue that the particular differentiation pattern speaks against the “group interpretation” prevalent in other literature.

Reading With a Writer's Eye: Why Book Choice Matters

AbstractLearning how to choose and use diverse literature for students to read and as an inspiration for their writing has never been more important, as more than 50% of today's students in U.S. classrooms do not identify as white. This teaching tip explores the importance of finding high‐quality diverse literature for all learners and how to use these books as mentor texts for writing based on the traits of writing: ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions. The author models combining high‐quality diverse literature and the traits for readers in a fully developed lesson plan that leads to writing in different modes (narrative, informational, opinion/argument), based on the picture book A Different Pond by Bao Phi.

Evaluating the English Textbook for the 6th Stage of Preparatory and Secondary Schools

Abstract:
 Although textbooks maintain an important role in the EFL context, their sovereignty on teaching has been challenged and the belief that teachers can blindly rely on them has been questioned. Textbook evaluation has become a necessary practice in the field of teaching, seeking to assist in the choice of the best suitable book for a specific context, promote teachers’ awareness on the actual contents of a book and facilitate them to make necessary adaptations. The present study investigated the suitability of the textbook used for 6th stage of preparatory and secondary schools. The results of the study suggested that the strengths of the book could be identified in areas of organization, thematic content and inclusion of all the language skills. However, the problematic areas related to authentic language, integration of skills, nature of tasks and materials for assessment. We need to evaluate textbooks for helping the teacher or program developer in making decisions on selecting the appropriate textbook. Furthermore, evaluation of the merits and demerits of a textbook will familiarize the teacher with its probable weaknesses and strengths. This will enable teachers to make appropriate adaptations to the material in their future instruction.

The Athenian Women by Alessandro Barbero

Alessandro Barbero The Athenian Women Trans. Antony Shugaar. New York. Europa Editions. 2018. 253 pages. In his novel Athenian Women, newly translated from the Italian, Alessandro Barbero attempts to give us a view of daily life in ancient Athens during the tumultuous year of 411 BC. Thrasyllus and Polemon, two old veterans of the Peloponnesian Wars, are neighbors trying to squeeze out a bare subsistence by farming their land in the Athenian countryside. Both men are widowers and both have a single daughter, old enough to marry, and feel pressure to find a suitor wealthy enough to allow their daughters to live in better comfort. Eubulus, in contrast to Thrasyllus and Polemon, is a resident of the Athenian countryside who can afford a lavish lifestyle that involves drinking parties and orgies. The licentious behavior of this rich man is overdone in the book as his sexual exploits with prostitutes and his slaves is described in detail. It is unclear whether this exaggeration is done for comic effect or to enhance the economic contrast with his much poorer, more modest neighbors. But whatever the reason, it was unnecessary to the plot. One day while Thrasyllus and Polemon are at the Theater of Dionysus watching a production of Aristophanes’s Lysistrata, Eubulus’s son, Cimon, invites Charis and Glycera, the neighbors’ daughters, over to his house to buy some figs. Cimon is portrayed as a crass, spoiled, and abusive young man who is always used to getting what he wants. Despite his stated intentions , what Cimon really wants is to exploit them sexually and humiliate them. Barbero alternates his chapters between descriptions of the Lysistrata that is being staged in Athens and descriptions of the horrible abuse that Charis and Glycera suffer at the hands of Cimon and his friends. The scenes of beatings and fear that the women suffer are extremely difficult to read, and they highlight the abuse that women have had to endure for centuries . The book is described as a “romantic comedy,” but scenes of violence and degradation against women, even though they end up highlighting Cimon’s impotence, do not make the tone of this book feel either romantic or comic. Melissa Beck Woodstock Academy, Connecticut Sergio Chejfec Baroni: A Journey Trans. Margaret Carson. Mumbai. Almost Island. 2017. 155 pages. Works of fiction are sometimes excerpted in literary magazines ahead of their publication . Baroni: A Journey, Sergio Chejfec’s eighth book and his fourth to be translated into English, debuted at the third KochiMuziris Biennale in 2016. Portions of it were pasted on the walls of Kochi, in the southern Indian state of Kerala, to form the artwork Dissemination of a Novel. Originally published in 2007 in Buenos Aires (Chejfec’s hometown), Baroni is Almost Island’s first incursion in non-Indian territory and a remarkable choice of both author and book. The Baroni of the title is Rafaela Baroni, a Venezuelan folk artist born in 1935 and living (as of March 2018) in her anagrammatically named house museum, “El Paraíso de Aleafar,” some 370 miles southwest of Caracas. Like many folk artists, Baroni is a complex and many-sided cultural mediator whose work blurs the boundaries between creative and healing powers. Known for her wooden sculptures of local saints and virgins, brightly colored and fantastically adorned, she is also an original performance artist. Chejfec tells us how occasionally “Baroni performs her own funeral: she dresses in the appropriate attire, a blue dress, which she put together for that purpose, and she lies down in the coffin, homemade as well, where she remains motionless for a long time.” At the heart of this enactment is what Chejfec calls a “double gaze,” enabling the artist to see “herself through the eyes of those who have stayed alive, and [to offer] to the living the lesson of seeing her dead.” By the same double perspective, the funeral performance is Baroni’s way to look simultaneously backward, to her own experiences of death as a result of cataleptic attacks, and forward, to the real event that, although irreversible, she will have rehearsed too many times to go wrong. Chejfec has a unique and compelling way of exploring the inner...