Andre+Johnson

Resources for my unit on the Human Body by Andre Johnson Most of these trade books are from my personal classroom library. Some of them are from our media center and were ordered specifically to support my curriculum. Others are just part of our media center’s collection. I have used trade books primarily to differentiate by reading level, but also to highlight certain parts of the text that are not covered well and to generate greater interest. Many of these books have graphics that are superior to our textbook, and most have a more interesting voice and style. Textbooks like ours are written by several authors, and the students and I often make a game out of trying to guess if the author was and author first/scientist second, or the other way around. Some of these trade books can be analyzed in the same fashion. My class consists of 5th graders with Lexiles ranging from below 425 (the lowest reported by our universal screening tool) to the 1100’s. This list contains texts that cover that range.

__Books:__ //Human Body// (2003) Caroline Bingham: Dorling Kindersley Limited. This book is organized by organ systems. No Lexile, easier vocabulary with >50 % graphics. //Control Freak// (2007) Steve Parker: Raintree. This book is focused on the nervous system. No Lexile, AR reading level 6.2 //Major Systems of the Body// (2002) Stephane Batigne: World Almanac Library. Extremely technical in its style and content. AR reading level 10.3 //The Way We Work// (2008) David Macaulay. Very technical in its jargon, this author’s strength is in his illustrations that can be used to support other texts as well as this one. This book is no Lexile, but others of his that are similar run from L1080 to L1260 //The Stomach: Learning How We Digest// (2002) James Toriello: The Rosen Publishing Group Inc. Digital imagery is the hallmark of this text, the writing is a little dry. AR reading level 7.5 //Rattle Your Bones// (1991) David Clemasha and Andrea Zimmerman: Scholastic Inc. This book introduces concepts of the skeletal system while giving directions on drawing. AR reading level 3.2 //The Anatomy Coloring Book// (1993) Wynn Kapit and Lawrence Elson: Harper Collins. Designed for study by medical students, this text is extremely technical. I’ve use many of the drawings to support other texts. //Human Body: Easy make & learn Projects// (1999) Donald Silver and Patricia Wynne: Scholastic Inc. Coloring, cutting and pasting projects that support concepts of organ systems. Scholastic recommendation grades 2 – 4. //Human Body: Web-based activities// (2010) Laura Allen Scholastic Inc. Each activity connects information about an organ system to a scholastic-developed web page. Scholastic recommendation grades 3-6. //Skeleton// (1988) Steve Parker: Alfred A. Knopf. My go to book for comparative anatomy, pictures, not drawings are the strength of the graphics. Students make their own comparisons and conclusions about phylogenetic relationships based on comparisons of the graphics. __Websites:__ [] Hands-on science experiments that demonstrate what’s happening inside the body. [] supported by the Smithsonian, there are interactive models on many organ systems with zoom and perspective controls. Each screen has accompanying text. Spanish and English. [] Students create text to support the graphic “book” presented. Word banks with vocabulary nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are included. [] I-pad apps about the human body that are geared toward lower reading requirements. The Skeletal system and some others are free. [] Anatomy, physiology and health topics in simple text. Spanish and English.