Make the Microscopic Meaningful in 7th Grade

As I reviewed the 7th grade GSE science standards; a flashback to my 7th grade self appeared. While I loved studying plants and animals; understanding the "building blocks" of life created a dense fog in my brain. Cells and microscopic organisms seemed totally irrelevant. Heredity made my adolescent self giggle with my table partner. Latching on to the complicated content specific vocabulary of this important topic became a source of frustration. As a wordsmith, even then, I know that if I struggled, many others struggled.

Now that I embark on the task of inspiring middle school students to enter the science fair, I find myself looking to picture books to help reel students into the increasingly complex world of science. In my search, I have identified The Vast Wonder of the World: Biologist Ernest Everett Just, Gregor Mendell: The Friar Who Grew Peas, and Do People Really Have Tiny Insects Living in their Eyelashes? to help engage my students this school year. Continue reading to learn about the text features that make these books engaging. Meander over to the "Top 15" section for bibliographic information and the "Pinterest" section to see the books and descriptions.

S7L2. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to describe how cell structures, cells, tissues, organs, and organ systems interact to maintain the basic needs of organisms.

a. Develop a model and construct an explanation of how cell structures (specifically the nucleus, cytoplasm, cell membrane, cell wall, chloroplasts, lysosome, and mitochondria) contribute to the function of the cell as a system in obtaining nutrients in order to grow, reproduce, make needed materials, and process waste.

What Makes This Book Special? The Vast Wonder of the World is a picture biography book, a genre frequently misunderstood by children and young adults (Zarnowski, 2019). This book gives students a view of an African American scientist supported by congruent pictures, which elaborate on the words on the pages (Sipe, 2012). These types of pictures can help students understand the text as a biography. The reader must synthesize words with text as the double-page spreads illustrates the author's descriptions, creating a complimentary picture book, where the pictures fill in the gaps (Sipe, 2012) between the words and reader's knowledge. I think this book represents picture books as described by Matulka (2008) who states that the pictures should "dominate the page" in picture books. The small font text places the text in a supporting role (Matulka, 2008) to the robust illustrations that tell the story of biologist Ernest Just.

Do People Really Have Tiny Insects Living in their Eyelashes? to teach...

S7L1. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to investigate the diversity of living organisms and how they can be compared scientifically.

a. Develop and defend a model that categorizes organisms based on common characteristics.

What Makes This Book Special? When I read this book, I knew it couldn't be read to necessarily teach the standard. However, I think it has tremendous potential to provide real-life examples of bacteria, viruses and some of the small organisms that students will be asked to know. It also models how to investigate these organisms and may provide scaffolding to their own investigations. Sipe (2012) gives us Ahlberg's statement (cited in Moss, 1990, p. 21) that some picture books are an "interweaving of picture and words". This book does this with illustrations or photographs set as the backgrounds of the pages, with smaller pictures inlayed in the pages surrounded by text boxes of information, captions and catchy questions. Page 7, seen below, demonstrates this. What is also noticeable about the picture is the presentation of texture. Matulka (2008) describes texture in pictures in creating the feeling of wanting to reach out and touch the picture. In this case, I can see students cringing at the idea of touching this picture because of the texture conveyed in the picture of the eyelash mite. The illustrator here shows emphasis of the eyelash mite and he continues to create focal points like this throughout the book. Emphasis is when the illustrator creates a focal point that the reader looks at first and then views the other images on the page (Matulka, 2008). Turning to the text, we find on each page in this book, a combination of "primary and ancillary information" which diverges from traditional non-fiction text (Graff and Schimek, 2020). The author tries to use some of these text features to infuse humor. It is an effective but unconventional use (Graff and Schimek, 2020).

Gregor Mendell: The Friar that Grew Peas to teach...

S7L5. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information from multiple sources to explain the theory of evolution of living organisms through inherited characteristics.

b. Construct an explanation based on evidence that describes how genetic variation and environmental factors influence the probability of survival and reproduction of a species.

What makes this book special? I like the idea of using this picture book biography to put a face to the theory. As a student, I remember hearing the name and memorizing what he did. I think students would make more connections and solidify learning by adding Mendell's biography to the unit. This is a text heavy book, which may make it too long to read in its entirety as a picture book read aloud, but I would still use it, highlighting chunks of text. This text is also special because it looks like a work of art. It brought to life, Sipe's (2012) assertion that picture books are "sophisticated aesthetic objects (p. 4)". Phinney and Colabucci (2010) tell us that typography of text should be high quality, well designed and honor the message of the story. Sometimes it can also transmit the mood of the text (Phinney and Colabucci, 2010), and the exquisite script-like font seems to set the mood of telling Mendell's story. That story telling mood also represents the "mash-up" nature of this book--part informational science, part biography, part narrative (Graff and Schimek, 2020).The illustrations in this picture book biography are as beautiful as the font. What struck me the most is the varying perspectives. Matulka (2008) tells us that there is both linear and atmospheric perspective. Some pictures are drawn from overhead (aerial) and other pictures are drawn linear, but from a variety of angles. It makes reading the book very interesting.