Sixth Graders Studying Natural Resources

As a student, I remember differentiating between natural and non-natural resources. Stop. Today, students interact with natural resources on a more complex level. Two picture books that can assist students in exploring our natural resources are The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind and Tracking Trash: Flotsam, Jetsam and the Science of Ocean Motion.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind to teach

S6E6. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about the uses and conservation of various natural resources and how they impact the Earth.

a. Ask questions to determine the differences between renewable/sustainable energy resources (examples: hydro, solar, wind, geothermal, tidal, biomass) and nonrenewable energy resources (examples: nuclear: uranium, fossil fuels: oil, coal, and natural gas), and how they are used in our everyday lives.

b. Design and evaluate solutions for sustaining the quality and supply of natural resources such as water, soil, and air.

What Makes This Book Special? As seen in this blog post, the illustrations are a combination of painting and collage. This mixed media (Matulka, 2008) technique by the illustrator offers engaging pictures for students to view as they listen to the remarkable story of how the protagonist makes a windmill to bring electricity to his village. This story, does was O'Neil (2009) says postmodern books should do--it exposes children to cultural issues different from their own. This book disrupts deficit perspectives of undeveloped countries in Africa by depicting and telling a story of perseverance and innovation. This disruption is another indication that this book can be classified as postmodern (O'Neil, 2009). Cueto and Brooks (2019) discuss how black illustrators, such as Elizabeth Zunon (illustrator of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind), assist the movement to disrupt normed societal thinking of Black Americans with illustrations to challenge through perceptions. The illustrations in this story, do as Cueto and Brooks (2019 urge, present readers with images juxtapose to traditional black roles and compelling them to see black children in different roles.

Tracking Trash: Flotsam, Jetsam and the Science of Ocean Motion to teach

S6E3. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to recognize the significant role of water in Earth processes.

d. Analyze and interpret data to create graphic representations of the causes and effects of waves, currents, and tides in Earth’s systems.

What Makes This Book Special? Like most informational books, photography is used in this picture book (Matulka, 2008). However, there are also illustrations of maps and currents throughout the story. Again, I find that mixed-media illustrations bring character to the text. The visual elements in this book are also symmetrically placed. The symmetrical composition makes the book feel balanced (Matulka, 2008) as you read it and allows the reader to process the information in an organized fashion. It also made this picture book feel more informational than narrative, a divergence from most of the books in this blog. However, one element that resembled "remixed" (Graff and Shimek) informational text is the direct address (Graff and Schimek, 2020).

You will notice in this caption that the author says, "you will see the ocean move" (Burns, p. 11, 2007). Graff and Schimek (2020) inform us that when authors direct their voice to the readers with the word "you", it enables a connection to abstract concepts. This picture and caption do just that. Amidst text about ocean currents, this says, "think about it, when you look at the ocean, it's moving, right?!"