If America Were A Village: A Book About The People Of The United States (2009) - Plot & Excerpts
Theme: processing facts, awareness of the people and cultures around usI first heard about this book in EDR 624 and as soon as it was introduced I knew I needed to read it! What a cool book that presents a ton of information in a way that second graders can wrap their head around. I love all the different topics and the facts presented. As I read each page I was visualizing the US as a village of 100.Classroom connection: I am going to use this book for our families unit as well as when we talk about differences in families. It would also be a great book to use during our factions unit. I think this would be a great book to have in our classroom library where the kids can read during daily 5. If America Were a VillageA Book about the People of the United Statesby: David J. Smith, Illus. by Shelagh ArmstrongIntermediate and up Kids Can Press (2009) 32p.ISBN-10: 1554533449 $12.89"Each person in this village of 100 will represent more than 3 million Americans in the real world."David Smith takes the 306 million people living in America and describes them in the context of 100 people living in the village of America. This picture book is more of a resource than it is a story. It doesn't read as a narrative but as expository text relaying information about the religions, economy, ethnicity, language , etc. of the people of the Village of America. The illustrations are beautifully done and support the sentiment of the text. However a novice reader could not use the illustrations to assist in their understanding of the text.While the information is useful, I believe it is a challenging text to use in the classroom setting. You could read this book with children in the 3rd grade through 12th. I believe it has a place at a wide range of levels. However there are some draw backs to the style of writing and "story pattern". Visual and spacial learners would have to "see" the numbers as you're reading it. Although 100 is a much smaller number than 306 million, it is still difficult to visualize. The author of the book includes some suggestions in making the text come alive in the last pages of the book. (awesome resource). In the past, I've used another of David Smith's titles in may class IF THE WORLD WERE A VILLAGE. In that lesson I created a power point and used bingo chips to help illustrate the numbers depicted in the text. Even after the lesson, I found it imperative for the students to read the book for themselves. The second reading really brought the idea homeEven after stating all of that, I plan on using this book to begin the year in the fall as an introduction to the modern American society. I will be teaching about the America from the turn of the century to present day. I think this book will be an awesome start.
What do You think about If America Were A Village: A Book About The People Of The United States (2009)?
A good way to make big numbers more accessible for children. I wonder at the choice to call it
—Brenda
Nice to have to compare with If the World Were a Village. Great concept
—yamb2000
Great way to make statistics easier to visualize for kids.
—Meghan
