ABSTRACT
Paula Fischer teaches reading with children's literature. The basal reading program involved the children in reading simple stories that were written to give them practice with the sounds from the phonics program. While the textbooks might teach children the mechanics of "how to read," literature helps them to develop as real readers—people who enjoy reading, know what they like, and are savvy consumers of what they read. The chapter addresses three of the most common obstacles: levelled books, decodable texts, and the faulty assumption that children who learn to read in literature-rich programs do not learn about phonics. Diverse literature opens up students' reading, writing, and art to the possibilities and opportunities of a more expansive reading, writing, and illustrator toolkit. Diverse authors and illustrators provide models of texts and the text-making process and inspire students to access their own histories to write and illustrate their lives and imaginations.
