A well-written tradebook can paint a vivid picture of an important event or concept. Tradebooks can interest students in ways that most textbooks cannot. A well-written story could motivate students to explore a topic in greater depth. Tradebooks can help students comprehend and think about difficult social studies concepts. Tradebooks can be used to show different perspectives and interpretations of events and ideas.
Teachers can use tradebooks as a starting point for meaningful classroom discussions.
In C Is for Citizenhip , Singleton presents twenty titles that can be used to teach citizenship topics. The books Singleton has selected for this compendium run the gamut from Arthur Meets the President to The Bomb . Roses Are Pink, Your Feet Really Stink , by Diane deGroat, which teaches students in the younger grades about rules and values. Because he thinks Margaret and Lewis have been mean to him, Gilbert writes a mean poem on each one's Valentine and then signs the other's name. Soon, Margaret and Lewis figure out that Gilbert is responsible.