The Declaration of Independence is one of the A True Book series of photo essays. The book describes in an intermediate grade level vocabulary how the Declaration of Independence came to be. I love that the book discusses the document beginning with how the colonies began-- this fits perfect with our social studies series and I know my students will love the additional information! I felt that the best thing about the book was not exactly the content that was within it, but instead the way that it started off with two true or false questions for the students to predict before they read-- what a great way to get their attention before reading a non-fiction book. I could see taking those questions and putting them on the clicker system that we use in my classroom and having the students answer them that way; non-fiction always seems to be offputting for a lot of students so this would be a fun way to distract them from the fact that they are reading non-fiction.
The organization of the book was great; it is broken into four chapters beginning with why the colonies were started and why they were unhappy, then going to how the colonists started standing up to the king and the things he was doing that they did not like, leading them to the decision of going to war, and finally ending with the Declaration of Independence and what it stands for. The pictures and captions that go along with the information are great, many of which are also in our Social Studies books so I can see students having an easier time making the connections between the two.
The author uses a very formal tone in the writing of this book, there is a lot of information and instead of talking conversationally she chose to give you the information much like a text book would... except more kid friendly. The vocabulary that the author uses is great and aligns perfectly with our social studies content. As I was reading I didn't really see any words that were not bold and supposed to be new for the students that they wouldn't understand; many times I feel like in non-fiction the author will use difficult words in their writing that have nothing to do with the main topic so it sort of puts students off-- that was not the case in this book.
I definitely see myself using this book in my classroom this year! Using expository texts is definitely a weakness of mine that I want to work on, so this is a great way to start towards my goal!
If you were writing a declaration for something what would it be for and how would you start it?
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