How-to books

Teaching Pre K-8, Apr 2003 by Drasek, Lisa Von

Kids can hone their skills in following directions -- as well as cooking, drawing and sewing - with these titles

While browsing curriculum goals for a range of developmental levels, it became apparent to me that one skill objective repeats itself from preK to eighth grade: following directions.

We all know that following directions is an important strategy for solving or preventing problems in daily life. Following directions helps us to avoid inefficiency and trial-and-error responses. In familiar situations we can learn to predict what our next steps might be. In new situations we need to look for and follow directions carefully.

Get cooking

A children's cookbook is the perfect place to start teaching kids about following directions. For children, exploring food and cooking is not just about eating, it can also be a playful activity, a way to reinforce reading and math skills and a way to learn a basic life skill.

An essential reference for every early childhood classroom is the modern classic Pretend Soup and Other Real Recipes: A Cookbook for Preschoolers & Up by Molly Katzen (Tricycle, 1994, ISBN: 1-- 883-67206-6); for elementary school classrooms there's Katzen's Honest Pretzels: And 64 Other Amazing Recipes for Cooks Ages 8 & Up (Tricycle, 1999, ISBN: 1-883-67288-0).

The appeal of these titles lies in the "real" recipes, easy-to-follow layout and straightforward instructions. The first part of each recipe is written in the traditional recipe format: the list of ingradients followed by step-by-step instructions. This information is followed by a two-page spread of the steps with simple illustrations so that even very young children can follow the directions.

Give and take

Learning to give clear directions is just as important as learning to follow directions. When we give directions to other people we're practicing effective communication. We learn the obvious, such as we cannot follow all directions at the same time.

Creating instructions for others to follow isn't always easy. One of my classroom activities that creates endless delight for our third and fourth graders begins like this:

"Is anyone here an expert in making something - for example, a food? Oh, you make French toast? Can you tell me how to make it?"

Then the student talks me through the instructions as I write each step on chart paper. When we read the finished instructions, we often find that we've told our reader to mix the eggs without telling him or her to break them first, or said to add something with no measurement specified, or that we've forgotten to tell our reader to turn on the oven or instructed him or her to pick up a hot pot of boiling water - but there's been no mention of oven mitts.

Write it down

With piles of cookbooks and how-to books for reference, we let the students loose with markers and paper to create their own instructions. The kids don't worry about spelling or format on the first drafts.

When the students have finished writing their directions, we ask them to read the directions to their peers, who gleefully point out steps that are missing.

For this activity, we draw reference material from one of the most popular sections of our library - the "how-to" section. The children have tremendous interest in books about how to draw, make paper airplanes, make pop-up cards; presents, origami and, of course, how to cook. All of these books help to build skill in reading and following directions.

Our favorite how-to books

The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Children's Cookbook by Marianne Zanzarella (Sterling Publishing, 2002, ISBN: 1-588-16193-5) contains more than 50 recipes from simple breakfasts to putting dinner on the table.

How To Draw Comics the Marvel Way by Stan Lee and John Buscema (Fireside, 1984, ISBN: 0-671-53077-1) is one book that never sits on the shelf for long. It's possible to draw our favorite super heroes without years of art lessons and here are the directions. This title is often a breakthrough book for a student who isn't a strong reader.

A wonderful Canadian publisher, Kids Can Press, publishes the "Kids Can Do It" craft book series. These are quality books with easy-to-follow illustrated directions.

Knitting is part of our third grade curriculum, so we can't live without the "Kids Can Do It" title Knitting by Judy Ann Sadler, illustrated by Esperanca Melo (Kids Can Press, 2002, ISBN: 1-553-- 37051-1). More ambitious knitters can move on to Kids Knitting: Projects for Kids ofAll Ages by Melanie Falick (Artisan, 1998, ISBN: 1-885-18376-3).

Another hot topic around here is paper airplanes - we even have a designated flying zone in the library. Take a look at Super Simple Paper Airplanes by Nick Robinson (Sterling Pubfishing, 1998, ISBN: 0-- 806-93779-3) for design ideas.

Not only can these books help us to hone students' skills with following and giving directions, we sometimes end up with delicious classroom snacks, a spare pair of mittens and colorful comic-book artwork for the bulletin board. Enjoy!

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