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Milner Library

TCH 264 - Language Arts Instruction Strategies

A guide meant to provide or supplement library instruction to support the integrated multicultural unit and refection assignment.

Table 3: Wind Power

Directions

The twenty example texts have been sub-divided thematically into five sections for more focused review. Your group is looking at materials which would focus on wind power.

This text set is aligned with the Next Generation Science Standard 4-ESS3-1: Obtain and combine information to describe that energy and fuels are derived from natural resources and their uses affect the environment. [Clarification Statement: Examples of renewable energy resources could include wind energy, water behind dams, and sunlight; non-renewable energy resources are fossil fuels and fissile materials. Examples of environmental effects could include loss of habitat due to dams, loss of habitat due to surface mining, and air pollution from burning of fossil fuels.] 

Within your group, decide who examines which of the four texts. (Note: If you have more than four group members, put multiple people on whichever text(s) seems the most complicated. If you have fewer than four group members, choose which text(s) not to review).

After reviewing your text(s) reflect on the following questions and take notes on your thoughts:

  1. Describe how your text is related to renewable energy and what specific concepts, ideas, or skills it addresses.  
  2. How is or could the text be connected to investigating a social issue, social change, and advocacy? 
  3. What would students already have to know or understand to engage with your text? What would students be able to learn from your text? 
  4. Would you recommend including this text in a text set for 4th graders on renewable energy, why or why not? 
  5. How do you imagine using such a text instructionally when designing a unit on renewable energy sources for 4th graders? 

Reconvene with your group members and report back on your text, sharing answers to the above questions. This verbally models the annotations you will do when constructing your own text set when completing the Integrated Multicultural Unit Reflection assignment. 

  • How could your texts work together or complement each other instructionally?

Be prepared to share out your group's thoughts with the larger class after reviewing this section of the larger example text set. 

Text 9 - Biography

Cover Art

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

When fourteen-year-old William Kamkwamba's Malawi village was hit by a drought, everyone's crops began to fail. Without enough money for food, let alone school, William spent his days in the library . . . and figured out how to bring electricity to his village. Persevering against the odds, William built a functioning windmill out of junkyard scraps, and thus became the local hero who harnessed the wind. Lyrically told and gloriously illustrated, this story will inspire many as it shows how - even in the worst of times - a great idea and a lot of hard work can still rock the world.

Kamkwamba, W., & Mealer, B. (2012). The boy who harnessed the wind. Dial Books for Young Readers.

Text 10 - Non-Fiction Book

Cover Art

Birds vs. Blades?

It's a chilly winter evening. A northern gannet lets out a loud graaak. Swiftly and carefully, a scientist scoops the bird off the surface of the water into a net so that a team of experts can implant a high-tech tag. Scientists will track this seabird--and many others--to learn its movement patterns over the following years. Find out how scientists are working to ensure clean, renewable offshore wind power won't spell disaster for the millions of seabirds that play a critical role in the ocean food web.

Hirsch, R. E. (2017). Birds vs. blades?: Offshore wind power and the race to protect seabirds. Millbrook Press.

Text 11 - Children's Drawings

National Wind Energy Art Contest. KidWind. (2024). https://kidwind.org/art-challenge/

Text 12 - Art Installation

Marold, P. (n.d.). Windmill project 2000-present. Patrick Marold. https://www.patrickmarold.com/projects/windmill-project-2000present

Additional Links