RE: Twenty-six

["Jenny Lando" <jenny@amnh.org>]

Children learning the alphabet need as much exposure to the way the letters
appear visually.  This leads to word recognition and eventually correct
pronunciation.

Teachers use a variety of alphabet books throughout their year.  When I
taught little kids, we had a dinosaur abc, insect abc, dog abc, etc.   It
gave the kids exposure to new "names" while reminding them that those 26
letters go a long way in our language.  And allowed me to remain  "on task"
thematically.

I agree with your second paragraph though.

Jenny Lando
Assistant Coordinator/Paleontology of Dinosaurs
Moveable Museum
Education Department:AMNH
Central Park West @ 79th Street
NYC NY 10024
212-769-5189
212-769-5329 (fax)

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
Ronald Orenstein
Sent: Friday, January 26, 2001 12:54 PM
To: turton@ev1.net; dinosaur@usc.edu
Subject: Re: Twenty-six


>I would like to weigh in here as an author of children's books,
>myself.  The trouble with using alphabetical order is that it teaches
>absolutely nothing to the readers of the books.  If there would be a way
>to develop an order or structure for your book that would, in itself, be
>both interesting and actually say something useful, I think the book would
>gain.

>You might consider an arrangement by time, or by geographical location
>(though if you did that I would certainly say something about the fact
>that the continents are not in the same place that they were in the
>Mesozoic), or perhaps even according to date of discovery (it might be
>interesting to show what kinds of dinosaurs were discovered in the 19th
>century compared with some of the ones that have turned up only in the
>past few years, and how that has helped us learn more about dinosaur
>variety; plus, it might give you a chance to talk about some of the very
>interesting people who have discovered dinosaurs down through the years).

--
Ronald I. Orenstein                           Phone: (905) 820-7886
International Wildlife Coalition              Fax/Modem: (905) 569-0116
1825 Shady Creek Court
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada L5L 3W2          mailto:ornstn@home.com