CHILDREN’S LITERATURE DEVELOPMENT PROJECT (ChiLD)

Over the years, elementary literacy programmes have evolved from textbooks, skill-based instructional programmes into literature-based, process-oriented, whole language programmes . This has meant that teachers must choose materials that will meet their instructional goals and, at the same time, motivate their students to read and write. For most teachers and schools, the choice of children’s literature is very much influenced by the syllabus and the national curriculum. This choice of children’s literature usually includes fiction and nonfiction books that play a variety of roles in the reading and writing lessons. Unfortunately, these books may not be of the students’ interest and thus may undermine the overall goal of literacy instruction which is not only to develop capable readers but also readers who are motivated to read for the sake of reading.

This project aims at identifying children’s choices of books, the literary qualities and book characteristics that influence children’s choices of books for independent reading.

On this website, children, teachers and parents can find a collection of children’s stories online that may be of interest to them. The stories in the ‘Stories’ section are sorted according to levels of difficulty and they range from Level 1 up to Level 6.

Besides online story books, there are videos on nursery rhymes and read aloud stories that might be of interest to kindergarten students and teachers. Teachers and parents of special education will find these videos helpful too.

Parents, teachers and children are also welcome to submit their stories. If the stories are accepted by the selection committee of the project, they will be published on the website and this will add to the pool of existing stories here.

The Activities section labeled as ‘Try These’ consists of fun and interesting literature based activities for everyone.

Specifically for parents and educators, this section contains useful tips to help increase skills in teaching.

The comments section at the bottom of some pages also allows teachers, parents, and children to present their reviews or comments on stories published in this website. It will also give them the opportunity to read what others have to say about the stories that they have read here.

We hope the stories will stimulate children’s interest in reading and broaden their reading choices.