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Author Studies |
The first author that we study is Tomie de Paola. Tomie de Paola is both an author and illustrator. He has written many picture books and has recently started a series of chapter books. He writes stories about a variety of characters, as well as his own family. His books are good springboards for my students to get ideas for their own writing. He also retells various legends, folktales, and nursery rhymes.
The first book that I use is The Art Lesson . This is a story about the author as a child desiring to be a real artist. We will make text-to-self and text-to-world connections to better comprehend this book. All books that I read from this author are added to the author's tree in our classroom library.
Site for all his books:
We will discuss the different kinds of books Tomie de Paola wrote that I have read and create a graph displaying our results. There will also be graphs that show our favorite books and characters.
These graphs are from last year's class.
This year, I am
spending more time building schema for authors as well as characters. I read several books about a character called
Big Anthony from the Strega Nona books.
My students were able to apply what they already knew about his
character and make predictions before listening to others featuring him. They truly enjoy his antics!
Teacher sites:
http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/depaola.htm
http://www.childrenslit.com/f_depaola.html
Book guides for dePaola:
http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/now/nowtg.htm
http://www.looseleafbookcompany.com/archives/0131/tr1.html
http://discover.npr.org/features/feature.jhtml?wfId=1035856
http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/lionni.htm
The second author we study will be Leo Lionni. Leo Lionni writes animal stories that teach a lesson (fables). Like Tomie dePaola, he also is the illustrator for his books.
The first book that I read in this series is Swimmy. It is a good book that reinforces cooperation and is a good model for level C of our Raise Responsibility System discipline plan.
Site for Lionni’s books:
http://www.alibris.com/search/search.cfm
The third author that we study will be Gail Gibbon, a writer of non-fiction books. The first two books that I read written by this author are Pumpkins and Thanksgiving. I use some of her books as models for report writing and mini lessons for labels, diagrams, and captions. My students enjoy ‘writing like Gail Gibbons’ using labels and diagrams in their non-fiction writing.
Site for all her books:
http://www.alibris.com/search/search.cfm
During Earth Day week, I read my students Recycle: A Handbook for Kids. This book is good for reinforcing citizenship in my students. It encourages them to be good models at home and at school.
recycling links:
http://www.greenvalley.com/coloring/colorme1.html
coloring pages
http://www.planetpals.com/earthday.html
activities
http://www.planetpals.com/pprecycle.html
recycling game http://www.funbrain.com/recycle/index.html
Earth Day links:
http://atozteacherstuff.com/themes/environment.shtml
http://www.theteacherscorner.net/thematicunits/earthday.htm
http://members.aol.com/awallhb/index.html
Another favorite author of my students is Marc Brown. Marc Brown writes the
"Arthur" books. The children are familiar with many of these books
because of the TV program on PBS.
authors’ websites: http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/%7Edkbrown/authors.html
Mem
Fox http://members.aol.com/awallhb/index.html
http://www.carolhurst.com/authors/alobel.html
frog & toad (Lobel) http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/frog/frogtg.html
book guides http://www.westga.edu/~kidreach/antguide2.html
literature activities links:
search site http://www.educ.ucalgary.ca/litindex/
http://www.richmond.k12.va.us/readamillion/LITERATURE/literature_lesson_plans_c.htm
book search link http://www.lib.muohio.edu/pictbks/search/
Robert Munsch
http://myschoolonline.com/folder/0,1872,12026-171840-15-37736,00.html
We share everything (bookaudio) http://www.robertmunsch.com/playstory.cfm?id=14
Lobel:
http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/arnoldlobel.htm
