Hit: Author Studies

[Wayne and Harrow Strickland <w-hstrickland@MINDSPRING.COM>]

Hi All,

Thanks for all your information so far!  I am hoping for even more as more
people log on after the weekend! I received several requests for a hit so
here is what I have received so far.....
(I didn't include names b/c I wasn't sure if I was supposed to or not.  I
would like to credit the people who responded so if someone would let me
know what the protocol is on that, I would appreciate it!)

Mrs. Harrow Strickland
Media Specialist
Cary Woods Elementary
Auburn, AL
work- hstrickland@auburnschools.org
home- w-hstrickland@mindspring.com


1.  I use author studies with second and third grade classes, and I tend to
use
those authors who have videos available in my own collection or elsewhere
in the district and who have written books which are used in the pertinent
classroom.  Some of them are Eric Carle, Cynthia Rylant, Tomi de Paola, Dr.
Seuss, Laura Ingalls Wilder, ...

I use the same format for most lessons:  US or world map to locate the
birthplace and current place of residence; tell a few biographical facts
which I think will be meaningful for the age group; show and booktalk the
available books by that author; show a video of the author (or of one of
the books if no author video is available); invite the children to check
out one of the author's books.

This program usually takes 30 minutes, depending on the length of the video.


2.  Last year I started author studies and the kids and I loved it!  I chose
a
different author each month ( one elementary K-3 and one 4-8).  I set up a
small area for each in different parts of the library.  In the "author's
corner"  I displayed their books, put up posters about the authors
(available from Demco), and also typed a list of their books.  During their
library visits (fixed schedule, daily, 30 min.) I would talk about the
author and booktalk a few of the books.  If I had a video about the author
or one of their books, we would watch some or all of it.  Also, I would
choose one of their books to read aloud during that month.  I would try to
write to each author and let them know they were our author of the month.
Some wrote back!  Louis Sachar wrote a really nice letter and Marc Brown
sent an email from Arthur!  We really enjoyed our author studies!  Some of
the authors we studied are listed below.  Good luck and have fun!

Grades K-3:
Marc Brown
Eric Carle
Donald Crews
Dr. Seuss (in March!)
Maurice Sendak
Steven Kellogg
Bill Peet

Grades 4-8:
Louis Sachar
Beverly Cleary
Roald Dahl
Theodore Taylor
Judy Blume
Natalie Babbitt
Virginia Hamilton

3. In my seventh grade lit classes, the poets seem to be the best received
by
the students. We were able to do very successful internet biographical
searches of the most famous poets.  It seemed that the newer authors and
popular current names were more difficult to search, so we will try again
this year.

4.  I don't know if this what you have in mind, but at my previous school,
the
fifth graders did a unit on Betsy Byars.  The whole fifth grade was divided
into small groups and each group read a different Betsy Byars novel.  At the
end, we had a "celebration" in which each group created a unique
presentation to tell about the book they read.  Some make posters, some do
skits, dioramas, quilts, stuff like that.  In order for the groups to be
manageable size, other professional in the building join the teachers in
taking groups.

Last year we had 3 sections of fifth grade.  One section is an inclusion
class, so there were 2 teachers in that class, for a total of 4 classroom
teachers.  In addition, the LMS, school psychologist, a reading teacher, the
nurse, and I took groups, for a total of 9 groups.  I was a employed as a
paraprofessional, but was able to take a group because I am also a certified
teacher.  In most situations you probably would not be able to use your
parapro.  This arrangement works very nicely because it allows for small
groups and draws other building professionals into the class.  The number of
groups allows the students to be exposed to more novels than they might
ordinarily be.  We also use this arrangement when doing historical fiction
and biographies.  We call these units Literature Clubs.

5.  Hi -

I don't know what grade level you are addressing, but I do author studies
with K-2.  I usually tell them something about the author and then read as
many of the books by the author as possible.  We compare and contrast, if
possible.  I would also look them up on the Internet, if I had access to it
in my library.  I have printed out pages and brought them in for the kids to
see.  I use videos about the author and tapes by the author.  I have done
Cynthia Rylant for years.  I also do Daniel Pinkwater - he'd really be
better with older kids as his humor often goes over the heads of the younger
ones.  I have never used "canned' studies with the children, although I will
look in those for information about the author.  I have also done David
McPhail, Mark Teague, Chris Van Allsburg.  That's all I can think of at the
time.

6.  Hello
Last year I did an author study unit with my 7th graders. With a partner or
two, they had to read different books by the same author. Next they had to
research the author online. The unit was called Connections because they had
to lok for connections between the books and the author's life. They were
each responsible for a book talk, a written summary, and a group
presentation using Venn Diagrams.

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