I posted a question last week stating that I want to do a Patricia Polacco author
study with my third graders. I've never done an author study before, and wasn't
sure how to get started, what to include, etc. I got a lot of suggestions and
ideas. Thanks everyone, for your insight and creativity! In addition to all the
help I received from other librarians, I found some great sites just by Googling.
Here are a few of those...
http://www.manning.k12.ia.us/Elementary/teachers/jahnt/polaccoauthorstudy.html
http://www.hesd.k12.ca.us/003/
http://www.readinglady.com/Author_Studies/Patricia_Polacco/patricia_polacco.html
And here are the responses I received from the list...
Develop a list of things we know about Polacco books - see the posting
below. I got it off of one of my other lists, and do not know the author,
but it is a great idea:
Author "Fingerprints"
One of the things I did with author schema came from the book On Their Way:
Celebrating Second Graders as They Read and Write by Fraser & Skolnick. They
call author study "author fingerprints" and explain it by saying: "Adults
recognize writers, painters, or composers by style. When we see a painting
by Monet, we know it is his without looking at the signature. The same is
true for authors and illustrators." (p 67) They title a chart "(author
name)'s Fingerprints" and have the kids offer their ideas about that
author's characteristics as an author and illustrator. They list these as
generalizations about the author. Then the kids revisit the books as
"detectives" to find proof of the generalizations. They copy the
generalizations from the chart onto a piece of paper and find examples to
share, writing which page in which book they found their proof.(Example: on
a page of generalizations about James Marshall, one of them might say "He
uses lots of humor." Then below that statement it says: Book______ and the
kids write the title and page number.) They create class books for each
author they have studied. In the class book they include the lists of books
by that author, their "proof" sheets, and some reading response sheets (a
page with the book's title, a drawing by the student, and 2 - 3 sentences
about one of these: special language, favorite part, dislikes, feelings as
you read, surprises, or illustrations) that have been
done by class members.
Last year, rather than have kids fill out papers, I had them use sticky
notes labeled with a couple of words that explained the "fingerprint" they
found. They brought the books to the sharing circle and as they discussed
their examples, held them up to show the "evidence" found and talk about why
they picked that page or illustration. The sticky note was left in the book
so another child could think about that example as they read the book. But
that's where it ended for me last year (okay. . . and by admitting this, I
want to say WOW, what a big OOPS! and missed opportunity last year!). I
can see that for this year, my next step will be to help the kids discuss
and understand HOW knowing about author fingerprints will support them as
readers when they read this author in the future. I might take the chart
idea above and create an "anchor chart" about that author. After I write
the characteristic or generalization offered by the kids, I could leave room
right on the chart to write the titles of the books/page numbers that are
shared in our discussion circle. I would also like to add sticky notes at
the bottom of the chart with the kids' ideas of how this will support them
as readers.
Here are some "fingerprints" for Patricia Polacco:
Family
Friendship, responsibility
Ethnic background
Families difficult times
Historical issues (slavery, war)
Descriptive images
Biographical (some)
In the background there are photographs of people
I have also attached an author schema notetaking sheet developed by Ginger
Weincek, moderator of the Mosaic Listserve. The example is my own,
developed for a workshop last year. I would have students work in pairs to
fill this out, after I modelled it using some of the books I am reading
aloud.
I have a PP bio which I downloaded from her website, I plan to give that to
the students to read and write 3 facts about PP. If you want that, I can
send it to you. It is in Word. Overall, I think the purpose of author
studies is for the students to discover how knowing the style of an author
and what to expect in their books, helps them to come to a deeper meaning
and understanding of the book (i.e. accessing what they already know before
reading the book).
I did a 'sort of' author study with grade ones last year. We looked at
Beatrix Potter. I read a variety of the stories to the students, we
discussed similarities and differences between the stories/illustrations.
The students did activities like a "wanted poster" for the rabbits & a few
other 'things' (sorry I'm at home & can't recall everything we did). I did
find a number of ideas at the Beatrix Potter web site - including an author
biography. We also discussed how the author's life/era influenced the
stories & a Venn diagram comparing the two different rabbits (Peter & his
cousin).
Also did a mini-study of Laura Numeroff's books - "If You Give a Moose a
Muffin" - "...a Pig a Pancake" - "...a Mouse a Cookie" - with kindergarten
students. We talked about the similarities between the stories then the
students came up with 'group' sentences like "If you give a zebra a
zucchini she'll want to go to the zoo" then the students drew illustrations
of "their" sentence.
Have been considering looking at Jan Brett's stories with my grade 3
classes. Several of her books have a winter/Christmas theme & there are
tons of resources available on her web site.
We'll compare different stories/illustrations then I'll have the students
pick their favorite & explain why...or something along those lines. Will
also include 'library skills' by having the students put her titles in
alphabetical order & use the dictionary for "vocab" words.
Sorry, don't have more specific details to offer you. I hadn't actually
intended an author study of Beatrix Potter - the students' interest after I
read them the first story encouraged a more in-depth look at her stories.
The books were signed out continually by the grade ones during & after our
"study."
I do a unit in the spring on Patricia Polacco. I start in March by
reading "Thunder Cake" and pass out the recipe from the back of the book.
I usually make the cake for at least one class of second graders who have
been especially well behaved (I have 4 second grades). Since we are close
by tornado alley, our kids are well aware of spring storms and can relate
to this book. I also use "Just Plain Fancy" and we use encyclopedias to
research the Amish and Pennsylvania and display some quilts. Our third
book is "Mrs. Katz and Tush" and there is a Reading Rainbow that has this
story and a visit to a Jewish friend of LeVar Burton's. Since we are
usually close to Passover and Easter by this time, we make the connection
with this book and the last one. There is another
Reading Rainbow that has Patricia Polacco making psanky eggs, so we watch
it as we study "Rechenka's Eggs." We learn about the symbols of the
designs on psanky eggs and design our own just with crayons and paper.
I bought a study guide on Patricia Polacco from Scholastic, but have not
had a chance to look at it. I am sure it will have lots of good ideas.
There are so many good Patricia Polacco books...I could almost
spend all year just reading and doing activities with her books!
Have fun.
When I do author studies I usually put interesting author info on chart paper. I
use an outline format -favorite foods, how he got started writing, where he lives,
pets etc. using different colors for interest. I also get pics of the author to add
to the poster, sometimes I add quotes from articles. I list any awards he has
gotten. I usually start with reading a book or selection by this author. Then read
the chart. Depending on the class I read aloud again, book talk books by him or
have a work sheet with questions for the students to answer referring to the chart
information.
As I have only done one, I am not sure that I will be of much help.... I
did mine on Chris Van Allsburg. I told them a little about the author, told
them some interesting facts about his books - about the art work and the
fact that the little dog appears in all of the books. We then read a couple
of the books and they tried to spot the dog. I did my author study in one
class period and gave the teacher some activities she could do to extend the
lesson if she chose to do so.
If I remember correctly, all of Ms. Polacco's books are about her or members
of her family. Or any other interesting fact that you could use to tie all
the books together. You can do a Google search for Polacco and "author
study" and find many different ways to present her and her books.
Here's an idea if you don't have a lot of computers. You look up the
websites yourself, then print off the resources and have a file of resources
for the students to read and take notes from. This should include a
biography of the author, reviews of the author's books, articles about the
books from librarians (check LM-NET archives, for example), etc. Then have
materials for students to write their own summaries of the books after they
read them, a journal in which they reflect on their feelings after reading
the books or connections they make with their lives or other books they've
read. The class can create a book with one page about each book and a page
for the biography.
These are just a few ideas. I hope you have fun with your author study. I
facilitate a course for PBS TeacherLine on creating author studies. Go to
the PBS website: http://www.pbs.org/teacherline and check to see when the
course will be offered and take it. It is a well-organized, quality course.
Dear Amanda, I would like to do an author study on Cynthia Rylant! I wasn't
sure how to start, so I began with her autobiography, and just read a few
pages, talking about her many relatives. Then I read "When the Relatives
Came." Next week I'll read another section and share another picture book
that connects with her life. I think you could do similar things with
Patricia's interviews!
Patricia Polacco visited our schools and library several years ago and
the kids loved her. I highly advise you to purchase Toni Buzzeo's book
"Terrific Connections with Authors, Illustrators, and Storytellers: Real
Space and Virtual Links" (Libraries Unlimited, ISBN: 1563087448). If you
can't have Patricia visit, you might consider a "virtual visit" with
her. Even if that isn't possible for you, there are ideas on how to
integrate author's works into all areas of the curriculum.
Just this week Toni presented a workshop on this topic at the AIME
(Association for Indiana Media Educators) Conference in Indianapolis and
at my library for sixty library media specialists and reading teachers
from our school corporation. Toni has many years of experience as a LMS
and is a fantastic educator, writer, and speaker (and a really nice
person!). She has tons of information on her website that will help you
also at www.tonibuzzeo.com.
Scholastic did her as one of the featured authors in one of their
videotapes for their bookfairs. It was quite interesting and only about
10 minutes long. If you could get a hold of that, it might be a great
way to start with her books. I also know that kids really like "My
rotten red headed older brother" so that would also be a great way to
start the unit. Bringing in her heritage and painted eggs might also
work. She's quite a colorful character. Then perhaps having them
create a book or small story where they highlight their heritage in
their story. IE if they are of Irish decent have them make a story that
brings in some of that background say perhaps with leprchauns.
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