Strategies/Methods
Author Studies
Author Studies is an approach that allows students to become immersed in the writings of one author and to begin to become an "expert" on him or her. Getting to know the author in this way is effective in helping students build connections and in recognizing recurring themes. By reading a collection of books by one author at a time, students practice the skills of inference and evaluation while experiencing the sheer joy of reading great stories.
Writer's Workshop
Writer's Workshop is an instructional model that embraces writing as an ongoing process, with students following a set of procedures for planning, drafting, revising, editing, and ultimately, publishing their work. Students in one classroom are likely to be at various stages of this writing process at any one time. The collaboration with peers and teachers is an integral component of this model, with the writing focused primarily on what the children want to communicate as opposed to responding to prompts determined by the curriculum. Student choice, hence, is important.
The Writer's Workshop model includes a component called the mini-lesson, a forum for making a suggestion to the whole class – raising a concern, exploring an issue, modeling a technique, reinforcing a strategy. They often look like miniature speeches, or brief lectures, but they are actually focused on context. This curriculum unit will be centered on the craft of writing about a small moment, otherwise known as zooming in. With the mentor texts as guides, the mini-lessons will offer insight into how to approach, create, edit and revise, and publish the various autobiographical moments the students choose to share.
Once all students have completed one autobiographical small moment picture book, the class will celebrate with a publishing event. This is a culminating component of the workshop model and offers each student a chance to publicly share their work, possibly with another class, with parents, with administrators, with former teachers, but certainly with each other. The students will help to determine the audience.
Art as a Way into Biography
The use of images, particularly portraits, provides for students a kind of launching pad. What can be determined and supposed about character through images? Art Authority is an app for iPads that brings the museums and galleries from around the world right into your classroom. It provides an extensive, varied supply of artwork that otherwise would be unseen by many. This creates a tremendous opportunity for students to use art, specifically portraiture, to think about character. Paintings of people known or unknown can be projected onto a screen, prompting students to think about the subject and to consider the questions of who, what, where and when. Viewing portraits can spark conversation and generate vocabulary that enriches not only the environment (classroom) but begins to find its way into the students' writing, a particular goal for this curriculum unit.
Mentor Texts
Throughout this unit, the students will engage in learning the skill of writing stories about themselves through examples by published authors. Several mentor texts by two children's authors will be highlighted to demonstrate the idea of taking a "small moment" in their lives and building a book or chapter around that moment. The texts and authors selected offer a variety of perspectives, and show that a simple experience is not that simple after all.
Patricia Palacco tells warm family tales drawn from her own childhood among an extended immigrant family of grandparents and cousins. She was born in Lansing, Michigan in 1944. Her family is of Ukranian and Russian descent on one side and Irish on the other. The early years of her life were spent on her grandmother's farm in Union City, Michigan, the setting for many of her stories. Although Polacco's grandmother died when Patricia was only five, Babushka (grandmother in Russian) appears in many of her books. Because her parents were divorced, Patricia and her brother moved back and forth between their parents' homes, spending the school year in Florida with their mother and the summers on the farm in Michigan with their father and his parents. These family experiences certainly influenced Patricia's life and work. In almost every one of her books, Patricia writes about a very young person interacting with an elderly person.
Patricia had great difficulty in school and did not learn to read until she was fourteen after one of her junior high school teachers discovered that she had dyslexia. Because reading was difficult, Patricia found expression through art and ultimately went to college, majoring in Fine Arts, continued through a graduate degree, and finally earned a Ph.D in Art History. For a time after college, Patricia restored ancient pieces of art for museums. As a mother of two, she devoted much of her time to their upbringing and education. Patricia's own words describe how she became a children's author of almost 60 books:
I did not start writing children's books until I was 41 years old. Mind you the "art" has always been there for me most of my life. Apparently one of the symptoms of my disability in academics is the ability of draw very, very well. So drawing, painting and sculpture has always been a part of my life even before I started illustrating my books. The books were quite a surprise, really. Mind you, I came from a family of incredible storytellers. When you are raised on HEARING stories.....NOT SEEING THEM, you become very good at telling stories yourself. 12
Some of Polacco's stories and books to share with students include:
Thunder Cake - Thunder Cake is the story of how Patricia conquered her childhood fear of Michigan thunderstorms with the help of her grandmother. By encouraging the young Patricia to ignore the approaching storm, the grandmother has the two wander outside to gather the ingredients for Thunder Cake, the perfect recipe for a rainy day.
Some Birthday - The entire family has forgotten Patricia's birthday. And to make matters worse, Dad has proposed an evening trip to the Clay Pit at the edge of town, one of the scariest places on earth.
Thank You, Mr. Falker – This story honors the teacher that took time to see a child that was struggling and needed help. Patricia was a dyslexic and had difficulty trying to learn along with the other students.
My Rotten, Red-Headed, Older Brother – This story shares Polacco's childhood relationship with her brother Richard, and their unending battle to outdo one another.
My Ol' Man – The author tells the story of the summer her father, a lovable, traveling salesman, discovers an ancient rock with mysterious lines that he believes to be magic. Da shows it to young Patricia and her brother, Ritchie, who seem convinced of the rock's powers as well. When their father is fired from his job, Ritchie is sure that the rock will help them; in its own way it does.
Tomie dePaola shares simple life experiences from his childhood in his work. His extended Irish and Italian family serves as a rich foundation for dePaola's storytelling style. Tomie was born on September 15, 1934 in Meriden, Connecticut. He grew up there with his father and mother, Joseph and Florence, and his brother and sisters, Joseph, Judie and Maureen. His parents and siblings are consistently featured in his memoirs, with many very specific adventures recounted in great detail. At the age of four, Tomie told anyone who would listen that he wanted to write stories and draw pictures for books and to sing and tap dance on the stage when he grew up. Tomie developed a love for books at an early age, probably because his mother loved books and read to Tomie every day as he shares in his comments during an interview with Reading Rockets on PBS:
My mother, she was an avid reader. In fact, my earliest memories of my childhood are my older brother; he was four years older, he was off in school, I would be home, and my mother to calm me down, because I was a very active child, I didn't like children, I liked to be with grownups, and my mother took me to the movies at an early, early age, because she'd go in the afternoon when it was cheaper and I got in free, because I was under five.But every day my mother would read to me. And she wouldn't, we didn't have books like we have now. I didn't have the books like the books I make. And maybe that's why I love making the books I make is because I wish I had had them when I was a child. But we had lots of legends and folktales. And I especially loved the Greek myths. I loved all those, you know, people with wings on their feet and horses that flew. 13
Tomie attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, received a degree in Fine Arts, and continued his education at The California College of Arts and Crafts. At different times, Tomie has designed posters, greeting cards, and stage sets. He painted church murals and taught art, too. Now, though, he writes and illustrates children's books and paints pictures for galleries. Tomie has now illustrated nearly 250 books and written the stories for over 100 of those books.
Included in the many choices of autobiographical stories are the eight books in his chapter series based on his childhood years from 1938 – 1942 in Meriden, Connecticut. He chronicles his memories and experiences from nursery school through second grade.
26 Fairmount Avenue
Here We All Are
On My Way
What A Year
Things Will Never Be The Same
I'm Still Scared (The War Years)
Why? (The War Years)
For the Duration (The War Years)
The picture book selections from his work are many, and this list identifies a few slice-of-family-life choices that demonstrate examples of writing about a small moment in time.
Nana Upstairs & Nana Downstairs - This is the story of Tommy as a 4-year-old boy and his close relationship with his 94-year-old great-grandmother. He loves visiting the home of his grandmother, Nana Downstairs, and his great-grandmother, Nana Upstairs. But one day Tommy's mother tells him Nana Upstairs won't be there anymore, and Tommy must struggle with saying good-bye to someone he loves.
The Art Lesson - Tommy knows he wants to be an artist when he grows up. He can't wait to get to school and have real art lessons. When Tommy gets to school and finds out that the art lessons are full of "rules", he is surprised and dismayed.
Tom - The story tells of the close relationship between Tommy and his namesake grandfather, Tom. They read the comics together, act out poems and make up stories, and play practical jokes.
The Baby Sister - Tommy's so excited that his mom is having a baby, and he asks her for a baby sister with a red ribbon in her hair. But he didn't ask for stern Nana Fall-River to come while his mom is in the hospital. Tommy and Nana don't get along very well, but when little Maureen is born, all the trouble is forgotten.
Stagestruck – Tommy's first grade class is putting on a play of Peter Rabbitand he wants the starring role. But, since Tommy talks too much in class, his teacher decides that he should play Mopsy instead.
Comments: