Author Studies

Does anyone do author studies to teach reading strategies and author's craft in writing?  This wasn't something I was exposed to in college, so it is new ground for me.  I have done an Eve Bunting author study in the past and I am currently doing an Angela Johnson author study.  Angela Johnson is an Ohio author.  Her books relate to many of my students.  She has won three Coretta Scott King awards and one book was awarded an ALA notable award.  With two split-up weeks, I thought this was the best time to conduct our Angela Johnson author study.  We started with The Leaving Morning and Tell Me a Story, Mama.  Both books are very relatable to my students.  We discussed making connections and point of view.  This week, we will be reading When I Am Old With You and studying sentence fluency.  Angela Johnson is a great author to study in fourth grade because she has authored picture books for young children, middle grade and young adult novels, and poetry.  This offers a wide variety of books for the wide variety of reading levels in my classroom.  We will also be doing a mini-study of the historical fiction genre with her books Wind Flyers about the Tuskegee Airmen and A Sweet Smell of Roses about the March on Washington.  Both books offer opportunities for nonfiction companions.

If you would like to learn more about Angela Johnson and her books, you can visit her website at http://www.ajohnsonauthor.com/.  There is also an excellent video on Ohio Channel where Angela Johnson discusses her books and writing process.

If you would like to purchase my Angela Johnson author study, you can visit my Teachers Notebook shop.  I will have it discounted this week only!!

Book Talk Thursday-The False Prince

If you have not read this book yet, RUN, don't walk to your nearest bookstore and pick it up.  I say bookstore because it's so good I imagine there will be a LONNGG wait list at the library.  Would you believe me if I say this is more than likely the best fantasy book I have read since The Hunger Games?  I know, The Hunger Games isn't technically fantasy...but I think you get the idea.  It is really, really, really good!

Ok...on to the synopsis.

Sage is an orphan in the kingdom of Avenia.  You can tell right away that he gets into a lot of trouble, but it always seems like it is for the greater good.  A wealthy man buys Sage from the orphanage and Sage quickly realizes this man has a purpose.  There are three other boys with him that were also orphans and they all somewhat look alike.  The man tells the boys right off the bat that he is looking for a boy that will replace the prince of Carthya, who was thought dead four years ago when his ship was overtaken by pirates.  He wants the prince to become king so that he will be able to rule Carthya from the background.  Sage and the other boys are taken to the man's home in Farthenwood to train and become The False Prince.

Right away, you will fall in love with Sage.  He is feisty, but you can tell has a good heart.  I like his spunk and his attitude.  The character development in this book is amazing.  You will also find some twists and turns in this book.  I predict a lot when I'm reading, and I'm often right, which sometimes ruins the book for me.  I did not predict a few plot twists, which made me love the book that much more!

The chapters in this book are also very short, which I think makes the book great for a read-aloud.  After I gushed and gushed about this book for a few days, my husband very quietly snuck it into his carry-on so he could take it on his next business trip to read!

And guess what?  This book is the first in a TRILOGY!  Yay!  The Runaway King is already out (and I am currently reading it!) and the third book, The Shadow Throne is due out March 1, 2014.  Also, I was checking out Jennifer Nielsen's website and it looks like The False Prince has been optioned by Paramount Pictures!!  Go read this book RIGHT NOW!

Picture Books for Back-to-School

I'm joining yet another linky today with First Grade and Fabulous!

I L-O-V-E picture books!  Who am I kidding?  I love all books.  Mostly kid-lit and YA, but who cares. One of my good teacher-friends texted me the other day after reading The Fault in Our Stars by John Green and said, "Whoever said YA is just for teens is a complete idiot!"  I whole-heartedly agree!

Anyways, I'm linking up with DeAnne to talk about my favorite picture books for the first week of school.

First Day Jitters by Julie Danneberg.  Surprisingly, most of my students have never heard this book when they get to fourth grade, which makes the ending even more fun!  

I truly identify with Miss Malarkey in this book, Miss Malarkey Leaves No Reader Behind by Judy Finchler and Kevin O'Malley.  I'm sure many of my students agree.  Miss Malarkey refuses to give up until she puts the right book in each child's hand.  

I use A Crazy Day at the Critter Cafe by Barbara Odanaka when I am introducing Daily 5 and CAFE. It's just a fun book when we start talking about the CAFE reading strategies.  

How I Spent My Summer Vacation by Mark Teague is a fun tall-tale about a boy and his summer adventures.  It is also a great book to jump start your first writing assignment for the year-have students write their own tall-tale vacation stories!

Nothing builds a classroom community like bucket-filling!  How Full is Your Bucket? For Kids teaches kids how their words and actions affect others.  I didn't read this or do bucket-filling last year, but I will definitely be starting right off the bat this year!  

Make sure you go check out all the other awesome back to school picture books and link up with 

My Book Reviews

BookSpeak!: Poems About Books by Laura Purdie Salas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A book that gives books the voice! Books beg readers to open them, characters asking to be liberated, what it feels like to have a reader fall asleep on you, and a book's biggest fear: the feeling of wet! These poems can be used throughout the year to teach voice, point of view, metaphor, story elements, etc.


Balloons over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy's Parade by Melissa Sweet
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Interesting story about the creator and evolution of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The illustrations are amazing. This book is definitely getting added to my personal library!

View all my reviews

Author Study Unit!

I have been very busy the last few days working on an author study unit.  Since February is Black History Month, I am doing an author study of African American authors.  The authors we are focusing on are Angela Johnson and Faith Ringgold.  There were so many to choose from, but I decided on Angela Johnson because of her African American & family themes, plus she is an Ohioan!  Faith Ringgold was a given for me because I am just in love with her books and illustrations!  I have posted my first Angela Johnson author study in my Teacher's Notebook shop.  The first is a week-long unit using the books The Leaving Morning, When I Am Old With You, and Tell Me A Story, Mama.  I will be posting another unit soon using some of Angela Johnson's historical fiction books.  Lastly, I will post my Faith Ringgold unit.  The Ringgold unit will be available in two weeks.  


This is the first author study that I will be doing in my classroom.  I did a mini-author study on Eve Bunting last year, but not to the extend that I am doing with my African American author study.  With the first Johnson author study, we are going to focus on common themes, making connections, point of view, and author's craft.  I love how this unit has shaped up and I am excited to begin on Monday.  If you are interested in purchasing this unit, please visit my Teacher's Notebook shop!  


What author studies have you done in the past?  I am excited to create more units in the future!

Celebrating Dr. King

I'm sure like all of you, I was required to take a speech class in college.  On the first day, after reviewing the syllabus, our professor showed us a video of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech.  I had heard this speech before, and knew what Martin Luther King stood for, and knew a little about his life, but I had no idea the magnitude of this speech.  There was just something about watching the clip of that speech that resonated with me.  It was so powerful.  And so well written.  And so eloquently spoken.  By the end of the speech, I was fighting back tears.  As a white woman living in a suburban town in the midwest, I see so much of Dr. King's dream coming true.  I'm sure there are African Americans who disagree with me, as they see racist and prejudice in their daily lives that I do not.  But there is no doubt that America is in a better place than it was 50 years ago.  


My students, like me in college, do not understand the powerful message Dr. King fought for.  They will not understand, I believe, until they are much older.  It is unfathomable to them that black boys and girls had to go to different schools, drink from different water fountains, and swim in different pools.  I wanted to find a book to at least try to get them to understand.  

I found My Dream of Martin Luther King by Faith Ringgold.  First of all, the illustrations in this book are amazing.  I was not familiar with author/illustrator Faith Ringgold before.  After reading this book a few times, I instantly wanted to run out and buy every single book she has written and illustrated.  This book walks you through the story of Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement through the narrator's dream.  It starts off and ends with people trading in bags of racism, prejudice, and ignorance for bags of tolerance and hope.  This is a great picture book for middle grades, because not only do you get a great story with great illustrations, but it is also a great book to teach about symbolism.  

If this book does not exist in your classroom library, type your way over to Amazon as fast as you can!  

Happy Birthday, Dr. King.  

Need Book Recommendations!

I have made it my goal this year to read aloud a different book from each genre category. We read James and the Giant Peach for fantasy-my favorite book for fourth graders, by far.  We just finished reading Shiloh for realistic fiction, and now I would like to read a science fiction book.  Let me preface this by saying I am NOT a science fiction fan.  I recently learned to enjoy Sci-Fi after reading The Hunger Games trilogy and the book Divergent by Veronica Roth.  If you haven't read the latter, it is a must read!  It is the first book in a trilogy, but the other two books have not been released yet.  It is very much along the lines of The Hunger Games-set in future Chicago, where the city is divided into factions based upon their virtues-the honest, the selfless, the brave, the peaceful, and the intelligent.  Of course, there is an unexpected love story involved, which is probably why it drew me in!  Obviously, neither of these books are appropriate for my fourth graders as a read aloud.  This is where I need your help!  I need a good science fiction read aloud.  Preferably, something both genders will enjoy.  A Wrinkle in Time is out because I think it is above my students' heads, and I honestly do not enjoy the book.  


So...what good science fiction books do y'all got for me?

Smart Boards and Skinnybones

We started reading the book Skinnybones by Barbara Parks this week.  I was getting tired of the same read-alouds.  And so many books are movies these days that I really just wanted something different.  Our librarian suggested this book and said it was hilarious.  She is right.  We are only five chapters into it, and the kids are cracking up.  Today, we did a venn diagram comparing Alex Frankovitch, the main character, to T.J. Stoner, his arch-nemesis.  One of Marzano's high yield strategies is "identifying similarities and differences" and venn diagrams are an excellent way to do this.  First, I had the students do their venn diagram in their reading journals independently.  Then, we came together as a whole group to complete the venn diagram on the Smart Board.  Smart Boards are an excellent tool that encourage class participation.  While I love anchor charts, the students are just not as eager to participate than when having the option to write on the Smart Board.  

  

And the final product...