These activities may be used with any of the author units. Of course, the
major goal of the author units will be to enjoy fine literature; however,
teachers, librarians, and parents might choose to extend the literary experience
by selecting some of these activities or some of the specific activities listed
with each book. Many adults will encourage individual youngsters or groups
of youngsters to choose among the activities and to create some of their own.
1.
Setting the stage: Set up an author center or author corner.
Include a photograph of the author, a display of her/his books, posters, realia,
maps, a bulletin board, etc. Add student work as it is completed.
Youngsters enjoy being involved in the planning of these author units.
They might write to the publisher requesting materials such as posters featuring
the author's books. Encourage them to take leadership roles in setting up
the centers, creating the bulleting boards, and planning the activities.
2.
Complete works: Provide an overview of the complete works of the
author. As you read a book, discuss it within the context of the complete
collection.
3.
Authors as individual people and as writers: Study the author's
life. Personalize the author units by focusing on the author's motivation
for writing as a career and for writing each book. Why did the author
write this particular book? Why did s/he choose this writing style?
These illustrations? These words? How has the author's writing style
or choice of genres changed? Youngsters enjoy exploring the experiences
that shaped the authors' lives and thinking and inspired them to share their
joys, struggles, defeats, and triumphs with their readers. Seemingly minor
connections often hold great significance for people of all ages. Even
adults get excited when they have the same birthday or grew up in the same area
as an author. These personal connections establish stronger and longer
lasting ties with the author.
4.
Literature logs/response journals: Youngsters may respond in
writing to the selection read each day or week. These journals may be
ongoing all year or semester. Long or shorter journals may be kept for
each author or book. Encourage a wide variety of responses such as poems,
letters, thoughts, feelings, illustrations, etc. Students may share these
journals with partners, groups, or the class. These may also be used for
self-evaluation and/or teacher assessment.
5.
Perspective: Compare and contrast the perspectives in books with
similar themes. Discuss or rewrite the story from the perspectives of
selected characters. Perhaps each student or group of students could
choose characters and present the book from a variety of perspectives.
6.
Quotes: Select or encourage youngsters to select quotes form the
books for discussion and/or written response. Use a quote from a book for
the caption of a bulletin board.
7.
Predictions: Predict what will happen in the book, on the next
page, in the next chapter, and/or in a sequel. These predictions may be
written in the literature logs and/or discussed.
8.
Dedication Page: Discuss and/or respond in writing to the
dedication page. What additional information does it give us about the
author/ Encourage youngsters to create a dedication page for the next book
they write.
9.
Character letters: Youngsters or leaders might write a letter
from one of the characters in the book to the class introducing, motivating,
summarizing, embellishing, etc. Or one character could write to another
character (within books or from book to book).
10.
Letters: Youngsters enjoy writing letters to the authors.
Addresses for most authors are included with their chapter. Many authors
are too busy to respond to each letter individually but they might write a note
to a class, school, or library.
11.
Author visits: Invite an author to visit your school or library.
Contact the publisher to arrange the visit. Because of budget and
scheduling constraints, many school team up with another school, library,
bookstore, or conference.
12.
Conference calls: Arrange to make a conference call from your
class to the author. Youngsters will enjoy reading the author's books and
preparing questions in advance. The call might be taped and listened to
again later.
13.
Interviews: Role play a possible interview with the author or a
character from the book. Or pretend that one character is interviewing
another character.
14.
Recipes: Write individual or class recipes based on the book's
message such as "A Recipe for Friendship" or "A Recipe for
Combating Prejudice." Display on the bulletin board featuring the
author.
15.
Travel: Plan an imaginary or real trip to the places featured in
the book. Write for travel brochures, study maps to plot your route,
develop and budget, and plan an itinerary, etc.
16.
Newsletters: Include items from author units in your class,
school, or library newsletter. Youngsters enjoy interviewing authors and
writing about these intriguing discussions.
17.
Drama: Youngsters love to create and perform in plays, puppet
shows, pantomime, skits, dance, etc. based on the book or a collection of books.
18. Book
talks: Invite youngsters to prepare short Book Talks to
introduce and inspire others to read the books they recommend. These may
be done a few at a time whenever you have a few minutes or during an assigned
time. Students may also do extra Book Talks for extra credit.
19. Book
reports: Find creative ways to make book reports more fun!
Book Report Forms by Evan-Moor offers a number of innovative ideas.
20. Book
boxes: Combine art and book reports. Students cover a box
with paper and then decorate it with words, drawings, cut-outs, etc. that
represent the book. The book boxes may hold items or tasks related to the
book. These items may be used to dramatize the book or other students
might write questions or comments about the book and put them in the boxes.
Arrange for a Book Box Exhibit with boxes created by several groups displayed.
21.
Author boxes: Do the same as Activity 20 but with the focus on
the author.
22. Book
buttons: Youngsters love to design buttons to wear!
Directions: If you don't have a button maker, students may cut out a
circle on construction paper and another on tagboard. Decorate with book
title, author, illustrator, and pictures. Glue the construction paper to
the cardboard. tape a safety pin on the back. Wear these during Book
Talks, Book Reports, Book Fairs, etc.
23. Book
ribbons: Invite youngsters to design ribbons to advertise their
favorite books. Display on bulleting boards, around the room, halls, or
library to encourage others to read the books.
24.
Bookmarks: Design bookmarks to go with selected books.
25.
Character board: For each character in a book or series of
books, make a five-to-seven-inch-high paper figure. Place these figures on
a chart depicting the roles played in the book. Print their names above
each. Below each, write some of their personality traits.
26.
Character cutouts: Enlarge pictures of characters onto a large
piece of paper. Cut out and use to start a bulletin board. Students
then add words describing the characters printed on colorful strips of paper and
other illustrations to the bulletin board.
27.
Character growth: To demonstrate the growth and changes in a
character within a book or within a series, a student roleplays the character at
each stage of her/his development. (Example: The Rinko trilogy by
Yoshiko Uchida: Jar of Dreams, Best Bad Thing, and The Happiest Ending.)
28. Art:
Study the art techniques used in the book. Research. Then
experiment with those techniques. Add the results to the Author Center.
29.
Collage: Create individual or group collages portraying aspects
from a book, a collection of books, and/or the author's life.
30. Book
hunt: Hide a book and create a coded message to help others find
the book. Perhaps one student or group o students could be in charge of
this activity each day or week.
31. Time
line: Make a time line for the events in a book, a series of
books, or the author's life.
32.
Sequence cards: (created by youngsters and/or adults) On each of
four or five cards, write a word or sentence, or draw a picture showing
something that happened in the book. Youngsters may work individually or
in groups to put the cards in order. Add these to the Author center.
33. Class
booklet: Collect all the work done by the youngsters related to
a book or author into a class booklet. Display.
34. Board
games: Youngsters create board games based on the events in a
book. These may be used in a variety of ways, including during free time
and indoor recesses.
35.
Birthdays: On an author's birthday, declare that day "
Day." (Example: October 18 is Joyce Hansen Day.) Have a
read-a-thon featuring the author's books. Also, students might design
cards and/or write letters to the authors. Students will be interested in
which authors have birthdays on the same day as theirs.
36.
Dioramas: Students create dioramas based on the author, book, or
a series of books.
37.
Pop-up books: An optional activity for talented youngsters.
Create a pop-up book based on the book being read.
38.
Mapping and webbing: At first, make the character maps or
semantic maps together as a large group. Gradually, youngsters will be
ready to create their own or to work together in small groups.
39.
Cartooning: Create cartoons based on the events in a book or as
a sequel to a book.
40.
Advice box: Invite youngsters to write letters from or to the
characters in the books, asking for advice. Periodically, the teacher or
students read these letters to the class and they respond in writing, with
discussion, or by role-playing.
41.
Mobiles: Design a mobile to introduce, promote, or represent a
book or author.
42.
Recommendations: Write a letter to the school media director
recommending a book or series of books for purchase.
43. Book
jackets: Youngsters might design new book jackets for the books.
44.
Diary: Youngsters might pretend that they are one of the
characters in a book. They prepare a diary that the character might have
kept during the beginning, middle, end, and/or the most significant parts of the
story. This activity enables young people to identify more closely with
the character.
45.
Survey: Invite youngsters to check your public and/or school
library to see which of the books by selected authors are included. Make a
checklist or graph. students might want to check how many books about an
ethnic group are included. Evaluate the results and discuss ways to
respond.
46. Place
mats: Pretend that an author or several authors are coming for
lunch. Design place mats to honor your guests. Use fabric, yarn,
etc. (This would make a great culminating activity at the end of the year
or semester to review all the authors studied.) This activity was inspired
by The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago which features a place setting for
each of thirty-nine women form history.
47.
Author quilt or mural: Quilts and murals make good culminating
activities. A quilt might feature one square per author.
48.
Author or character party: At the end of the semester or year,
each student dresses as their favorite character or author. They each give
a short talk from the perspective of the author or character, using the voice,
gestures, and props they think appropriate. Videotape these talks.
The next day watch the video and serve refreshments provided by the students,
inspired by the books represented. this video might also be used to
introduce the author units to another group or shown at community events such as
Parents' Night.
49.
Riddles: Youngsters enjoy creating riddles based on the books or
authors studied. This activity is excellent for review. For example:
"I'm thinking of a book about a cakewalk." Answer: Mirandy
and Brother Wind.
50.
Review bulletin board: Invite youngsters to create and display
cut-outs of all the characters from all the books read during the semester or
year.
51. Book
jamboree: Invite youngsters to sit in a circle. Put all
the books from a unit in the middle of the circle. Students select books
for a final short browse and then they each share one or two comments about the
book. This is an excellent review activity.
52. Book
fair: This school-wide or library event is similar to the
familiar Science Fair. Once a year, all the projects created by the
youngsters are displayed. Parents, community members, and other youngster
will enjoy the wide variety of projects.
53.
Assessment: Youngsters might write tasks or questions that could
be included in the evaluation of the author unit. encourage high level
questions that stimulate thinking rather than recall of details.
54.
Assessment: (Pre- and Post-) Invite individuals (any age) to
make a list of all the authors that they can think of. Evaluate together
as a group or individually. Did they include authors from diverse groups?
Which groups were included? Excluded? What recommendations do the
members of the group have for improving this situation? What
recommendations do youngsters have for books to be purchased?
55.
Assessment: Library Checkout: Are books available that
represent diverse groups? Are youngsters requesting and checking out books
representing diverse groups?
56.
Assessment plan: For additional information on assessment,
please see the Assessment Plan in Appendix 1 on page 257.
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