Author Study #2

I just finished working on this author study for Patricia Polacco. It is very similar to the author study I did for Cynthia Rylant. At the end of this unit, I plan to compare the two authors.

 

Click below to download the lesson notes:

Patricia Polacco Author Study

 

 

I use the Patricia Polacco books shown below in the unit, but will have a basket full of her other titles for the students to explore during stations.

To keep track of all of our thoughts and new learning, we will create a foldable again.  The kids love it...and so do I!

 

Here is an example of mine:

 

 Front cover

 

Inside the left flap:

 

Inside the right flap:

 

The middle flap- inside:

 

Under the inside flap:

The back:

We add to our foldable or our journal daily during the unit.

 

In the unit, we read the story, The Keeping Quilt.  During this time, the students will create their own quilt square. Inside the quilt square they draw/write about something that is important to them. We will put the squares together to create a large class quilt. 

 

I plan to create a large quilt by using gallon size ziplock bags and taping them together with colored duct tape. The students can then slide their quilt square into the bag from the back.  Here's an example I found:

 

 

 

The unit download also includes the pages that go with the culminating acitivity.  The activities are the same as the Cynthia Rylant unit because I allow the class to choose which activity they want to complete.

 

Click below to download the pages that go with the unit.

 

Patricia Polacco Unit Pages

 

 

 

To end the unit, we will discuss how the Patricia Polacco stories are similar/different to the Cynthia Rylant stories and why. 

 

Here is a quiz for the end of the unit:

 

Patricia Polacco Quiz

 

I hope you find something useful here.  I would still like to create an author study unit for Eve Bunting as well (because I REALLY love her books too), but we'll see if I have time for that!

 

Author Study Ideas

I am excited to start our unit on author studies....one of my favorite things to teach! 

In this unit download, I just listed some ideas that I plan to do each day of our Cynthia Rylant unit.  I also created pages to go with most of the lessons.

 

These are the books we cover in this unit:

 

 

 

 

 

Click below to download the lesson ideas:

Author Study: Cynthia Rylant

 

 

 

 

As we go through the unit, I have the students add most of the activities we do to a foldable.  They love this, especially since they take the foldable home at the end of the unit!  I always add a small journal to the back of the foldable.  Here's an example of what my foldable looks like:

 

Front:

 

Inside the left flap:

Inside the right flap:

 

The inside flap:

Back: 

 

 

Click here to downlad the pages that go with the unit: 

 

Cynthia Rylant Unit

 

 Here's a quiz over the books and lessons covered in this unit:

 

Cynthia Rylant Quiz

 

 

For a culminating activity, the students will choose what they want to do.  These pages are also in the unit download. Here are a few examples:

 

 

 

 

I am also working on an author study unit for Patricia Polacco. I'm almost done... so check back soon if you want the lessons and downloads!

 

Thanks!