A Warm Winter Tail
Here’s what you need this chilly January: A Warm Winter Tail by Carrie A. Pearson and illustrated by Christina Wald!
This nonfiction picture book about animal adaptations in winter is perfect for a Range of Reading lesson (Core Standard #1 – check!). Carrie Pearson, a Michigander who knows all about staying warm in winter, uses a conversational tone to share a great deal of information. On each double-spread, kids learn what an animal does to stay warm in the winter when a baby animal wonders if humans do what they do to stay warm. For example, a baby box turtle asks its parent if humans dig deep into the mud and bury themselves like it does. A white-tailed deer asks, “Do they grow hollow hair/ so the coats that they wear/ trap the heat from their bodies for warmth?” A wide variety of animals is presented, and there’s plenty of extra information at the back of the book.
On their website, the publisher, Sylvan Dell, has an avalanche of free activities to go with the book (don’t you love not needing to recreate the wheel?) In the back of A Warm Winter Tail there’s a “Winter Animal Matching Activity” where students match the description with the correct animal, and if you go to sylvandellpublishing.com you can print off the animal sorting cards to make a fun independent/pairs/center activity. (Key Ideas & Details – Core Standard #2!) I can’t wait until February when a companion book, A Cool Summer Tail, comes out. Integrating Knowledge & Ideas – Standard #3!
For more information about the author, please visit: carriepearsonbooks.com.
For more information about the illustrator, please visit: christinawald.blogspot.com.
Read MoreHow to be a better writing teacher
Matt Faulkner’s experimentation with Groundhog
The path to publication is packed with peaks and pitfalls (and apparently a plethora of P’s). It takes patience to pursue this path, and the revision process can be particularly painful (as can alliteration, so I’m stopping now). The way my editor guided me through this process taught me how to be a writing teacher.
I sent Groundhog’s Dilemma (the story formerly known as To See or Not To See) to my tireless editor in early 2012. She liked the story, but asked for revisions. Round 1.
So I revised, and my editor liked it even better. She still wanted revisions. Round 2.
So I revised and in 2013 I got that glorious phone call – I sold my manuscript! With all my debut-author-naivete, I thought my job was done. Silly, silly me! My editor told me she was excited to dig into the “official” revisions now. Round 3. And 4. And 5.
I have lost count of how many emails there have been with tweaks to make the story stronger. While each request for changes brought a momentary, involuntary stomach lurch, the way my editor approached revision taught me how to make revising less painful for my students.
1. Every email began with praise. Not “you’re the most brilliant writer ever!” or “snazzy font choice!” but honest, constructive, positive feedback. This made me feel like my work was appreciated, and that I was not in trouble.
2. When corrections needed to be made (grammatical or logical story points), my editor briefly explained why without making me feel stoopid.
3. My editor suggested changes, but made it clear that the decisions about my writing were up to me. She used words like “what if” or “I wonder” instead of “you need to do this here”.
4. Every email ended with encouragement. I knew my editor was confident in my ability to improve my work (even when my self-confidence was threadbare) and that helped me approach revision as a manageable, necessary process instead of as punishment. This is the approach I want to use with my students. Less “wrong!” and more “better!”
Today I submitted the final tweaks on the copyedited version of Groundhog’s Dilemma. I’m glad to be done working on this story, but I’ll miss working with my editor. Fingers crossed that my book sells so well, my editor will want a sequel!
Read MoreRomelle Broas is a writer who is all about the journey. She was kind enough to ask me about my long, winding road to publishing my first picture book, and you can check out the details here:
http://www.romellebroas.blogspot.com/2013/11/debut-author-interview-kristen-remenar.html
I’m in Kalamazoo at the Michigan Association for Media in Education (MAME) conference, so next week I’ll share some great new websites I’m hearing about!
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Knock, Knock!
Trent, one of my preschool pals, couldn’t stop giggling as he told me this gem, “So, a horse walks into a bar and the bartender says, ‘Hey, why the long face?'” Kids love good jokes – and they don’t seem to mind the bad jokes, either! Joke books are perfect for early and reluctant readers because:
1. Jokes are short.
2. You can flip through pages instead of reading sequentially so the thick books aren’t intimidating.
3. Humor makes them intrinsically motivating.
4. With “knock, knock” jokes, kids can already read some of the most important words (and you can use them for a great mini-lesson on those letter-sound combos of kn and wh.)
5. Joke books build Fluency and hit Range of Reading (two CCSS with one stone!)
My latest favorite joke book is Knock, Knock! illustrated by fourteen artists and published by Dial Books for Young Readers. Each artist chose a different “knock, knock” joke to illustrate. The repetition of words like “knock, knock” and “who’s there” plus the clues from the art make this book one most kids can read successfully, especially if you read it aloud first and let students guess what the punchlines to the jokes will be.
Rereading joke books in order to learn the jokes for future telling is probably the most fun way to build reading fluency. Make Knock, Knock! and other joke books available during choice reading time, then give your budding comedians a set time to tell jokes. This can be a one-time laugh-fest, or an ongoing event in your classroom. I liked to claim the end of the day as “Open Mike Time”. If students could gather their belongings and prepare for departure quickly, we’d have time for an “open mike” session where kids could come to the front of the room and tell a joke. This encouraged kids to get ready without dawdling, and for those who liked joking all day long, I could say, “Suzy, we won’t have time for Open Mike if we don’t use this time wisely.” Suddenly, being a class clown (at the appropriate time) is a good thing!
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Guess Who Is Out of the Den?
