Andrew Clements- Author Study

I just finished a vigorous assignment on this amazing author.  Andrew Clements writes his books for children in elementary school thinking how they would think.  Andrew Clements was an avid reader when he was a boy but never thought he would be an author that has written 50 books and sold millions of copies.

I chose this author because my son brought home the book Frindle one day from school and was telling me what a great book it was.  When I saw that Andrew Clements was a choice for my author study I decided I wanted to learn more about him.  I began reading several of his books over a few day periods and decided that he really was a great author like everyone has said. 

Andrew Clements has written chapter books, picture books, and helped to translate his books in many different languages.

 

 

 

Chapter 5: Traditional Literature

“Once Upon a Time” is a great way to start a traditional literature, or folk literature story.  These types of stories were usually told orally and have no true teller because it was not written down right away.  It would be told many times before actually making it on paper.  Writing down traditional literature would meet a variety of human needs.  Traditional literature was not meant to be for just children.  When the tales were written down that is when traditional literature began to a play a very important role on children’s lives.  This allowed for students to tell tales of cultures around the world.

Fairy tales took off around the world.  One story that is told in many different styles is Cinderella.  There are over 700 versions of this story around the world.  This is one book that you could use in your classroom to explain different cultures with the same story line.  I would use Cinderella as a literature circle, give each group a different version of the story, and have them work on different parts.  After, I would have each group act out their version of Cinderella.

 

                         

   These are just three versions of Cinderella that I researched.

Chapter 6: Modern Fantasy

In my house, modern fantasy is brought in all the time.  My children have read The Magic Tree House series, 39 Clues, The Tales of Despereaux, and Charlotte’s Web to name a few.  The only thing is I never knew that modern fantasy was such a broad spectrum of literature.  It is categorized into two categories: low fantasy and high fantasy.  Low fantasy in considered to take place in the real world but magical elements make them possible and high fantasy takes the information and experience from real world and projects them into another world (Johnson, 2012).

Writing modern fantasy allows the author to portray ideas to children that they might not understand otherwise.  This can be beneficial to teach subjects that are important but need a clearer understanding.

In my classroom, I will use modern fantasy as a read aloud.  During the read aloud I would stop to see what the students interpret from the authors writing.  There is always a real world connection that we want children to get.

 

 

 

 



 

Chapter 8: Historical Fiction

What is historical fiction? When is a book considered historical fiction? Many people have different views on this question.  To some considering a book historical fiction is twenty-five years, others it is fifty years, and to others it is any time before present day.  The one thing people do agree on is that historical fiction has an authentic setting, characters could or did exist, and the plot is believable.  In other words, historical fiction is a lot like realistic fiction except for the setting to the story is in the past.  Schools use historical fiction in curriculum all the time. In Social Studies, students learn about past wars, time periods, events, science we learn about inventors and inventions, and language arts students read about famous authors or people.  We use historical fiction in our everyday lives.  Can we incorporate all these subjects and teach in a fun but educational manner?  Historical fiction can be great to teach especially when you put down the textbook and think outside of the box.

I have been doing research on ways to teach outside of the box.  One way I would teach Historical fiction is by putting on a play.  Let us take Thanksgiving for example.  Why not dress us like pilgrims and Indians and recreate the first Thanksgiving.  Students would enjoy making traditional headdresses and hats, finding the right story to get the correct information out of, and of course eating. 

Taking different curriculum in the classroom and making it fun does not mean you are not teaching, it means you are showing the students a different way and keeping them engaged.  We want our students to learn.