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.

The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art

I just found a website for a museum called "The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art".  It was such an awesome site.  It gave me information on authors and picture books.  If you have time it's a really good site to check out.  It may even give you ideas for projects in your classroom.

http://www.carlemuseum.org/Home

Frindle

This book is by Andrew Clements and in my opinion it would be a great read in a third grade classroom.  It is about a boy who always has a plan in school to liven things up. Until he meets his match, his Language Arts teacher Mrs. Granger. Between the two of them you never know what will go on next. This is definitely a book that students will not want to put down till they know the end.

Chapter 10: Nonfiction

Literature that is nonfiction captures the minds of students today.  Books that are nonfiction allow students to learn more then just opening up a text book.  These books are engaging and filled with facts.  This is what nonfiction books are; books that consist of biographies and information.  It can be about someones life, a subject in school, cultures around the world, or exploration of new things.  There are different ways to evaluate and select a nonfiction books.  Two ways is to put them in categories depending on what you are interested in or learning about.  According to a research done by Duke University with the primary grades, lack of exposure to nonfiction at an early age has lasting effects throughout school.  This is because children are not provided with the instruction on how to read nonfiction texts early in school will not have the necessary strategies for content area reading that helps students later on in school.

I am excited about using nonfiction in my classroom for many reasons.  The first being that I will not be a worksheet/textbook kind of teacher.  Yes, I know that there will be times when I will have to be that way, but when it is up to me we will be working in many different kinds of books.  I have already borrowed some ideas from fellow teachers on how to use nonfiction in my room.  One thing I know I will do is take a trip around the United States.  Here we will use different books about the regions we are learning about in class to discuss landmarks that are in that region.  For this particular unit we will need tons of nonfiction books. 

Chapter 7: Realistic Fiction

Realistic fiction books are wrote with settings, characters, and events.  These books can be depicted by ones events in life but are made up.  Realistic fiction holds the attention of many children making it easier to expand their knowledge.  Teachers can use this genre in read alouds, journals, and open ended discussions.  Using realistic fiction in your classroom has many benefits.  It allows students to see the world from others perspectives, children get to use writing to show human problems and relationships with honesty in a depth they never have before. 

I cannot wait to use realistic fiction in my classroom.  I have so many great ideas of how I would incorporate creating new knowledge with fun activities.  In the beginning of the year I will allow each of my students to write down a few books that they enjoy reading.  I will make sure my library holds a majority of those books.  During the year we will have read alouds of these different books.  Once we get into the lesson more I will have the students work in groups to create and illustrate a realistic fiction story.  Children love to work in groups and creating for a final product is always fun.  We will share our stories with others. 

I did something similar to this with 6 ESE kindergarten students and they loved it.  They decided what they wanted to be when they grew up.  We made play-do people, illustrated, wrote about what they would do when they got older, and took realistic pictures.  At the end of the lesson we put together their books and they shared them with each other and then brought them home to their parents.  In my classroom, I would want to keep these books in my library to show classes to come. 

Chapter 11: Diverse perspectives of Children Literature

Today's classrooms are filled with a diverse population so we will need to learn to teach to many different cultures.  This will include teaching many different types of literature to include all the different cultures in the class.  One of the first assignments I will do in my own classroom is a project on diversity.  I will ask my students to share a bit about their culture and then we will learn about the different cultures in the classroom.  To end this lesson we would have a feast with different dishes that I will ask the parents to bring and join us.  I believe that each year we will be a family for the year and they should get to know who one another really are. 

This activity will allow my students to use technology and a wide variety of diverse books.  Literacy development will be gained, social skills will gained, and hopefully many friendships will be made.

Chapter 12: The New Literacies: The World of Online Children's Literature

Schools today have a vast majority of technology.  When I went to school there was an overhead projector and a T.V. the teacher would roll in on the cart if a video had to be shown.  Today students have Elmo's, Promethean Boards, and computers in every classroom.  They have mobile laptops and Ipads they get to bring home to do work on.  As we continue through the twenty-first century technology will only get more advanced.  

Being a new teacher with all this technology is exciting and scary at the same time.  I am excited to be able to incorporate many new things in my curriculum but scared that I will not learn them as quick as I may need to.  While exploring this chapter I have learned about many sites that I did not know anything about. 

This chapter has also given me many ideas of things I could do in my classroom.  One part of this chapter especially stood out for me.  I really enjoyed the part about options for children with special needs.  I want to become an ESE teacher and this part gave me resources that I will definitely use in my room.  I will also use some of the other sites like creating a web quest for my students to follow and read aloud sites that will help my students with their different needs.