Author Study Fun

Do you conduct author studies in your classroom?  In the past, author studies were a totally foreign concept to me, but I have to admit that I recently became slightly obsessed!  Author studies don't have to include loads of prep time or even lots of teacher knowledge about the author.  Let the students do the learning!

Take note of an author that students seem to enjoy, or ask the Media Specialist for suggestions, then check out every single one of that author's books from the library!  It's the "Find the books, and they shall come" theory.  ;)  Once students see the giant stack of books, their excitement and curiosity steers the project.

 

Buddy reading works really well for author studies, because students naturally enjoy talking about similarities between books they read.  My students simply use their independent reading time in the morning and during Guided Reading to read these books.  After a few days of independent and buddy reading of the author's books (or longer if the author writes novels rather than picture books), I give my students this "Find Someone Who Has Read" activity.  Students roam the room, searching for students that have read each of the books on the page (all written by our author study author, of course).

Afterwards, students buddy up to talk about two of the books they've both read.  They use a Venn diagram to compare and contrast the books.

Finally, after loads of lively verbal discussion and note taking, students write 2 paragraphs comparing and contrasting two of our author's books. The writing is always top notch, because of all of the discussion that has taken place prior to this activity.







And there you go!  Author studies can be as simple as that.  You can really do a mini-author study every week. In fact, that's what I'm planning, so I created author study activities for 14 of my favorite children's book authors.

I'll link them here in case you also have a love for author study fun!  :)

Aliki
Byrd Baylor
Chris Van Allsburg
Cynthia Rylant
David Shannon
Dr. Seuss
Eric Carle
Eve Bunting
Jon Scieszka
Judy Blume
Mem Fox
Patricia Polacco
Roald Dahl
Steve Jenkins
Tomie dePaola

Halloween is Coming!

Halloween is my favorite holiday for many reasons, with one of the highlights being the excitement my students have when sharing their weekend fun when they return to school.  I used to allow students to share their festivities by sitting in a circle and taking turns; however, I found that some students were so anxious to share that they would interrupt, others would speak for much to long, and still others were not comfortable sharing in a large group.












I developed a "Find Someone Who" game to allow students to roam around the room talking about their Halloween festivities while practicing listening and speaking skills.  (See the "Find Someone Who" sheet to the left.)

I noticed my students were very excited when they realized they shared a common activity with a classmate, so we decided to take the activity a step further, but having partners create a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting their Halloween weekends.

Students were so into the comparison/contrast activity, that I thought I should try to carry that excitement into writing.  I have a range of writing levels in my classroom, so the comparison/contrast writing form was structured to support all levels with key word boxes and a self-checklist.






I look forward to this activity every year!  How do you welcome your students back from breaks and holidays?  Please share your awesome ideas in the comments below!

Happy Halloween, and happy Teachering!
-Amber