Teaching with Picture Books 53 rd IRA Convention May 6, 2008 Theresa Fletcher

--Donald M. Murray, Read to Write THE AUTHORING CONNECTION When you play basketball you watch a game with a different understanding than those who do not play. You see the players move when they do not have the ball, appreciate the fake and the pass as much as the basket, scorn the flashy shot that looks difficult but is really easy, and appreciate the shot that looks easy but is really difficult…You are a fan, screaming, groaning, part of the crowd; and you are an imaginary player, moving down the court, cutting, getting the pass, making the basket. You watch two games simultaneously: one from the stands and another from the floor. …Thats the writers advantage. The writer reads with an insiders eyes…

--Katie Wood Ray, Wondrous Words Texts, texts, and more texts. Students need to be reading alongside their writing in any unit of study, and so gathering the best texts for a study is critical. Texts are selected for a unit of study on the basis of how they can help students develop the big understandings behind the study. So, depending on the focus of the study, I look for texts in different ways.

--Carl Anderson, Hows It Going? When we refer again and again in mini-lessons to texts we love, its not unusual for students to tell me – without any prompting – that the authors of those texts are their mentors. Optimally, when students describe their craft work, they all tell me which favorite text they are using as a model, what theyve learned from studying it, and how and where theyre using what theyve learned in their own writing.

Two Types of Lessons Specific – units of study where the focus is on a particular aspect : genre or author General – features of all good writing regardless of the genre

Reading Lessons Genre Point of view Setting Characters Plot Text structure Illustration support Narrative structure Comprehension Schema Questioning Visualization Determining Importance Inferencing

Writing Lessons Craft Tools what is being said Conventions how it was said

Craft Tools Genre Point of view Text structures Sentence structures Figurative language

Text Structures Circular Chronological Flashbacks

Sentence Structures Simple – one independent clause Compound – two independent clauses joined with a conjunction Complex - a dependent clause joined to an independent clause with a comma

Figurative Language Metaphor Simile Alliteration Repetition Personification

Figurative Language Puns Idioms Dialogue (internal/external) Creative use of words (made up) Onomatopoeia

Conventions Punctuation Spelling Capitalization Fonts Layouts

--Carl Anderson, Hows It Going? When we are successful in showing students how to learn from writing mentors, we teach students how to teach themselves. …students can continue to go to texts written by their favorite authors and learn craft lessons to help them write better.