CCP Episode : 11 // Creating An Author Study Training Series : Activities to Include in Your Author Study

Wow - we are coming to a close on this mini-series all about author studies!  

If you've been following along from the beginning, get ready to hit the ground running with your own author study.

On the flip side, if you've just stumbled across this mini-series, then you're going to want to check out the first three parts of the series to make sure you've got all the background information.

You can find them here:

AUTHOR STUDY SERIES: [PART 1: CHOOSING AN AUTHOR]

AUTHOR STUDY SERIES: [PART 2: BOOK SELECTION]

AUTHOR STUDY SERIES: [PART 3: FORMATTING & DIFFERENTIATING YOUR AUTHOR STUDY

In this final installment of the series, I want to get specific about the types of learning activities and reading responses that work well with an author study and will help enhance your students' author study experience.

To help you get organized, I'm going to break the types of activities into four categories:

1. Activities to connect the students to the author

2. Activities to connect the books in your study

3. Activities for teaching reading skills and strategies through your author study

4. Activities to end your author study with

And finally, as a bonus, I'm going to give you some quick tips for getting your classroom ready and set up for an author study

Ready?  Let's wrap this up!

Highlights from the Episode:

• The 4 types of activities to include in your author study (2:02)

• Ideas and activities to help connect students to the author (2:41)

  • Introduce fun facts about your author through a biography

  • Listen to or watch a video of the author reading his/her own books

  • Watch or read and interview with the author

  • Have students write a letter to the author

  • Create a class list of questions or wonderings they have about the author

  • Make a list of things you and your students are noticing about the author's writing style.

• Ideas and activities to help students make connections between books (6:19)

  • Author Study Attribute Chart (example below)

• Use a Venn Diagram

• Create book categories with your students.

• Ideas and activities to teach reading skills and strategies (8:06)

  • Use the author’s books as examples of different writing techniques

  • Teach common themes found throughout the books

  • Create story mountains

  • Teach character analysis and development

  • Create lists and charts of descriptive language you notice, things you notice about characters, new vocabulary, different types or settings…etc)

  • Explore the author’s writing craft

  • Practice fluency using excerpts from the author’s books

• Ideas and activities to end your author study (13:04)

  • Make a graph of your students’ favorite books

  • Have an author study celebration

  • Have students complete activities on a choice board

  • Create a class paper quilt with picture squares of your students’ favorite scenes

  • Have students dress up as their favorite character from the author study

  • Play “Guess That Book”

• Getting your classroom ready for an author study (15:49)

Links & Resources Mentioned in the Episode:

Join the FREE Member’s Resource Library to get access to materials that will help support distance learning.

Episode 8: How to Choose and Author for Your Author Study

Episode 9: Selecting Books for Your Author Study

Episode 10: Formatting and Differentiating Your Author Study

Reading Rockets (for Author Interview videos)

Eve Bunting Author Study

Chris Van Allsburg Author Study

Patricia Polacco Author Study

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Transcript