Read With Me Cultivating a Literary Community 

I know it isn’t Christmas yet, or even winter!  But, we’re going to the North Pole!

This week, we will share and discuss the story The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg.  If you’d like a fun way to experience the story again at home this week, be sure to check it out at Storyline Online.  Lou Diamond Phillips, a TV and movie actor, reads it aloud while you enjoy Chris Van Allsburg‘s beautiful painted illustrations.

As you listen to the story again, remember to think about the critical events, plot (the problem that drives the action of the story toward a solution), impossible happenings, the setting (time and place), and theme (the implied message from the author).

Did you know that Bill Peet used to be an animator for Walt Disney?  We were so excited to learn that!  In fact, it made total sense to us after we saw pictures from Ella,

and compared them to what we remembered of Disney’s Dumbo.

Bill Peet was one of the animators that worked on this famous movie!

As we learned about Bill Peet’s life on his website, we were very interested in what we learned!

Click on one of the links below to read some of the facts we recorded as we learned about his life:

bill-peet-notes-blue-team 

red-team-bill-peet-notes

Check back soon for more Bill Peet projects and information!

One of my favorite parts of this author study each year, is watching my students become lovers of good literature.

As we share deep, meaningful books together, and discuss them daily, I get to watch their little faces light up with excitement, as well a variety of other emotions the books may invoke.  There is no other time of day, outside of the read aloud, when I can confidently say that I have them ALL in the palm of my hands.  They wait on baited breath for the page to turn.

In the little conversations I have with one or a few students at a time, I witness even more closely their thinking and reactions to the books.  I love watching students dash away from our talks, with a sense of excitement and urgency.  They can’t wait to get to their reader’s notebook and write all the exciting thoughts and conclusions we shared!

This year has been even more exciitng with the addition of the wiki.  Students busily, diligently writing their thoughts, summaries, findings so they can contribute to our special project.  It has been a particularly rewarding week this week, as we delve deeper and deeper into the books.

It is a bitter-sweet feeling, knowing this author study nears its close.

We will leave this study better readers.  We will leave this study with an improved awareness of author’s craft, purpose and perspective.  We will leave this study with a broader vocabulary.  We will leave this study more aware of our world and our history.  We will leave this study with greater compassion for those different than us.  We will leave this study with an improved awareness of ourselves as readers and thinkers.  We will leave this study loving Allen Say.

Today, as the official launch of our third grade author study, we read Grandfather’s Journey by Allen Say.  We are so excited to begin this study!

After reading this book, many students had questions about what we read.  Since we will be doing a lot of work and research with this and other books by Mr. Say, I asked students to record their questions on a sticky note for us to compile.  Here are some of their “wonderings”:

What war was it?  What part of Japan?  (no name)

World War I or II?  (Carson)

How old was Allen Say in the story?  (Nicole)

Where was the place in California you were at?  Where were you in Japan?  (Brianna)

What was the name of the war?  (Jessica)

Who fought in the war?  (Chandler)

There was a war in Japan?  (Lori)

What year and day did the war happen?  (Colbi)

What was the war called?   (no name)

What year was it?  (Daniel)

What war was it?  What city?  (Bryce)

What war?  How long ago?  (Jordan)

As you can see, many students were particularly intrigued, confused by, or interested in the few references to war.  In the upcoming days, we will research and answer these, and many more, questions in a variety of ways.  One goal we’ll be working towards is thinking deeper.  We will be sharing and collecting our findings on a class wiki.

I hope you are as excited as we are!  Stay tuned for future details…and keep thinking!