Mary Quattlebaum's Blog, page 20

DRAW WHAT YOU SEE

by Joan Waites
I’ve recently become acquainted with the work of sketchbook artist and author Danny Gregory. Inspired by his book Everyday Matters, a Memoir (Hyperion, 2003), I’ve started using some of his drawing and journal techniques with my students.  In his book, he describes teaching himself to draw in a sketchbook/ journal using a “slow, careful gaze” when rendering the objects or scene he is observing. Instead of drawing what you know, draw what you see.
For example, if I place an apple on the table for my young art students to draw in their sketchbooks, most will begin by quickly drawing a circle. While it’s helpful to start drawing using basic geometric shapes, by slowing down and really observing the apple carefully, we can see that it’s most likely not a perfect shape. One half may be larger; it may have bumps, scratches or even a worm hole. All of these details make that one particular apple unique. Along with the sketch, I ask that they write down five unique observations they noted while drawing.  This helps to get them to slow down and really think about what they see.
Using this exercise in the classroom with your students, begin a drawing/writing session with a few ordinary objects from around the classroom--writing instruments, scissors, tape dispensers or more complex objects based on the age of the class. Ask the students to take a full ten minutes to really observe and draw what is placed on the table. Then ask students to note five or more details they observed while looking closely at the object. Take it a step further, and have children write a short story about the object, incorporating those five noted details.
Best wishes to all our readers for a wonderful holiday season and a happy New Year!
www.joanwaites.com

MENTOR TEXTS AND PLAYGROUND FUN

by Jacqueline Jules
At the last NCTE conference, I had the privilege of serving as one of the roundtable leaders for a session sponsored by the Children’s Literature Assembly called “Reading Poetry Across the Curriculum.” In preparation for my discussion, I came across some terrific mentor texts that could be used in a combination of ways in your writing workshop classroom.
The Fastest Game on Two Feet and Other Poems About How Sports Began by Alice Low is a delightful combination of history, poetry, and illustration. Many people know that basketball was first played with peach baskets hung on the wall. But did you know that some say soccer began as a kicking game with a skull found on an English battlefield? Alice Low introduces the history of popular sports with a nonfiction paragraph followed by a beautifully illustrated rhyming poem. Most students have a favorite sport and should be naturally curious about its history. Read selections from The Fastest Game on Two Feet to inspire your class to research the origin of a sport. Afterwards, they can write about it in both nonfiction form and poetry, just as the book models. Students might also enjoy creating timelines, also included in this book. This would make a good class project with each student contributing an illustrated page.
A Stick is an Excellent Thing by Marilyn Singer extols the joys of outdoor and imaginative play. Bring in a stick and ask students to brainstorm all the games it could be used for. The poem suggests using the stick as a scepter for a king or a magic wand. This book also includes poems on favorite pastimes like hopscotch, swinging, blowing bubbles, making pretend soup, hide-and-seek, and jump rope. Each poem does an amazing job of portraying the activity, making them terrific models of description.
Joy in Mudville by Bob Raczka provides a great opportunity to compare and contrast. This illustrated poem is a sequel to Ernest Thayer’s famous “Casey at the Bat” reprinted at the end of the book. After reading Joy in Mudville, your class can discuss how Raczka took a well-known story and continued it with a new character and different ending. Students can write their own story about Mudville and a sport of their choice. Or you could do it as a class writing project.
Students are interested in sports. They love playground time. Using texts that celebrate what kids enjoy doing most is a sure-fire way to provide high interest reading and inspiration for writing.

The handouts for CLA Master Class "Poetry Across the Curriculum" session at NCTE are posted online. I hope you'll check out these great resources. In addition to information about Poetry and Sports, there are poetry handouts for Science, Math, Social Studies, and Art.  
www.jacquelinejules.com

Freewriting: Exploring Ideas, Moving Through Blocks

by Mary Quattlebaum
One of the best lessons I ever learned as a writer and a teacher was found in a slim volume entitled Writing with Power: Techniques for Mastering the Writing Process by Peter Elbow (Oxford University Press).  One chapter is devoted to a simple strategy—freewriting—that is amazingly effective for all ages and levels, from elementary students to published authors.  Here’s how it works:

*  Freewriting means to write down what comes into your head, without stopping, editing, or censoring.  Just keep the pen or computer keys moving.
*  Proves remarkably freeing.  Instead of sitting and waiting for ideas/the right words to strike, freewriting actively starts the thinking/muscle-moving process—and words follow.  Random words often lead to greater focus and soon you’re engaged in the actual writing.
*  Write about and write through worries or writer’s blocks.  Begin by writing about these worries and fears.  This clears them from your mind and gets you into the flow/energy of writing, which often soon leads to the writing you had hoped to be doing.
*  Structure your freewriting.  You can add structure to your freewriting by focusing, at the beginning, on a particular topic (an essay you have to write, a character you wish to explore) and let it guide your opening.  You may find the writing shifting and/or new ideas emerging as you write.  That’s okay.  Just keep the pen/computer keys moving.
*  Recognize you can go back and revise.  Don’t try to make this perfect (that’s counterproductive).  You may find nuggets and shape as you write—or after putting the freewriting away for a few hours or days.
*  Maximizes use of limited time to write.  Just bring your pen and paper with you and take advantage of the five minutes here and 10 minutes there as you wait in doctor’s offices, in carpool lines, for violin lessons or sports practice (whether you’re a kid or an adult).  You’ll be surprised at how much you can actually write by harnessing that time.
*  Leads to freer writing.  Try scheduling 10-minute freewriting sessions for yourself or your students on a regular basis.  See what happens over time.  Often there’s an increase in creativity and pleasure and a greater looseness/flow to the writing.  A comment I’ve heard from kids and adults alike: “This is fun!”
Writing with Power is full of other helpful strategies.  Try them all and see which one you prefer.
www.maryquattlebaum.com

Defending Decisions in a Disaster

Guest Post by Yvonne Ventresca
In my young adult novel, Pandemic (Sky Pony Press, 2014), only a few people know what caused Lilianna Snyder's sudden change. She goes from a model student to a withdrawn pessimist who worries about all kinds of disasters. After her parents are called away on business, Lil’s town is hit by what soon becomes a widespread fatal illness. With her worst fears realized, Lil must find a way to survive not only the outbreak and its real-life consequences, but also her own personal demons.
Writing Exercise One: During the Spanish Influenza of 1918, people worried about the flu being spread in remote areas by the mail carrier. With no easy way to notify the community of deaths, people used colored ribbons on their doors. A silver ribbon, for example, meant the death of an elderly person. In Pandemic, Jay Martinez creates a blog for local high school students to keep in touch about illnesses, deaths, and requests for needed supplies.
How do the technological advances of the last hundred years change society’s reaction to deadly contagious diseases? What are the pros and cons of social media and news coverage in today’s world compared to historical outbreaks?
Writing Exercise Two:During any widespread contagious disease, decisions need to be made about how a vaccine or a medicine would be distributed among the public. In Pandemic, Lil sees one expert on TV discuss the antivirals that are available in limited amounts to help victims of the bird flu.  The expert says about the fictional disease (Chapter 26):
“All citizens between fifteen and fifty are at risk…So, who gets it first?  Pregnant women?  People with preexisting conditions, like asthma?  But we can’t expect the emergency system to work if those on the front lines aren’t protected.  Not only doctors and nurses but EMT volunteers, police, and firefighters are expected to help the ill.  With the flu so easily transmitted, is it fair to ask them to do so without some kind of protective measures?” 
If you had to make the decision, how would you go about distributing a medicine or vaccine during a widespread deadly illness? What factors would you consider?
BIO: Yvonne Ventresca is the author of Pandemic, a contemporary, realistic young adult novel about an emotionally traumatized teenager struggling to survive a deadly flu pandemic. Yvonne’s other writing credits include two nonfiction books for kids, Avril Lavigne (a biography of the singer) and Publishing (about careers in the field). Yvonne lives in NJ with her family and two dogs. You can learn more about Yvonne and her writing at YvonneVentresca.com.

SHARING CULTURES WITH BOOKS

by Karen Leggett
The 2014 winners of the Children’s Africana Book Awards (CABA) have been honored this month in Washington, D.C., for writing the bestchildren’s and young adult books on Africa published in the United States. The awards were started by Africa Access and the Outreach Council of the African Studies Association in 1991.

This year’s winners are:
Desmond Tutu & Douglas Abrams, A.G. Ford (illus.) Desmond and the Very Mean Word  (Candlewick)Anna Cottrell & Agbotadua Togbi Kumassah, Kwabena Poku (illus) Once Upon a Time in Ghana (Afram)Monica Edinger, Robert Byrd (illus) Africa is My Home:Child of the Amistad (Candlewick)Mubina Kirmani, Tony Siema (illus.) Bundle of Secrets: Savita Returns Home (Create Space)
In social studies and language arts classes for any grade level, these books and the many previous award winners offer a perfect opportunity for cultural immersion and compare/contrast writing exercises on a very personal level.  
Ask each child to select one of the award-winning books - encourage your school library to begin collecting the CABA winners - or use other titles that focus on children or families in another country. As they read, children should keep a 3 x 5 card with notes that will enable them to answer three questions. The notes may simply be single words that will jog their memory later.1.     How is your daily life similar to children in the book?2.     What is different about your ordinary days and theirs?3.     If you went to the country portrayed in the book, what would you most want to see or do?
Children may discover different ways of cooking a meal or cleaning clothes but they may also find what they have in common.  During a Skype session I moderated with American and Egyptian fourth graders, an American boy asked, “What is your favorite food?”  An Egyptian girl answered without hesitation, “pizza and hamburgers,” bringing surprised giggles and a palpable sense of connected-ness between children thousands of miles apart. 
If you want to expand the experience, find authors in other countries who want to do the same by visiting Skype in the Classroom or Global Friends.  The Africa Access website also has many teaching resources.
http://africaaccessreview.org/lessons/

Writing Up a Tantrum!

Guest Post by Artie Bennett
I’m probably better known for my rhyming nonfiction picture books (The Butt Book, Poopendous!, and Belches, Burps, and Farts—Oh My!), for better or, ahem, verse, but today I’d like to shine a spotlight on my storybook, Peter Panda Melts Down!, and its protagonist, the most meltdownable panda we know. Peter is only three and he’s filled with frustration. In the story, we spend the day with Peter and his mama—and oh, what a day! We witness Peter blow a gasket in the car, in the supermarket, in the park, in the library, in the . . . everywhere!As Peter’s fits of fury flow forth, indelibly captured by the terrific illustrator John Nez, we observe Mama Panda’s growing exasperation and we wonder: Will Mama Panda melt down, too? I’m afraid you’ll need to read Peter Panda Melts Down! to find out. No spoilers here.      Now, I love to write in verse, though the challenges can sometimes be great. Because I’m burdened with a perfectionist streak, I agonize over every single syllable. I tweak and revise endlessly until I get things just right. And then I tweak and revise some more. I’m blessed to be writing in English, which has far more words than any other language (well over a million in total!). This gives me a world of possibilities for rhyming. And it really is a world because English has absorbed words from across the globe and adopted them as its own.     Peter Panda Melts Down! has a fun, catchy refrain running through it:
“Uh-oh. Here it comes. Here comes that frown.Peter Panda melts dowwwnnn!”

And there a few twists on the refrain for added enjoyment and surprise. It also has a large dollop of my trademark wordplay and humor.     Ask your students to write about a time when they, or someone they know, experienced monumental anger, like a volcano about to blow its top. They can work in small groups or individually. Young writers can address how the situation was calmed down (if, in fact, it was), and what role they themselves may have played. Was there an adult involved—and if so, how did the adult react? Did it take place in a public or private setting?     People have a variety of strategies for quelling their anger. Some count to ten. Some concentrate on slowing down their breath. Some may meditate. Some listen to their favorite music. How do you calm yourself when you find yourself getting angry? Write a few sentences about this.     Make a list of the things that make you angry. Are there any items on your list that you think may be unique to you? Write a bit about why these things upset you.      Tots will regularly toss tantrums. Students can write about what they feel is the most effective approach for dealing with such outbursts.     To add a fun wrinkle, students can even attempt to write a few lines of the exercise in verse if they wish. And if they enjoy that challenge, who knows: They could be the next . . . Artie Bennett!
BIO: Artie Bennett is the executive copy editor for a children’s book publisher and he writes a little on the side (but not the backside!). He would be hailed as “the Dr. Seuss of your caboose” for his much-acclaimed The Butt Book, his first “mature” work, which published in 2010. His “number two” picture book, fittingly, was entitled Poopendous! followed by Peter Panda Melts Down! and Belches, Burps, and Farts—Oh My! in 2014. Artie lives deep in the bowels of Brooklyn, New York, where he spends his spare time moving his car to satisfy the rigorous demands of alternate-side-of-the-street parking and shaking his fist at his neighbors. He loves sharing his books with a wider audience at school visits. Visit ArtieBennett.com . . . before someone else does!

WRITING FROM PICTURES

 by Jacqueline Jules
Young writers can be inspired by their own illustrations. Many primary writing curriculums instruct students to draw a picture first and then write a story to go along with it.

In my picture book, No English, two girls overcome a language barrier by drawing pictures of their families and labeling them. They learn to talk to each other through pictures after a misunderstanding. 


While I had not originally intended to create a model suitable for writing instruction, No Englishdoes provide a fictional example of using pictures to communicate.
A teacher’s guide is available for No English on my website. This graphic will give you an easy template to use after reading the book to your students.

Before using the template, do a little brainstorming with your students. Ask them to draw their family in a group activity such as walking the dog or building a snowman. Make a list of activities families might do together. While a simple picture labeling family members can be an effective prompt for kindergartners, encouraging second and third graders to depict a family scene will produce more interesting stories. Students can be encouraged to add an emotional response to the family activity and other details of the experience. You may also want to ask your students to create a first draft of their picture in pencil and then color it in after their story is completed. Happy Writing!
www.jacquelinejules.com  

SHOP AT THE MONSTORE FOR HALLOWEEN

guest post by Tara Lazar
How would your students like to visit a store where they can buy any monster they please?
Crawl right this way, into The Monstore. (But you must know the secret knock and hand over a bag of squirmy worms, the monsters’ favorite treat.)
When I visit schools and book fairs, I hand out a coloring sheet, where the children can draw a monster of their imagination, one that performs snazzy tricks, like gobbling up a child’s gross uneaten dinner, or as one girl wrote, “shooting cupcakes from his feet.” You never know what the kids will come up with!

One of the most frequently asked questions at my book readings is, “When is The Monstore 2 coming out?” Yep, the book ends with a cliffhanger, and I’m not telling what happens next…
But that cliffhanger also creates a stepping stone to a fabulous writing prompt for young writers.
Read The Monstore and then ask the students:
·       What happens at The Monstore 2?·       What kind of monsters can you buy?·       What special talents do they have?·       Who is the new Monstore Manager?·       Is there a return policy?·       Which monster gets sold first?·       Who buys the first monster? And why?·       Are the monsters happy or sad to be bought?·       Do any adults find out about The Monstore 2?
Your class can even brainstorm questions to write about, plus students can use the sheet above to draw the monster they’d like to purchase.
I like to think that anything goes with this prompt—the monsters can do anything, the store can make any policy it chooses, and anyone can make a purchase, even with just a few pennies.

BIO: Street magic performer. Hog-calling champion. Award-winning ice sculptor. These are all things Tara Lazar has never been. Instead, she writes quirky, humorous picture books featuring magical places that adults never find. Her debut The Monstore was released in June 2013, with I Thought This Was a Bear Book and Little Red Gliding Hood to follow in 2015. Tara is also the founder of PiBoIdMo, Picture Book Idea Month, an annual online writing event for picture book authors and illustrators. There are writing tips, giveaways and book reviews galore at taralazar.com.

Teaching the Elements of Art with Picture Books

by Joan Waites
In my last blog post, I wrote about using picture books in the classroom as a supplemental way to teach art history. Using this same approach, young students can also be introduced to the seven elements of art using the illustrations in a picture book. Each illustrator brings their own unique style and uses these elements in different ways to convey the story in pictures. The seven elements of art are:
Illustration by Joan Waites
www.joanwaites.comLine ShapeColorValueFormTextureSpace
Looking at the illustrations in a picture book, ask students to comment on the art using these seven elements, asking the following questions:
Line: Is the line used to draw the objects or setting thin? Thick? Angular or curvy?Shape: Are the basic shapes large or small? Organic or geometric? Color: Are the colors used warm or cool? Monochromatic?Value: Are the colors used darker or lighter in shade?Form: Are the figures and setting flat or more 3-D looking?Texture: Do the objects in the picture appear rough? Smooth? Shiny?Space: Do the objects in the illustrations look like they are closer to the reader? Farther away?
Have students study two picture books and compare and contrast how the illustrator incorporated these seven elements. Next, have students draw an illustration based on their favorite picture book or story. Using the seven elements as a guide, encourage students to incorporate as many of them into their work as possible. Bonus points for those students who incorporate all seven!

www.joanwaites.com

Writing Nonfiction--Look for the Superstar Moment

Guest Post by Moira Rose Donohue
Sometimes it can be hard for students to read nonfiction—and even harder to write it.  But nonfiction can be fun to both read and write if the author strives for the “superstar moment.”
I have written a number of educational biographies and two books for National Geographic that tell amazing but true animal stories.  And I have learned a simple, but helpful, lesson. After I finish my research, I identify the rock star moment.  Then I draft a general outline, making sure that somewhere between two-thirds and three-quarters of the way through the book, I will hit that big moment. 
For example, if I am writing about Vasco Núñez de Balboa, I need to make sure that his superstar moment—being the first European to see the Pacific Ocean from the New World—is the climax of the story.  Likewise, if I am writing about a kangaroo that rescues his injured owner, that has to happen towards the end of the story.  And if I am telling you about my summer vacation, I need to build up to the best part of it—the day I learned to swim alone.
This may sound a bit simplistic, but it’s a rule that gets easily forgotten when pencil hits paper.  Why?  Most nonfiction writers have learned a tremendous amount about the subject of their report or book.  They want to share it, so they cram in all kinds of data and lose the sense of story and climax that holds the reader’s interest.  That means that bits of information, even really fun ones like a dramatic fight with another explorer over a girl, have to be jettisoned if they don’t advance the story towards the superstar moment.
Next time you assign a biography writing project, or even a “What I Did This Summer” essay, remind your young writers to identify the “superstar moment” and edit their stories so that they take the reader up the mountain to superstardom.  Hopefully that will put them on the road to superstar writing.
BIO: Moira Rose Donohue is the author of Parrot Genius from National Geographic; 13 biographies from State Standards Publishing; and Alfie the Apostrophe and Penny and the Punctuation Bee from Albert Whitman.  Coming soon-- another explorer biography (de Soto) and Kangaroo to the Rescue from National Geographic in Spring, 2015!