Nancy I. Sanders's Blog, page 51

Writing Opportunity: Manuscript Submission Prep

It’s time to prepare our manuscript for submission to Kaeden Books! Yay!

First thing we want to do is double check their submission guidelines.

Let’s take a look at their SUBMISSION PROCEDURES.

A. They need a hard copy. This means we will print out our manuscripts and mail in an envelope to them.

1. They need our name, phone number, and page number on each page.

The easiest way to do this is put this all in the header. (Don’t type this into the actual manuscript itself, open the header/footer area and type in there. If you don’t know how to do this, google how to create a header in your version of your word processing program.)

I also added the title of my book in the header, too. Here’s what it looked like in my header:

My Name-Phone Number-Title (on the top left) page number (top right)

I opted NOT to include this header on my first page however because of the way I formatted my manuscript. (I followed the standard format recommended by SCBWI.)

On the first page, I typed my contact info single spaced at the top left:

My name

Address

City, State Zip

e-mail

phone number

website

Then about 2/3 down the page, I typed the title of my manuscript and my name in the center, double-spaced.

Next I double-spaced the Table of Contents along with the rest of the manuscript. My story actually now starts on page 2 of my manuscript. Go ahead and format your manuscript just like this, too, then print it out and get a 9 x 12 large manila envelope to mail it in.

Here’s a visual of what the first page of my manuscript looks like:

Filed under: Beginning Readers, Nonfiction, Picture Books

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you!!!!

May you have a special day together with family and friends and the precious ones you cherish in your heart.

And THIS year, may you share the TRUE meaning of Christmas as you gather together. Start a new tradition and read the Gospel to your children and those who are spending the day with you. After all, it’s because of God’s precious gift He gave for each one of us that we now have the tradition of gift-giving today.

To download and print out a free copy of C IS FOR CHRISTMAS, visit my store at Teachers Pay Teachers.

Merry Christmas, friends!!!!

Filed under: Inspiration

Writing Opportunity: Discussion Questions Part 3

The last set of Discussion Questions we need to include in our manuscript for submitting to Kaeden Books is:

After Reading

These are questions the teacher can ask the student AFTER they finish reading the book. Once again, these questions support the Common Core State Standards, and in the case of the manuscript I’m preparing and perhaps you are too, the KINDERGARTEN standards for reading informational text or nonfiction.

Once again, look at the sample discussion questions in Fiesta, and Flowers at Kaeden Books.

This section is a great place to write questions that support these particular standards:

Key Ideas and Details:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.K.1

With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.K.2

With prompting and support, identify the main topic and retell key details of a text.

So go ahead and write three questions. Again, try not to stress out too much about these or overwrite them. If you simply draw a blank, it’s okay to use some of the wording on the Fiesta book or Flowers book to use in your own manuscript.

After you’re done with these, do a happy dance! We’re finished with the main draft of our manuscript. Yay! For a week or so, I’ll be taking a break from working on this project to spend time celebrating the holidays with family and friends. I know you’ll be busy celebrating, too!

And then in the New Year, I’ll be sharing how to go through the submission process. I’ll give you a cover letter you can copy from to prepare to send with yours. Plus, I’ll share with you a super duper successful strategy I’ve landed numerous contracts with. I hope you use this strategy and land a contract with Kaeden Books, too.

To give you a heads up for what exciting things you can look forward to in the year ahead after we finish this manuscript and submit it (We’ll do this sometime in January) here’s what I’m planning to do:

I’ll show you how to do this whole process and write a brand new manuscript and submit it in just 3 weeks to Kaeden Books.

After that, I’ll show you how to do the whole process again and write another brand new manuscript and submit it in just 1 week!

And then we’ll move forward and write a chapter book. I’ll show you the process I take so that you can write one and submit it to Kaeden Books, too.

So get ready for more fun in the New Year!

Filed under: Beginning Readers, Nonfiction

Writing Opportunity: Discussion Questions Part 2

The second part of the Discussion Questions for the nonfiction titles at Kaeden Books is:

During Reading.

For this section, a variety of questions can be used. The key is that these questions support the Common Core State Standards for this level.

Since we’ve been discussing how to write books such as The Bird Feeder, Fiesta, and Flowers which are written for the kindergarten reading level, we’re trying to write discussion questions that support the kindergarten level of standards for the Common Core. If you are writing a manuscript for a first or second grade reading level, then you’ll need to read those standards and make sure your discussion questions support those standards.

Compare the discussion questions DURING READING for both Fiesta and Flowers by looking at their google preview.

Now brainstorm ideas for questions you could ask about your own manuscript based on these Common Core State Standards. (Make sure these would be questions teachers could ask their students DURING the reading of your book) Here are some ideas to help you get started that you can tailor to your own specific topic:

Key Ideas and Details:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.K.1

With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

What is happening in this setting?

Who is this about?

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.K.3

With prompting and support, describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information in a text.

Compare and contrast the pictures of the XX on pages Y and Z.

Look at pages X and Y. How are AA and BB the same? How are they different?

Craft and Structure:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.K.4

With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text.

What are [one of your vocabulary words]? After listening to the students’ responses, invite them to turn to the Glossary and find [the vocabulary word]. Read the definition together.

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.K.7

With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the text in which they appear (e.g., what person, place, thing, or idea in the text an illustration depicts).

Look at the illustration on page XX. What is happening to the YY and ZZ?

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.K.8

With prompting and support, identify the reasons an author gives to support points in a text.

Where was the writer when this took place? What was the writer doing? What was the writer thinking?

What does the writer see, hear, taste, or smell?

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.K.9

With prompting and support, identify basic similarities in and differences between two texts on the same topic (e.g., in illustrations, descriptions, or procedures).

Compare and contrast the XX on pages YY and ZZ.

So go ahead and write 3 questions teachers can ask their students for DURING READING. Try not to stress out too much about these or overwrite them. If you simply draw a blank, it’s okay to use some of the wording on the Fiesta book or Flowers book to use in your own manuscript.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Filed under: Beginning Readers, common core state standards, Nonfiction

Book Review: It Will Be Okay

It Will Be Okay:

Trusting God Through Fear and Change

by Lysa TerKeurst

Art by Natalia Moore

Summary

When Little Fox met Little Seed in the farmer’s shed, they became best of friends. Little Fox was afraid of dark shadows and scary things and Little Seed didn’t like change, so the two friends felt safe staying inside the shed. But one day the Farmer, who was good and kind, came and took Little Seed outside and planted him in the ground because the Farmer had important plans for him.

At first they are both sad. Little Fox misses his friend and Little Seed doesn’t like being alone in the dark. But then Little Seed sprouts and grows into a tall tree that Little Fox can play near and sleep under. An all the time, the Farmer, who is good and kind, watches over them.

What I Like

This is a sweet, tender story about little ones who are afraid of things and don’t like change. (Every child can identify with this!) It gives comfort and hope and reassurance that good things happen to those who wait and that even though we don’t understand what is happening, we can trust that God has a wonderful plan for us and will always take care of us because He loves us.

This is a precious bedtime story or story for cuddling together to calm a fearful child. A quiet book, it ends with a reminder that just as Little Fox and Little Seed learned to trust the Farmer, we can learn to trust God.

I also really like the art in this picture book. Very quiet and soft yet fun and whimsical. A delightful complement to the story.

-Thanks, BookLook Bloggers for another wonderful free book in exchange for my honest review!

Filed under: Book Review

Writing Opportunity: Discussion Questions Part 1

As we’re preparing our manuscripts to submit to Kaeden Books, we’re now working on the very last page of the published book.

The final section on this last page is the Discussion Questions. There are 3 parts to these questions:

Before Reading

During Reading

After Reading

If you’re a teacher or write for teachers, you’re probably already familiar with these educational strategies. If not, it might be a little tricky to prepare these, but you can do it. It just might take a little longer to think through what you’re going to write.

I looked through all the google previews of all the nonfiction books listed at Kaeden Books and found only 2 that showed me the page with the discussion questions. These 2 books are:

Fiesta

Flowers

Go ahead and click on the google previews for these books and scroll all the way to the Discussion Questions on the last page of both.

An important fact to note is that both sets of discussion questions for both books are driven by the Common Core State Standards. This means that these questions are based on what the Common Core Standards require teachers to teach when they introduce nonfiction (informational texts) to their students.

So go ahead and look at the Common Core State Standards for teaching Informational Text to Kindergarten. Click on the link and take a minute to read over this strand of standards. It only takes a minute and every time we can read these standards, we’ll become more familiar and less apprehensive of them.

After you read these standards, let’s take a look again at the first set of Discussion Questions we find in FIESTA and FLOWERS.

BEFORE READING

If you notice, both books have similar questions that they present in this section.

Here are the questions I wrote for my own manuscript, just so you can compare mine as a third example for your frame of reference:

Before Reading:

• Take a picture walk. Point out the special features of the book: the Table of Contents, the Glossary, and the Index. Discuss what each is used for.

• Have the students turn to the Index. On which page can you find mammals?

Notice how I copied their formatting. I put the heading Before Reading in bold. I bulleted my two discussion questions. I italicized the word I told them to look up in the index. I used similar wording to the ones in Fiesta and Flowers but made them apply to my own manuscript instead.

So go ahead and write two or three questions to include in this section of your own manuscript.

Filed under: Beginning Readers, common core state standards, Nonfiction, Picture Books

Writing Opportunity: Word List

On the back page of some of their nonfiction books, Kaeden Books includes a Word List.

To prepare the Word List for my own story, first I printed out a copy of my story.

Then I dug around and it doesn’t look like they add the sidebar words in the word lists I saw, so I didn’t add these in for mine either.

I referred to my printed pages and typed in each word in alphabetical order that is used in my main text of my story. I added in every single word such as “a” and “I” too. Now my Word List is done.

So go ahead and type out your Word List on the bottom of your manuscript, too.

Let me know if you have any questions!

In an upcoming post I’ll give tips on how to write the discussion questions for your story!

Filed under: Beginning Readers, Nonfiction

Writing Opportunity: Back Page

Even though I used THE BIRDFEEDER as my mentor text to write the nonfiction story itself, I’m now using FIESTA as my mentor text to write the back matter. This is simply because on google preview I can’t see what THE BIRDFEEDER has for its back matter.

But I can see it in FIESTA. And I see that there is a back page at the very end of the book.

This page isn’t included in the Table of Contents. It doesn’t even have a page number at the bottom. This makes me think that it’s pasted in the back cover of the book.

So it’s important to include this page in our own manuscript for our own story.

Here are the features that are included on this page:

Word List:

Word Count: (This is where you’ll put your word count you calculated yesterday.)

Following are discussion questions for use before, during and after reading.

Before Reading:

During Reading:

After Reading:

We’ll talk about how to prepare these in an upcoming post!

Filed under: Beginning Readers, Nonfiction

Writing Opportunity: The Word Count

I decided to feature a separate blog post just on the word count because I wanted to share the exact steps I took to determine this myself. That way you can know how to do this step, too.

First I saved a totally new version of my manuscript and called it:

TITLE word count

Then I deleted the glossary. I deleted the index. I deleted any footnotes. I deleted the table of contents. I deleted the page numbers I added in.

I wasn’t sure if the word count Kaeden gives for their books includes the sidebars or not, so I went back and checked a couple of their books. For the books I checked, they did NOT include the sidebars in their word count.

So I deleted all the sidebars, too. All I was left with was the text in large type that would be at the bottom of each page of the published story.

I had 48 words.

Go ahead and check the word count for your story. Then check your mentor text to make sure your word count is in the same ball park as the word count of your mentor text.

My mentor text is THE BIRDFEEDER. It has a word count of 55 words. So I knew I had hit the mark with 48.

How about your word count? Did you hit the mark? If not, think of ways to lengthen or shorten the word count to be closer to that of your mentor text.

In books like these where children are learning to read, word count is very, very important. Kids would feel overwhelmed if the book is too long and takes them too long to read it on their own. Yet a teacher will not feel it is worth the price if it has too few words in it. It’s important to make sure your manuscript is in the right ball park with the other books like yours that Kaeden Books has already published.

Make a note of your final word count. You’ll need it in the very next exercise we do.

Filed under: Beginning Readers, Nonfiction

Writing Opportunity: The Index

For the Kaeden Book manuscript submission of a nonfiction story I’m preparing, the next step along the journey was to prepare the index.

Have you ever prepared an index for one of your books? I have and it can be a tedious process…especially if your book is over 100 pages long! Fortunately, the indexes for these short gems aren’t too involved.

As you’re working to prepare your own index, look at your mentor text. My mentor text didn’t have an index that shows up in the google preview, so once again, I looked at Fiesta to see how the index is done. Click on the google preview and take a look yourself.

For starters, I noticed that not every word was listed in the index. Repeating small words such as “we” and “is” aren’t included. Most of the rest are, however.

The easiest way to type up my index was to first print out a copy of my manuscript. As I looked at it next to me, I simply typed all the main words starting at page 4. (Page 3 is the Table of Contents.)

I typed these in alphabetical order as I progressed through my manuscript. Each time I typed a word, I put the page number next to it. If a word appeared more than once, I added that, too. Like this:

tree 7

water 5, 8

Even though their index is in 2 columns, I just kept mine in one long column since this is a manuscript.

So go ahead and write your index! If you have any questions, let me know.

Filed under: Beginning Readers, Nonfiction