Curriculum Suggestion-[Fill in the blank] of the month!

Teachers are constantly bombarded with covering all the required curriculum. Between state standards, district mandates and school/grade level traditions it can be hard to find time to squeeze in anything else. However, I am a firm believer that you must include curriculum that you are passionate about. The types of things that made you want to become a teacher in the first place! If this is lost, it can be easy to get burnt out in a hurry. This is what led me to today's post: [Fill in the blank] of the month!

(For you non-teaching mommies or daddies out there this is an easy thing to do at home as well...minus a couple of the obvious differences between classroom and home.. adjust accordingly to what makes sense for your situation.)

One of my first posts was about how to name tables in your classroom. I mentioned I would later discuss what I used my author tables for... this is that promised post.

I love literature, especially children's literature and familiarizing children with specific authors and illustrators, so I made sure I could spend time each month focusing on authors. The implementation was easy... here is what I did (keep in mind you can alter this to whatever you want!)...

1. I set up the author tables (for details click on: http://sugarnspicesnailsntales.blogspot.com/2009/08/classroom-management-author-tables.html )

2. At the beginning of the month I announce to the class the author of the month. Since entire classroom tables were dedicated to each author, the children sitting at the author of the month table would shriek with joy that their table was chosen for the month.

3. Immediately after making the announcement I would read a story by the author (if you are teaching older grades and using chapter books, just read the first chapter) so the students would have an instant connection with the author. Followed by a little biography about the author making connections to the lives of the students (if possible). In addition, when possible I would show a dvd or computer clip of the author or an episode (or part of an episode) of Reading Rainbow or of a Scholastic video if the author and/or book by the author was highlighted. I don't like to use a lot of television in the classroom. However, showing the authors talking or watching a spotlight about a book is okay as it helps children connect with the author/book. I can promise you many students tune out while a teacher is verbally providing a bio but those same students will glue their eyes to the t.v. just because of the novelty of it in a classroom.

4. The students at the author table received special priveleges all month (nothing exciting, just the first to line up, things like that... seems small but can be a big deal in primary grades).

5. I made sure to read books by the author throughout the entire month and had a display of books by the author in my classroom library. If you have a small classroom, find a small spot on a counter or even an extra desk and make it your author spotlight by putting a picture and name of the author above or below where you have your book display (you can use an extra copy of the table sign described in my earlier post), it can be as simple or elaborate as you want. Even the simple use of a chair with some fabric draped over it with the author's name and picture taped to it will work. Just place the books on the seat and around the legs. If you have questions and would like some additional suggestions simply post a question and I will address it as soon as I can!

6. Along with reading books throughout the month I would use coloring sheets or other book related activities as fillers whenever possible. Usually the best worksheets (i.e. by best I mean the worksheets are don't look homemade) are available on the author's or publisher's website. For example, the Junie B. Jones website (author Barbara Park) has a Junie B. mask, wordsearch and other printables: http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/junieb

Below are resources for the author bio/book spotlight mentioned above.



*Where the Wild Things Are dvds has an interview with Maurice Sendak*

The following are just a few author websites that have bios/videos/etc. that you may find helpful:
http://www.janbrett.com/
http://www.loislowry.com/
http://www.toddparr.com/
http://www.judyblume.com/
http://www.roalddahl.com/

Most websites are simply the authorsname.com like those above. I made the list short since they are pretty easy to find. You can also refer to my previous post which has a list of authors at the bottom of the post: http://sugarnspicesnailsntales.blogspot.com/2009/08/classroom-management-author-tables.html