1. Literature that invites and supports writing by Laurie Stowell San Marcos Writing Project Cal State San Marcos

2. Reading and writing processes:
Readers and writers:
Prepare by:
Setting goals, setting purposes, planning, previewing, questioning, forming hypotheses, engaging prior knowledge and experiences, establishing a stance, perspective and making choices
Make Meaning by:
Using resources, making connections (to self, other texts, the world), identifying patterns or organizational structures, selecting details, reflecting, organizing ideas, adjusting rate, rereading, visualizing, summarizing, elaborating, discussing, taking risks, and validating predictions or hypotheses.
Refine by:
Monitoring for meaning, revising ideas, negotiating, problem solving, reflecting, paraphrasing, self correcting, making adjustments and sharing and discussing with others.

3. What writing does:
“Watching, noticing and thinking deeply will help them be better writers but it will also help them be better scientists, sociologists, historians, mathematicians, and on and on. Watching, noticing and listening-reading the world is what smart people do. All of the work teachers have been doing with writer’s notebooks and lifebooks and journals is in support of this goal. Over time, we want students to develop more and more ways of finding important ideas to bring to their writing desks.”
- Ray, K.W. (2001) The writing workshop: working through the hard parts (and they’re all hard parts). Urbana, Ill.: NCTE

4. How books teach writers:
* Explicitly
*the book tells what writers do
*”Copying”
* Implicitly
*Borrowing and Improvising:
the language of literature, language patterns, literary format, traditional literary elements, i.e. characterization, plot, setting, tone, theme and style.
*Mentor texts (Calkins)

5. Explicit borrowing I loved my friend I like my friend
He went away from me But she went away
There’s nothing more to say There’s nothing to say.
The poem ends the poem ends
Soft as it began soft as it began
I loved my friend I like my friend.
-Langston Hughes - Gabby (3rd grade)

6. That’s bad, no that’s good (based on the book by Margery Cuyler)
We went to the park. I got lost.
I said, “Oh, that’s good.”
“No, that’s bad.”
I went to see the frogs, and I stepped on one.
“Oh, that’s good.”
“No that’s bad”
“I went to the balloons. I got some and POP!”
“No, that’s bad”.
- Maria (3rd grade English learner)

7. Fortunately/Unfortunately (based on the book by Remy Charlip)
Once there was a new kid going to school
Unfortunately he was lost.
Fortunately, a friend showed him where to go.
Fortunately he found a map
Unfortunately, it was the wrong state.
Fortunately, he got on a bus.
Unfortunately, the bus broke down.
Fortunately, it was across the street from the school. …
by Steve, a 6th grade English learner

8. Implicit borrowing
When children’s lives are filled with literature and good writing, one never knows from where they will borrow and what will become mentor texts:
“In this the darkest night, in this the darkest sea,
After coral was born, there came the mud-digging grub,
and its child, the earth worm.
There came the pointed star-fish, and the rock-grasping barnacle,
and its child the oyster
and its child, the mussel.
There came the moss which lives in the sea,
And the fern which grows on the learn.
In this the darkest night
There came the fish,and all the creatures of the sea.
There came the lurking shark and the darting eel,
moving quickly through the high weeds.”
In the night still dark by Richard Lewis

9. Deanna’s “Creatures of the Night”
As the night falls, a young fox runs from the cold into his warm den. A mother bat soars out of her cave on her nightly rounds of searching for food for her babies. A bright light attracts a lonely moth flying by. A frog lets out a soft croak before it dives into the ink colored pond. An owl perches above on a high branch scanning the grounds for her prey. A rat pokes his head out of the ground revealing his bright red eyes and down below on the river bottom, fish swim, swim, swim until morning comes into view. In the distance a coyote lets out a sharp and piercing howl. An opossum lurks behind a soft green bush, looking for trouble. And into this night, unknown to all the animals, the wolf stalks the forest waiting for the right moment to devour the unsuspecting.
Which animal will be his next victim? A strong burst of wind rustles the leaves on the trees and startles a sleeping bird. Hours pass and slowly the sun begins to appear from beneath the horizon. And for the night creatures who have escaped the wolves clenching jar, another day dawns.

10. Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
“The barn was very large. It was very old. It smelled of hay and it smelled of manure. It smelled of the perspiration of tired horses and the wonderful sweet breath of patient cows. It often had a sort of peaceful smell-as though nothing bad cold happen ever again in the world. It smelled of grain and of harness dressing and of axle grease and of rubber boots and of new rope. And whenever the cat was given a fish head to eat, the barn would smell of fish. But mostly it smelled of hay, for there was always hay in the great loft up overhead. And there was always hay being pitched down to the cows and hoses and the sheep.” (p. 13)
After reading White third grade students say "I write stronger language, put in more detail, and tell more about the thing I am writing about."
“Reading this book helped me learn to expand my characters"
"I make different descriptions. I love his beautiful language.”

11. Elements of narrative:
* Character
* Setting
* Plot
-Problem
-Solution
* Tone
* Language
* Theme

12. Teaching writing explicitly with a book
1. Introduce the book
2. Give a focus for listening (descriptive language, character, plot development, etc.)
3. Read the book or part of a book (If students are not familiar with the book, give a brief summary beforehand)
4. Students take notes in writer’s notebooks.
5. Discuss: What did you notice?
6. Record their responses on chart or overhead

13. Elements of narrative:
Character

14. There’s a boy in the girl’s bathroom by Louis Sachar
Bradley Chalkers sat at his desk in the back of the room-last seat, last row. No one sat at the desk next to him. He was an island.
If he could have, he would have sat in the closet. Then he could have shut the door so he wouldn’t have to listen to Mrs. Ebbel. He didn’t think she’d mind. She’d probably like it better that way too. So would the rest of the class. All in all, he thought everyone would be much happier if he sat in the closet, but, unfortunately, his desk didn’t fit.
“Class,” said Mrs. Ebbel. “I would like you all to meet Jeff Fishkin. Jeff just moved here from Washington D.C., which as you know, is our nation’s capital.”…
Mrs. Ebbel smiled at him. “Well, I guess we’d better find you a place to sit.” She looked around the room. “Hmmm, I don’t see anyplace except, I suppose you can sit there, at the back.”
“No, not next to Bradely!” a girl in the front row exclaimed.
“At least it’s better than in front of Bradley,” said the boy next to her….
“That’s right,” Bradley spoke up. “Nobody likes sitting next to me!” he smiled a strange smile. He stretched his mouth so wide, it was hard to tell whether it was a smile or a frown.
As Mrs. Ebbel began the lesson, Bradley took out a pencil and a piece of paper and scribbled. He scribbled most of the morning and sometimes on the paper and sometimes on his desk. Sometimes he scribbled so hard his pencil broke. Every time that happened, he laughed. (p. 1-2)

15. What do we know about Bradley and how do we know it?
*The teacher doesn’t like him
*Few (if any) students like him
*Troublemaker
*Teacher apologizes for seating a child next to him. He sits in the last seat, last row
*No one wants to sit next to him
*Scribbles on desk, seemingly not paying attention

16. Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
I went around a really big tree all covered in moss, and there was Winn-Dixie. He was eating something right out of the witch’s hand. She looked up at me. “This dog sure likes peanut butter,” she said . “you can always trust a dog that likes peanut butter.”
She was old with crinkly brown skin. She had on a big floppy hat with flowers all over it,and she didn’t have any teeth, but she didn’t look like a witch. She looked nice. And Winn-Dixie liked her, I could tell.
“I’m sorry he got in your garden,” I said.
“You ain’t got to be sorry,” she said. “I enjoy a little company.”
“My name’s Opal,” I told her.
“My name’s Gloria Dump,” she said. “Ain’t that a terrible last name? Dump?”
“My last name is Buloni,” I said. “Sometimes the kids at school back home in Watley called me’Lunch Meat’”
“Hah!” Gloria Dump laughed. “What about this dog? What do you call him?”
“Winn Dixie” I said.
“Whooooeeee,” she said. “That takes the strange-name prize, don’t it?”
…Gloria Dump made me a peanut butter sandwich on whit e bread.
then she made one for herself and put her false teeth in, to eat it; when she was done, she said to me, “You know, my eyes ain’t too good at all. I can’t see nothing but the general shape of things so I got to rely on my heart. Why don’t you go on and tell me everything about yourself, so I can see you with my heart.”
And because Winn Dixie was looking up at her like she was the best thing he had ever seen and because the peanut-butter sandwich had been so good, and because I had been waiting for a long time to tell some person everything about me, I did. (p. 63)

17. What do we know about Gloria Dump?
*What she looks like
* Dogs like her
*She is a generous person
*She can’t see very well
*She likes to talk to people
How do we know it?
*Description
*Winn Dixie responds well to her
*She gives a peanut butter sandwich to Winn Dixie and Opal
* Gloria Dump tells Opal she can’t see very well
*She tells Opal to tell her all about herself

18. How does the reader learn about character?
•Description: physical, emotional or mental
•Interior monologue: character expresses thoughts, feelings, fears, etc.
•Observed by others: other characters observe (and may comment on) behaviors, mental state, etc.
•Actions
•How the character interacts or responds to others

19. Melissa’s “A friend at school”
“Her name was Christy Montgomery and she had a problem. She is really mean to everyone and I want to help her. Christy seems to want to have friends except she thinks that everyone has to come to her if they like her.
Most of them don’t like her because she is kind of skuzzy looking and isn’t all that pretty. I don’t know why I’m going to help her except I guess in a way, I know how she feels. I guess that I’ve been through the same things.
Today is September 14, 1999 and I’m starting my New Year’s resolution early. I am determined to help that girl yet and that’s a promise. Tomorrow I start my work.”

20. Stories with fully developed main characters:
Ramona Ramona Quimby, age 8 by B. Cleary
Bud Bud, not buddy by P. C. Curtis
Birdy Catherine called Birdy by K. Cushman
Lucy The ballad of Lucy Whipple by K. Cushman
Little Willy Stone Fox by J. Gardiner
Chrysanthemum Chrysanthemum by K. Henkes
Swamp Angel Swamp Angel by A. Issacs
Sarah Sarah plain and tall by P. MacLachlan
Karana Island of the blue dolphins by S. O’Dell
Maria Too many tamales by G. Soto
Matt Sign of the Beaver by E. Speare
Maniac Maniac McGee by J. Spinelli
Cassie Roll of thunder hear my cry by M. Taylor
Moon Shadow Dragonwings by L. Yep

21. Elements of narrative
Setting

22. Owl Moon by Jane Yolen
It was late one winter night, long past my bedtime, when Pa and I went owling. There was no wind. The trees stood still as giant statues. And the moon was so bright the sky seemed to shine. Somewhere behind us a train whistle blew, long and low, like a sad, sad song.
I cold hear it through the woolen cap Pa had pulled down over my ears. A farm dog answered the train, and then a second dog joined in. They sang out, trains and dogs, for a real long time. And when their voices faded away it was as quiet as a dream. We walked on toward the woods, Pa and I.
Our feet crunched over the crisp snow and little gray footprints followed us. Pa made a long shadow, but mine was short and round. I had to run after him every now and then to keep up, and my short, round shadow bumped after me.
But I never called out. If you go owling you have to be quiet, that’s what Pa always says.

23. Home Place by Crescent Dragonwagon
Every year, these daffodils come up. There is no house near them. Unless someone happens to come this way, like us, this Sunday afternoon, just walking, there is not even anyone to see them. But still they come up, these daffodils in a row, a yellow splash brighter than sunlight, or lamplight, or butter, in the green and shadow of the woods. Still they come up, these daffodils, cups lifted to trumpet the good news of spring, though maybe no one hears except the wind and the raccoons who rustle at night and the deer who nibble delicately at the new green growth and the squirrels who jump from branch to branch of the old black walnut tree.
But once, someone lived here. How can you tell? Look. A chimney, made of stone, back there, half-standing yet, though honeysuckle’s grown around it-there must have been a house here. Look. Push aside these weeds-here’s a stone foundation, laid on earth. The house once here was built on it.

24. How do we learn about setting?
*Description of what a place looks like
* Description through the other senses
*What characters tell the reader
* Focus on smaller details to build a bigger picture
*Description of a feeling a time and place give a reader

25. Try this:
Think of a place (or a time and place in your past) you like to go for a visit, vacation, occasionally to have a moment to yourself or daily. Using one of the techniques the authors mentioned use, describe that place by using the senses, building it from small details, the feeling the place gives you or a combination of techniques. If it helps to sketch it out first, try that.

26. Stories with integral settings:
* Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbit
*Smoky night by Eve Bunting
*Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
*From the mixed up files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
*Sarah plain and tall by Patricia Mac Lachlan
*Grandfather’s Journey by Allen Say
* The keeping quilt by Patricia Polacco
*The bracelet by Yoshika Uchida
*Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
*Bridge to Terebithia by Katherine Paterson
*Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo
* Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold

27. Elements of Narrative
Language

28. John Henry by Julius Lester
John Henry chuckled. “Just watch me.” He swung one of his hammers round and round his head. It made such a wind that leaves flew off the trees and birds fell out of the sky.
RINGGGGGG!
The hammer hit the boulder. That boulder shivered like you do on a cold winter morning when it looks like the school bus is never gong to come.
The boulders shivered like the morning when freedom came to the slaves.
John Henry picked up the other hammer. He swung one hammer in a circle over his head. As soon as it hit the rock- RINGGGGGG!-the hammer in his left hand started to make a circle and - RINGGGGGG! Soon the RINGGGGGG! Of one hammer followed the RINGGGGGG! Of the other one so closely, it sounded like they were falling at the same time.
RINGGGGGG! RINGGGGGG!

29. How does Lester use language in John Henry?
How many adjectives are there in this passage?
How many verbs does he use?
How many similes or metaphors?

30. “I have a dream” by Martin Luther King Jr.
“I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, sons of former slaves and former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice , sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their character. I have a dream today!”

31. There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man
There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area we call...
THE TWILIGHT ZONE

32. Guess who my favorite person is by Byrd Baylor
She said, “Tell your favorite color.”
I said, “Blue.”
But she said, “See you’ve already done it wrong. In this game you can’t just say it’s blue. You have to say what kind of blue.”
So I said, “All right. You know the blue on a lizard’s belly? That sudden kind of blue you see just for a second sometime-so blue that afterwards you always think you made it up?”
“Sure,” she said. “I know that kind of blue.”
Then she told me hers and it was brown. Maybe I looked surprised because she said, “Not many people appreciate brown but I don’t care. I do. And the one I like best is a dark reddish brown that’s good for mountains and for rocks. You see it in steep cliffs a lot.”

33. Then we chose our favorite sounds
Then we chose our favorite sounds. She said hers was bees but not just one or two. She said it takes about a thousand bees buzzing in all the fields around to make the kind of loud bee sound she likes.

34. Hello Ocean by Pam Munoz Ryan
I see the ocean, gray, green, blue
A chameleon always changing hue.
Amber seaweed, speckled sand,
Bubbly waves that kiss the land,
Wide open water before my eyes,
Reflected in a bowl of skies,
Glistening tide pools and secret nooks-
I love the way the ocean looks.

35. I smell the ocean, the fresh salt wind, wafting lotions from suntanned skin. Aromas from some ancient tale disclose their news when I inhale. Reeky fish from waters deep, fragrant ore from holes dug steep. Drying kelp and musty shells- I love the way the ocean smells.

36. Simile and Metaphor * Quick as a cricket by Don and Audrey Wood
* “Cliché” by Eve Merriam
*Hailstones and Halibut Bones by Mary O’Neill
* “Morning” by Eve Merriam
*My side of the mountain by Jean Craighead George
*Bridge to Terebithia by Katherine Paterson

37. Graham’s story:
On an early Saturday morning, my darn alarm clock came on. The loud noise was singing “Sugar and Spice and all things nice”. My sister turned the volume up on my radio. The noise sounded like a bulldozer going through the house. I woke up very slowly and walked like a turtle to the restroom. To wake me up, I turned the faucet on and the ice cold water gushed out into the sink. I stuck my hands under the cold water. My hands started to tingle. Shivering goosebumps went up and down my spine as fast as a running rabbit. I took the water and put it on my face. My eyes were as hard to open as a stuck locker. Then all the computers turned on in my brain. It’s like little mice saying, “Mission Control, come in Mission Control, Mission control, come in. All systems are going.” I walked like a human being for once to my room. My teeth were chattering together, just like a beaver chewing a tree down.

38. Ramsey’s “The Motorcycle”
I go out to my driveway
And there it sits,
The shinning black and silver Harley Davidson Motorcycle
It is so breathtaking,
That I almost faint, just looking at it.
I go over to it.
And I can’t believe it’s here.
So, I go and sit on the Harley
And the leather seat makes a rubbing noise, and it is so beautiful,
That I can not keep my hands off of it.
If I had to sell it,
It would take
All of the money in the world to get it!

39. Voice Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Voices in the park by Anthony Browne
Bull Run and Seedfolks by P. Fleishman
Out of the Dust and Witness by K. Hesse
Monster by Walter Dean Myers
True Believer by Virginia Euwer Wolff
The true story of the three pigs , Math Curse, Squids will be squids by Jon Scheizka
Lilly’s purple plastic purse by Kevin Henkes
What authors have you read that you could immediately recognize their style and say: “That’s a Kevin Henkes book or that’s a Betsy Byars book”?

40. How does the author use language effectively?
* Appeals to senses
* Parallel structures
* Rhythmic language
* Repetition
*Use of metaphor and simile
*Uses verbs and adverbs to describe rather than only adjectives
Use of specific language, like adjectives
(specific is terrific!)
* Voice

41. Effective Leads *Typical (It was a day at the end of July.) * Action
* Dialogue
*Interior monologue
*A surprise
* Reaction
*Drop reader into middle of story and go back later to tell beginning.

42. Wringer by Jerry Spinelli
He did not not want to be a wringer.
This was one of the first things he had learned about himself. He could not have said exactly when he learned it, but it was very early. And more than early, it was deep inside. N the stomach, like hunger. But different from hunger, different and worse. Because it was always there. Hunger came only sometimes, such as just before dinner or on long rides in the car. Then, quickly, it was gone the moment it was fed. But this thing, there was no way to feed it. Well, one way perhaps, but that was unthinkable. So it was never gone.
In fact, gone was something it could not be, for he could not escape it any more than he could escape himself. The best he could do was forget it. Sometimes he did so, for minutes, hours, maybe even for a day or two.
But this thing did not like to be forgotten. Like air escaping a punctured tire, it would spread out from his stomach and be everywhere. Inside and outside, up and down, day and night, just beyond the foot of his bed, in his sock drawer, on the porch steps, at the edges of the lips of other boys, in the sudden flutter from a bush that he ad come too close to.
Everywhere.
This thing, this not wanting to be a wringer, did it ever knock him from his bike? Untie his sneaker lace? Call him a name? Stand up and fight?
No. It did nothing. It was simply, merely there, a whisper of featherwings, reminding him of the moment he dreaded above all others, the moment when the not wanting to be a wringer wold turn into becoming one. (p. 3-4)

43. Seven Brave Women by Betsy Hearne
In the old days, history marked time by the wars that men fought. The United States began with the Revolutionary War. Then there was the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Spanish American War, the First World War, the Second World War, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. But there are other ways to tell time. My mother does not believe that wars should be fought at all. She says history should be her story too, and she tells stories about all the women in our family who made history by not fighting in wars.

44. Elements of informational writing
How do authors make information interesting to read?

45. Hottest, coldest, highest, deepest by Steve Jenkins
“The hottest spot on the planet is Al Aziziyah, Libya, in the Sahara, where a temperature of over 136 degrees has been recorded. Your body temperature is 98.6 F., room temperature is usually 68 F. and water freezes at 32 F. “
He compares new information to things that are familiar.

46. Lincoln: A photobiography by Russell Freedman
The morning he died, Lincoln had in his pocket a pair of small spectacles folded into a silver case; a small velvet eyeglass cleaner: a large linen handkerchief with A. Lincoln stitched in red; an ivory pocketknife trimmed with silver; and a brown leather wallet lined with purple silk. The wallet contained a Confederate five dollar bill bearing the likeness of Jefferson Davis and the clippings praised him. As president, he had been denounced, ridiculed, and damned by a legion of critics. When he saw an article that complimented him, he often kept it.
Freedman chose interesting bits of information that made Lincoln human

47. Through my eyes by Ruby Bridges
When I was six years old, the civil rights movement came knocking at the door. It was 1960, and history pushed in and swept me up in a whirlwind. At the time, I knew little about the racial fears and hatred in Louisiana, where I was growing up. Young children never know about racism at the start. It’s we adults who teach it.
She tells about history from a first person or personal perspective.

48. Eleanor Roosevelt by Russell Freedman
Eleanor Roosevelt never wanted to be a president’s wife. When her husband Franklin won his campaign for the presidency in 1932, she felt deeply troubled. She dreaded the prospect of living in the White House.
Proud of her accomplishments as a teacher, a writer, and a political power in her own right, she feared that she would have to give up her hard-won independence in Washington. As First Lady, she would have no life of her own. Like other presidential wives before her, she would be assigned the traditional role of official White House hostess, with little to do but greet guests at receptions and preside ver formal state dinners.
The author gives the reader some (perhaps) surprising information.

49. Shipwreck at the bottom of the world by Jennifer Armstrong
Just imagine yourself in the most hostile place on earth. It’s not the Sahara or the Gobi Desert. It’s not the Arctic. The most hostile place on earth is the Antarctic, the location of the South Pole. North Pole, South Pole-what’s the difference? The Arctic is mostly water-with ice on top,of course- and that ice is never more than a few feet thick. But under the South Pole lies a contintent that supports glaciers up to two miles in depth. Almost the entire southernern continent is covered by ice.
Just imagine: put yourself there.

50. Elements of persuasive writing:
*Written for a specific audience
*Strong thesis statement
*Uses facts to support opinion
*Refutes counter arguments
*Strong conclusion

51. Red is best by Kathy Stinson
*Written for a specific audience
*Strong thesis statement
*Uses facts to support opinion
*Refutes counter arguments
*Strong conclusion
*Mom
*Red is best
*I like my red stockings,red jacket, red boots, etc.
*My mom says, “Wear these. Your white stockings look good with that dress.” But I can jump higher in my red stockings.

52. Earrings by Judith Viorst
*Written for a specific audience
*Strong thesis statement
*Uses facts to support opinion
*Refutes counter arguments
*Strong conclusion
* Mom and Dad
*”I want them. I need them. I love them. I’ve got to have them.”
*”Teachers and lady dentists have them. Mothers and even grandmothers have them.”
*”They say I’m too young.”
“I’m not too young. I’m actually mature for my age. I clear plates after dinner. I take a shower without being told.”
*I want my ears pierced NOW- not when I’m 20, 40, 80 or 100 years old.

53. Aspects of writing process

54. How does a writer get ideas?
“If you were a writer you would search for ideas,” mother said. “ideas are everywhere. The more you look for ideas, the more you will find.”
“Is the idea the story?”
“No the idea is just the beginning of the story. If you were a writer you would let ideas bounce in your brain while you watched them grow and turned them over to see the other sides, and poked them and pushed them and pinched off parts of them, and made them go the way you wanted them to go.”
If you were a writer by Jean Lowery Nixon

55. When I write nonfiction, I always choose subjects I’ve always been curious about: evolution, how cuts and bruises heal, how a chick grows inside an egg... Occasionally, I get an idea for a new book from one I wrote before. For example, when I was working on A fish hatches, I was fascinated to learn how a fish is adapted for swimming and breathing underwater. This gave me the idea for a series about animals’ bodies. The first book was A frog’s body…Sometimes a book comes out of a very personal experience I’ve had. I wrote How you were born for our daughter Rachel, when she was 4 years old. On the bus with Joanna Cole by Joanna Cole with Wendy Saul

56. Nothing ever happens on 90th Street by Roni Schotter
Here are some helpful hints Eva receives from her neighbors:
*The actor, Mr. Sims suggests “Watch the stage carefully, observe the players carefully and don’t neglect the details.”
*The baker, Mr. Morley, says, “Try to find the poetry in your pudding…There’s always a new way with old words.”
*Th ballerina, Alexis, tells Eva to “use her imagination…stetch the truth…ask what if?”
*Mrs. Martinez suggests Eva “Add a little action…A little of this. A little of that. And don’t’ forget the spice. Mix it. Stir it. Make something happen. Surprise yourself!”

57. The Circus Surprise by Ralph Fletcher

58. Revision All the long way to school,And all the way back,
I’ve looked and I’ve looked, And I’ve kept careful track,
But All that I noticed, Except my own feet,
Was a horse and a wagon, On Mulberry Street.
That’s nothing to tell of, That won’t do of course…
Just a broken down wagon, That’s drawn by a horse.
That can’t be my story. That’s only a start.
I’ll say that a zebra was pulling that cart!
And that is a story that no one can beat,
When I say that I saw it on Mulberry Street.
And to think that I saw it on Mulberry Street
By Dr. Seuss

59. Author Studies

60. Karla Kuskin and Mauricio
Mauricio is eleven and he loves football. He read The Dallas Titans Get Ready for Bed to a group of second graders. Two weeks later he was rereading it. “I love it,” he explained, “I just love it.” His teacher said, “Do you love it because it is about football or is there more to it?”
“It’s a good book and she’s a good writer,” Mauricio answered.
“Well, when you love a book, when you love a writer, you should learn from that writer.” His teacher opened to the first page of all three books and spread them across her desk. “Figure out what makes a Kuskin text a Kuskin text.”

61. The Dallas Titans Get Ready for Bed
The big game is over. Under the lights the football field shines green. Above the green field the big night sky is full of yells and screams, cheers and stars. It is twenty-seven minutes after ten o’clock on Monday night, and the Dallas Titans have just won a big game. The cheerleaders do double reverse banana splits and we are roaring, we are scoring slips and slides. The crowd keeps going crazy. (The Dallas Titans Get Ready for Bed )

62. The Philharmonic gets dressed
It is almost Friday night. Outside, the dark is getting darker and the cold is getting colder. Inside, lights are coming on in houses and apartment buildings. And here and there, uptown and downtown across the bridges of the city, one hundred and five people are getting dressed to go to work. (The Philharmonic gets dressed)

63. Jerusalem Shining Still
The bread is baked before sunrise. I have seen a loaf that looks like a pair of eyeglasses. And another in the shape of a ladder. Every morning sixty-four kinds of break are baked here. Every day in these narrow old streets seventy languages are spoken. This is not a very large city. It is far, far away from many that are much larger and newer. Then why should so many people come from everywhere to here? And why should they have been coming here for more than three thousand years?
Sit beside me. The sky is getting lighter. The sun comes up behind that ridge. It puts gold on the crescents and stars of the mosques, gold on the crosses of the churches. It touches the Western Wall and turns the old enormous stones pure white. This is a city made of stone sitting along the tops of stony hills. (Jerusalem Shining Still)

64. What Mauricio noticed about Kuskin’s writing:
Mauricio’s list 1. She writes a lot about the sky.
2. She has numbers in her books.
3. Nobody talks.
4. She writes like its today
5. She makes pairs.

65. Then Mauricio wrote:
Smoke fills the skye. As the waving, swaying team boats float on the steady motion waves in the water. R-R-R-R-R. The steamship makes the sound of teaktle only louder. They carry passenger and goods to America. The steamship rocks back and forth. The passengers get colder and colder as the rocking boats rock faster and faster. Creak, creak is the sound that you hear as stamping legs and feet plunder on the old wooden floor. Finally they reach America. Hooray, Hooray, thats the sound of the roaring crowd waiting to be hugged and kissed by their fellow friends.

66. What did Mauricio learn from Karla Kuskin?
*He used the present tense (and rarely had before)
*He wrote about the sky
*No one is talking
*He made a deliberate attempt to use “pairs” - “cold and colder”, “faster and faster”, “back and forth”, “hugged and kissed”, “friend and relatives”.

67. Features of Betsy Byars books:
1. Never an intact family
2. Page turner – reads fast – good pacing
3. Use of metaphor and simile
4. Kid characters are realistic
5. Kids always clearly face a problem
6. Kids usually have to figure it out or face it themselves
7. Good primary character development (secondary characters not so good)
8. Usually a helping or caring adult
When YOU get to know author’s work well, you can refer students to them when they need specific help:
How does Betsy Byars keep us interested? How does she keep the story moving and tell all the important parts?

68. How to choose authors for author studies:
* Author has several books available: in print and/or in the library
*Author has several books in the same genre
*Books that are age appropriate and engage readers emotionally and/or intellectually (Books the students will read!)
*Books that evoke a range of responses
*Books that connect to students’ lives
*Books with memorable language
* Author has distinctive identifiable features to his or her writing like Van Allsburg’s surprise endings, Henkes’ characters, Paterson’s language
*Autobiographical and/or biographical information available about the author
*Select quality literature: a void series books or books with formulaic plots and shallow characters. What do you want writers to reach toward?

69. What authors make good author studies? A few suggestions:
*Gail Gibbons *Kevin Henkes
*Eric Carle *Eve Bunting
*Chris Van Allsburg *Steve Jenkins
*Patricia Polacco *Cynthia Rylant
*Paul Goble *Jane Yolen
*Betsy Byars *Cynthia Voight
*Katherine Paterson *Chris Crutcher
*Walter Dean Meyers *Avi
*Lawrence Yep *Gary Paulsen

70. When the main character is an author:
Borden, L. The day Eddie met the author
Brown, M. Arthur writes a story
Cleary, B. Dear Mr. Henshaw
Duke, K. Aunt Isabel tells a good one.
Fitzhugh, L. Harriet the Spy
Gantos, J. Jack’s black book
Gottleib, D. My stories by Hildy Calpurnia
Greenfield, E. Sister
Grimes, N. Jazmine’s Notebook
Kallok, E. Gem (12 year old author- published book)
Lipsyte, R. Summer Rules
Little, J. Hey world, here I am
Lowry, L. Anastasia Krupnick
MacLachlan, P. Arthur for the very first time
Moss, M. Amelia’s Notebook (There are several Amelia books)
_________Rachel’s journey, Emma’s journal and Hannah’s Journal (historical journals)
Murphy, S. Rousseau Poor Jenny, Bright as a penny
Skarmeta, A. The composition

71. Professional Resources
Buss, K. & L.Karnowski. (2000) Reading and writing literary genres. Newark, Del.: IRA
Copeland, J. (1993) Speaking of poets: Interviews with poets who write for children and young adults. Urbana: NCTE.
__________ & V. Copeland. (1994) Speaking of poets 2. Urbana: NCTE.
Cummings, P. (1992) Talking with artists (There are three of these)
Fox, M. (1992). Dear Mem Fox, I Have Read all Your Books, Even the Pathetic Ones. San Diego: HBJ.
Gallo, D. (1990) Speaking for Ourselves. Urbana: NCTE.
Hansen, J. (2001) (2nd ed.) When writers read. Portsmouth: Heinemann.
Jenkins, C. B. (1999) The allure of authors. Portsmouth: Heinemann.
Jensen, J. (ed.) (1984). Composing and Comprehending. Urbana: NCTE.
Kurstedt, R. & M. Koutras. Teaching writing with picture books as models. Scholastic
Lloyd, P. (1987). How Writers Write. Portsmouth: Heinemann.
Marcus, L. (ed.) (2000) Author talk. New York: Simon and Schuster
Paterson, K. (1986) Gates of Excellence. New York: Lodestar Books.
Paterson, K. (1989). The Spying Heart. New York: Lodestar Books.
Weiss, M.J. (1979) From Writers to Students. Delaware: IRA.

72. The End