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February 01
Celebrate Children's Authors and Illustrators Week
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| Grades | 3 – 12 |
| Calendar Activity Type | Literacy-Related Event |
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Children's Authors and Illustrators Week (the first week in February) features a variety of activities that are intended to promote literacy in an engaging and interactive way. Encourage a lifelong love of reading with your students by participating in events such as author and illustrator visits to your school, storytelling, literary presentations, writing workshops, and more.
Invite your students to "step into the shoes" of their favorite author or illustrator. Have students first read several of the author's books and then conduct research on his or her background and career. Next, have students become their favorite authors and prepare presentations for the class. Presentations can include displays representing the authors' work, question and answer sessions, interviews, press releases on the authors' latest books, and so on. Students' presentations can also include creative costumes or props representing their authors' and illustrators' backgrounds and works (e.g., a Winn-Dixie shopping bag for Kate DiCamillo, or a teddy bear for Don Freeman).
Hold an "Authors Open House" and invite other classes in to meet the authors!
- Children's Authors and Illustrators Week
This website includes a description of this literacy event, in addition to contact information for the Children's Authors Network! Also featured are tips for parents, caregivers, teachers, and librarians.
- Author Visit Guide
This indispensible guide from the Children's Authors Network! can help you plan for Children's Authors and Illustrators Week. The reproducible resource includes planning and follow-up checklists, helpful hints, suggested questions, and funding ideas.
- Children's Authors
This site offers an alphabetical list of links to sites of children's authors and illustrators.
- Chatting About Books
ReadWriteThink podcast host Emily Manning chats with kids, parents, and teachers about the best in children's literature for ages 4 through 11. Discussions include reading tips and fun activities to do with children before, during, and after reading.
Grades 3 – 6 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Opening the Door for Reading: Sharing Favorite Texts to Build Community
In this lesson, students build classroom community by exploring environmental print and a teacher-created display that focuses on a favorite book. They then create and share their own presentations.
Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
I Remember That Book: Rereading as a Critical Investigation
Curl up with a good book again—or not. In this lesson, students brainstorm why they reread some books, while passing up others, and write their reflections in an essay.
Grades 6 – 8 | Lesson Plan | Unit
Lights, Camera, Action: Interviewing a Book Character
Students get the inside scoop on a story when they create interview questions and answers for characters in the books they read.
Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Exploring Setting: Constructing Character, Point of View, Atmosphere, and Theme
Students read texts by Dybek, Dickens, Poe, and Morrison to explore how authors use language to create setting and, in turn, how setting constructs other elements in a literary work.
Grades K – 3 | Lesson Plan | Unit
Two Thumbs Up! Get Students Writing and Publishing Book Reviews
Students evaluate book reviews written by other children, discussing their components and effectiveness, and write reviews of favorite books to record on video or post online.
Grades 6 – 8 | Lesson Plan
Reading Through Different Lenses: Making Text Connections Across the Curriculum
Students learn to comprehend the linguistic text styles of different content areas and use the interactive ReadWriteThink Notetaker tool as the teacher models the exercise.
Grades 3 – 5 | Lesson Plan | Recurring Lesson
Book Boosts—one-minute raves at the end of independent reading time—are easy ways to suggest new titles to students, and they act as a way for students to have something to think about as they read.
Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
"Blind Date with a Book": Creating Lifelong Readers
This multi-lesson learning project encourages students to read engaging texts at their grade level and also works to promote habitual, independent reading in all students.
Grades K – 2 | Lesson Plan | Recurring Lesson
Literature Circles with Primary Students Using Self-Selected Reading
Students respond to self-selected books in journals, and talk about their books daily in small groups. The teacher guides students by offering suggestions and writing with them in dialogue journals.
Grades 8 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
From Text to Film: Exploring Classic Literature Adaptations
Students create storyboards to compare and contrast a book and its film adaptation.
Grades K – 2 | Lesson Plan | Recurring Lesson
A Journal for Corduroy: Responding to Literature
Connect home and school, literature and life, as students take a storybook character home with them and take turns writing stories about his visit.
Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Joining the Conversation about Young Adult Literature
Students create a persuasive case calling for the adoption of a particular young adult literature title into their school's language arts curriculum by writing letters or speeches.
