When No Monkeys, No Chocolate came out last
fall, I wanted to provide educators with a really useful teaching tool to
accompany the book. I created this Revision Timeline so that kids (and teachers) could get a sense of how much time and
energy goes into a book, even when it’s just 32 pages long.
The timeline was a
big success. To say educators love it would be an understatement.
Flash forward six
months and it’s time to launch another picture book into the world—Feathers: Not Just for Flying has. Once
again, I wanted to create a great book-related resource for teachers.
Thanks to a
suggestion from my friend and uber-talented teacher Kate Narita, I made a list
of the most important features of nonfiction. A carefully chosen structure was
first on my list, but I focused on that a lot in the Revision Timeline. Other
items on the list included a distinctive voice, strong verbs, meaningful
comparisons . . . BINGO!
Similes are at the
heart of Feathers: Not Just for Flying,
so they’d be the perfect focus for educational materials. After some more
thought, I decided to create a mini-lesson that includes reading the book,
watching a video, and doing a worksheet.
Of course, you can bring
your own creativity to how you present the material to students, but everything
you need to get started is right here.
I hope you like it.
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4 Responses
Wow! This is great – thanks for taking the time to create it and for sharing it with us.
excellent videos, thanks! The timeline really puts it into perspective. And I like hearing some of the back story for "Feathers"
Thanks for your comments, Sue and Donna. I hope teachers will find the mini-lesson useful.
What a cool–and enlightening–timeline! Thanks for sharing. Gives me hope for some of my ongoing projects. 🙂