Behind the Books: Curriculum Connections
A few weeks ago, three children’s book-loving
organizations—Lesley University Department of Education, The Eric Carle Museum
of Picture Book Art, and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and
Illustrators–joined forces to present a full-day workshop for educators, and
it was a huge success.
One of the eleven featured books was Feathers: Not Just
for Flying. Here are some of the great teaching ideas developed by Erika Thulin
Dawes, Associate Professor of Language and Literacy, Lesley University.
they would like to research in greater detail. Students may do this
individually, in pairs, or small groups. Read Look up! Bird Watching in Your
Own Back Yard for inspiration. Work with students to create a guide for
observing birds in your area. Have students convey what they believe is most
important to share about their bird. Ask your public library to display
students’ finished work.
Connection. After reading, Feathers Not Just for Flying,
students may be inspired to learn more about recent discoveries indicating that
more dinosaurs may have had feather than scientists had previously thought.
Read sections of Catherine Thimmesh’s Scaly Spotted Feathered Frilled: How Do
We Know What Dinosaurs Really Looked Like? along with online resources to support students’ inquiry into
scientists’ evolving understandings of the connection between dinosaurs and the
birds we see every day
Writing.
Authors of nonfiction often use similes and metaphors to help readers better
understand and/ or visualize the scientific concepts they want to convey in
their writing. Melissa Stewart employs this technique through Feathers Not Just
for Flying (hear Melissa describe this technique in her video mini-lesson: http://www.melissa-stewart.com/sciclubhouse/teachhome/writing_info.html).
Record several of these metaphors on a large piece of chart paper. Read aloud
another science trade book in which the author uses similes and metaphors, such
as Big Blue Whale by Nicola Davies. Ask students to identify the similes and
metaphors in the book and to record them on chart paper. Add to this chart over
a period of a couple of weeks as students collect additional examples from
their reading. Invite students to use metaphors to enliven and improve the
clarity of their nonfiction writing.
Model with Bird Beaks. With
its in depth and specific focus on bird feathers and their functions, Feathers
Not Just For Flying is an example of the subgenre of nonfiction known as
Specialized Nonfiction. Compare the writing and styles and organizational
structure of this book with Beaks by Sneed B. Collard, III, reading the two
titles in a Duet Model (Cappiello & Dawes, 2012). There are subtle
differences between these two examples of specialized nonfiction, as well as
many similarities to discuss. Following this comparison exercise, invite
students to research and write about bird feet types, using these two texts as
models.
M.A. & Dawes, E.T. (2013). Teaching with text sets. Huntington Beach, CA:
Shell Education.
A.L. (2013). Look up! Bird watching in your own back yard. Somerville, MA:
Candlewick Press.
S. (2002). Beaks. Ill. by R. Brickman. Cambridge, MA; Charlesbridge.
J. (2004). The boy who drew birds: A
story of John James Audubon. Ill. by M. Sweet. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
N. (1997). Big blue whale. Ill. by N. Maland. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.
K. (2009). Birds. Ill. by L.
Dronzek. New York: Greenwillow.
L. (2012). Bird talk: What birds are saying and why. New York. Roaring Brook
Press.
M. (2009). A place for birds.
Ill. by H. Bond. Atlanta, GA: Peachtree.
(2013). Scaly spotted feathered
frilled: How do we know what dinosaurs really looked like? Boston: Houghton
Mifflin Harcourt.
J. (2011). Birds of a feather.
Ill. by J. Stemple. Honesdale, PA: Wordsong Poetry.
In addition, Erika suggested pairing one
of the other featured books, Handle with Care: An Unusual Butterfly Journey by Loree Griffin Burns, with the
newly-revised edition of A Place for
Butterflies.
Duet
Model Reading with A Place for Butterflies. To engage your students in a comparison of butterflies in their
natural habitats and butterflies on a farm, such as El Bosque Nuevo, read Handle
with Care: An Unusual Butterfly Journey paired with Melissa Stewart’s A Place
for Butterflies. Provide students with lots of discussion time to share their
learning about butterfly life cycles, habitats and behaviors, and the need for
conservation efforts. These two titles could be used to launch a unit of study
on butterflies focusing on their role in ecosystems, current threats, and
conservation efforts. After their initial reading and discussion to these two
titles, students can brainstorm a list of inquiry questions to pursue, using
additional print and digital texts.
What a great event!
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