Author as Mentor

1
Author as Mentor

• How Patricia Polacco can teach your students to
  write!

2
The basics

• Use any author
• Focus on the PROCESS
• Send me your results and Ill post them on the
  NNETESOL site!

3
Who is Patricia Polacco?

• Author/Illustrator
• Started writing late in life
• Collects stories from her Jewish heritage and
  family stories
• Maintains a website and responds to letters

4
How to start

• Read Aloud, no matter the age group
• Stop and share
• What can you tell me about Patricia?
• What connections do you make

5
What do we know about PP?
6
After reading

• Where did she get her idea to write this?
• Introduce memoir. What word do you know that
  starts like it?
• Life map/family tree
• Get students to start thinking about what
  memoires they have, what connections they can
  make. If they are old enough, journal! If not,
  pictures are great.

7
Where do you get your ideas?

• Start a list
• Continue journaling after each book you
  encounter, and dont forget to add to the KWLH
  chart.
• Talk about the big ideas (theme). Why write this
  book? (Authors purpose)

8
Life stories, scar stories

• Everybody has a story. Everybody has a scar.
• The problem with modeling
• Encourage students to look for their own stories.
  Try life maps and quick writes with connections
  to stories.

9
Quick author study

• Provide students with books to choose from.
• Read in groups and complete a plot chart.
• Write a summary using the chart.
• Create a movie poster for the book.
• Do a presentation--why should I read this book?
  Or, what did you learn about her? What did we
  already know that was reinforced?

10
Life-sized character analysis

• Have students list what theyve learned, then
  prove how they know. Each student is responsible
  for his/her contribution
• This will teach them to search for information
  and cite it.

11
Metathinking

• Writing a letter introduces students to thinking
  of the author as a personand to the idea that
  they are just like us--that we could do this,
  too.
• What kind of letters do you like to get?
• What questions do you have about her?
• How can you set yourself apart so that she will
  remember your letter?

12
Products

• Memoir
• Poster (intro to persuasion)
• Story analysis (in graphic organizer)
• Summary
• Group research and citation (life-sized character
  analysis)
• Letter

13
What can you touch on?

• Writing process--this really let me know what my
  kids didnt know.
• Revision when possible
• Grammar lessons galore
• Peer editing--teach and model the process and
  create personal checklists.
• Dictionary work
• Personal Word Walls

14
Resources

• www.patriciapolacco.com
• Patricia Polaccos web site where you can find
  out about the processes to make a book, personal
  information, and an address for letters
• http//freeology.com/graphicorgs/page2.php
• Free graphic organizers. This is where you can
  find a plot map for your kiddos. Or for younger
  students, try the hand organizer on page 4, where
  you can get them to write down the 4 Ws and H to
  summarize the story. KWLH chart is on page 6.
  Lots of really cool stuff here.
• http//www.teachers.net/4blocks/goodies.html
• Personal word wall can be found here. Its
  basically just a sheet of paper that students can
  write their trouble words on.