Author Study
What is an author study?
There are three main types of author studies.
1. focuses on an author study as a "literary biography," in which students make connections between the author's life and work.
2. is based on the reader's "critical response" to the books, focusing on an author's themes, characters and writing, with little or no attention to the author's life.
3. is based on the reader's own response to the books of a particular author, focusing on books can help readers relive and reflect on events in their own lives.
So, what is our plan?
We have selected Mo Willems as our author and will be doing a combination of all three of the above author study types. We will be learning about the author's life, as well as analyzing text. We have many activities planed over the next several weeks, and I have attached a full unit plan here on the site so that you can keep up with what we are doing here in the classroom. The students are all very excited about our author study and look forward to sharing this new experience with you.
If you need further convincing:
Reading Rockets list 10 great reasons to have an author study
1. Help students develop their reading skills Author studies necessarily require lots of reading, giving kids plenty of opportunities to improve their reading fluency. In addition, teachers can use author studies to individualize reading instruction by grouping students according to their reading levels and helping them choose an appropriate author to study.
2. Build critical thinking skills: With author studies, students learn to compare and contrast themes, analyze text and illustrations, and make connections between an author's life and his/her work and between the author's work and the reader's own life and work.
3. Improve writing skills: An author becomes a "writing mentor" for readers as they read and study his/her work and respond to it through a variety of writing. This "mentoring" and students' writing responses can help kids build confidence in their writing and can even inspire them to become authors themselves.
4. Forge a deeper attachment to books: Kids often bond with "their" author, which makes reading a more personal, fulfilling experience. Kids may even want to read books that influenced their author, further expanding their reading experience.
5. Establish a community of readers: Author studies help classes, and even whole schools, form closer connections through shared reading experiences.
6. Expose kids to different types of literary voices and styles: Like adults, many kids prefer a particular kind of book, such as non-fiction, series fiction, fantasy, etc. An author study can be used to persuade kids to branch out. In addition, some authors, including Newbery Medalists Avi and Lois Lowry, write in a variety of literary genres, which makes it easy for kids who do author studies on them to try out different types of reading.
7. Boost information literacy skills: A key component of author studies is researching an author's life and work, using print and online resources. This research provides a built-in opportunity for teachers to teach information literacy skills, especially how to find information sources and determine if they are credible.
8. Plug in easily to the curriculum: Teachers can do a short or long author studies, depending on available time.
9. Make connections across the curriculum: Choosing a non-fiction author is the easiest way for teachers to connect science, math and/or history units with their language arts teaching. But these connections also can be made using elements of a fiction author's books (i.e., setting in a particular time or place, animal or historic characters).
10. Add fun to the school day! Author studies are an entertaining way to spark students' life-long interest in reading, a particularly important factor for new readers and reluctant readers.
What is an author study?
There are three main types of author studies.
1. focuses on an author study as a "literary biography," in which students make connections between the author's life and work.
2. is based on the reader's "critical response" to the books, focusing on an author's themes, characters and writing, with little or no attention to the author's life.
3. is based on the reader's own response to the books of a particular author, focusing on books can help readers relive and reflect on events in their own lives.
So, what is our plan?
We have selected Mo Willems as our author and will be doing a combination of all three of the above author study types. We will be learning about the author's life, as well as analyzing text. We have many activities planed over the next several weeks, and I have attached a full unit plan here on the site so that you can keep up with what we are doing here in the classroom. The students are all very excited about our author study and look forward to sharing this new experience with you.
If you need further convincing:
Reading Rockets list 10 great reasons to have an author study
1. Help students develop their reading skills Author studies necessarily require lots of reading, giving kids plenty of opportunities to improve their reading fluency. In addition, teachers can use author studies to individualize reading instruction by grouping students according to their reading levels and helping them choose an appropriate author to study.
2. Build critical thinking skills: With author studies, students learn to compare and contrast themes, analyze text and illustrations, and make connections between an author's life and his/her work and between the author's work and the reader's own life and work.
3. Improve writing skills: An author becomes a "writing mentor" for readers as they read and study his/her work and respond to it through a variety of writing. This "mentoring" and students' writing responses can help kids build confidence in their writing and can even inspire them to become authors themselves.
4. Forge a deeper attachment to books: Kids often bond with "their" author, which makes reading a more personal, fulfilling experience. Kids may even want to read books that influenced their author, further expanding their reading experience.
5. Establish a community of readers: Author studies help classes, and even whole schools, form closer connections through shared reading experiences.
6. Expose kids to different types of literary voices and styles: Like adults, many kids prefer a particular kind of book, such as non-fiction, series fiction, fantasy, etc. An author study can be used to persuade kids to branch out. In addition, some authors, including Newbery Medalists Avi and Lois Lowry, write in a variety of literary genres, which makes it easy for kids who do author studies on them to try out different types of reading.
7. Boost information literacy skills: A key component of author studies is researching an author's life and work, using print and online resources. This research provides a built-in opportunity for teachers to teach information literacy skills, especially how to find information sources and determine if they are credible.
8. Plug in easily to the curriculum: Teachers can do a short or long author studies, depending on available time.
9. Make connections across the curriculum: Choosing a non-fiction author is the easiest way for teachers to connect science, math and/or history units with their language arts teaching. But these connections also can be made using elements of a fiction author's books (i.e., setting in a particular time or place, animal or historic characters).
10. Add fun to the school day! Author studies are an entertaining way to spark students' life-long interest in reading, a particularly important factor for new readers and reluctant readers.