What Allen Has to Say

We are beginning our exploration of author and illustrator, Allen Say.  Allen was born and raised in Japan.  At 12 years of age, Allen served as apprentice to his favorite cartoonist, Noro Shinpei. Allen moved to the United States at age 16, and was sent to military school.  He began work as a photographer before transitioning into illustrating children's books.  Ultimately, Allen began to write and illustrate his own books for children. Many of Allen's books are inspired by true events, both his own experiences and those of his family.  We will be studying Allen Say's work as the weeks progress; making connections and determining underlying themes.  Before we begin this study, we thought it might be helpful to build more background knowledge on this amazing man.  Click here for more information!

Allen with his pet cat.  Perhaps it was inspiration for his book, Allison.

Allen presenting inspiration for his illustrations.

Allen Say at his drawing table. "When a picture tells a story you don't have
 to write it.  This came to me as a great revelation." 

Allen's 1994 Caldecott winning story, based on his grandfather's life.

True story, based on Allen's mother's move from California to Japan as a young girl.

Story depicting an event from Allen's childhood.

Biography Project Information

Biography Project:  Drawing Conclusions

What: 

You will use the following questions to summarize your research and draw conclusions about the person’s life that you studied. 

You will then present your findings to the class.  Each presentation will last 5-10 minutes.  

When:

Week one- February 25^th to March 1^st (Planning and Presentation Sign up)

Completed questionnaires will be due on Thursday.  Students will get the questionnaires back on Friday, and they will be able to sign up for a presentation day.

Week two- March 4^th to March 8^th (Presentations)

Week three- March 11^th to March 15^th (Presentations)

During presentation days, a small portion of the workshop will be devoted to our biography presentations.  This will prevent our audience from tiring and allow for closer attention to our speakers.  The rest of the workshop will be devoted to an exploration of figurative language.  This will help us in our next writing unit, where we will review narrative writing and take it deeper.  Look for more specific information in upcoming newsletters.

Where: 

Your child should prepare the answers to the questionnaire at school, but they may need to review the information at home.  If they choose to dress in costume (see “How” section), they will need to prepare their costume at home.

Why: 

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.2d Provide a concluding statement or section.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.7 Conduct short research projects that build knowledge about a topic.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.3.4 Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.3.6 Speak in complete sentences when appropriate to task and situation in order to provide requested detail or clarification.

How: 

Your presentation will be in the form of an interview show, hosted by your teachers.  Presenting the information is not optional, but how you choose to present the information is optional.  What does that mean?  You can choose to present as yourself, a student who did some research about the person, or you can choose to become the person you studied.  You can talk in a different voice, style your hair, wear a wig, dress up in a costume, and so forth.  (Please do not change the color of your actual hair or skin with dye or make up.)  Dressing up can earn you extra credit points on your project grade.

Questionnaire:

1.     Where did you grow up and what was it like there?

2.     Describe a memory you have of your childhood that involves one of your family members.

3.     What did you enjoy doing as a child?

4.     What were some of your first jobs?

5.     What did you do in your free time as a young adult? 

6.     What were your family finances like as you grew up and how did they compare to your finances as an adult?

7.     Did you have a strong family life with a spouse and/or children as a grown up?  Why or why not?

8.     Is there something you wish you could do over again?  Explain why.

9.     Tell about a memorable moment in your adult life…a time you will never forget.

10.  Tell about a historical event you experienced in your lifetime?  How did you feel about it?

11.  What is one thing you are really proud of doing?  Explain why.

12.  When people look back at your life, how do you want to be remembered?

Oral Presentation Rubric

Student Name:                                                              Bio Topic:                                                                     Costume:  Y or N

Category	4	3	2	1
Content	Shows a full understanding of the topic and can accurately answer questions	Shows a good understanding of the topic and can answer most questions	Shows a good understanding of parts of the topic and can answer a few questions	Does not seem to understand the topic very well and is unable to answer questions
Vocabulary	Uses vocabulary appropriate for the purpose  (i.e. Knows the names of important people, places, and events involving the topic)	Uses vocabulary that is mostly appropriate for the purpose (i.e. Knows the names of most important people, places, and events involving the topic)	Uses vocabulary which is not very appropriate for the purpose (i.e. Knows the names of few important people, places, and events involving the topic)	Uses vocabulary which is not appropriate for the purpose (i.e. Does not know the names of important people, places, and events involving the topic)
Drawing Conclusions	Uses accurately researched information to make logical conclusions	Uses accurately researched information to make mostly logical conclusions	Uses information that may or may not be accurate to make some logical conclusions	Uses incorrect information and does not make logical conclusions
Complete Sentences	Always speaks in complete sentences	Mostly speaks in complete sentences	Sometimes speaks in complete sentences	Rarely speaks in complete sentences
Presentation Skills: Time Voice Eye Contact	*5-10 minutes *Loud and clear voice *Strong eye contact with audience/no notes used	*5 minutes *Mostly loud/clear voice *Mostly strong eye contact but sometimes refers to notes	*5 minutes or less *Voice is sometimes loud and clear *Little eye contact/heavy dependence on notes	*Less than 5 minutes *Voice is never loud and is difficult to hear *No eye contact/reads directly from notes

 

The Kitchen Sink for the Week of 2/25/13

Field Trip Reminder

Tomorrow we are going to the IMAX Theater.  Students should wear their red Chets Creek shirt and bring a bag lunch.  Please note that the forecast for tomorrow indicates an 80% chance of rain.  Students may want to bring a raincoat. 

Readers’ Workshop

This week we are wrapping up our nonfiction unit.  We have worked to notice and understand text features, recognize what is important and the details that support the main idea, and identify the text structure.  We will be having a quiz on text features this Friday.  To prepare, students should study the golden text feature sheet we completed in class. 

Writers’ Workshop

We will continue the biography project this week by moving into the presentation phase.  Students will not stand in front of the class and read their reports.  Instead, a questionnaire will be distributed on Tuesday and students will use what they have researched to fill it out.  They will turn it in on Thursday for review.  It will be given back them Friday, and that is when they will sign up for a presentation date.  We will use a random lottery system to assign presentation dates over a two week period.  Students will present their answers to the questions in front of the class, and they may dress in a costume for extra credit points.  Please see the project handout, which your child viewed in class today, for more information.  They will get their own copy on Tuesday.

Skills Block

There will be no spelling homework or test this week.

The Kitchen Sink for the Week of 2/11/13

Readers’ Workshop

This week we are continuing to study nonfiction texts, focusing on identifying what is important.  As readers, we must determine the difference between what is interesting and what is truly important.  We will be working to summarize the main idea, or message of nonfiction texts.  In class, we will be working through texts, modeling and practicing how good readers stop and think about what they have read, asking questions, inferring, and synthesizing information.  Make sure your child practices this deep thinking at home during their 20 minutes of nightly reading!  

Writers’ Workshop

Finished rough drafts were due today.  It is important that students have their draft ready for peer conferencing and editing this week.  Do you know how your child is progressing through the phases of the writing process for report writing?  Have they shown you their finished draft?  Have they begun to print out, search for, or draw pictures for each of their chapters?  Are they ready to edit at school with their partner?  Visit the blog with them and take a look at some sample work.  How does their work compare to the samples?

Skills Block

Our spelling homework and quiz are based on list 15 this week.

Reporting Live From Writers' Workshop

We spent this week drafting the rough drafts of our reports, using our paragraph plans and notes.  At this point, students should have a rough draft form of the following:  Early Life (ch. 1), Education or Training (ch.2), Awards and Achievements (ch. 3), Fun Facts, and Timeline.  They may or may not have a glossary, as that section is extra credit.  Chapters 1-3 should be in paragraph form and should share the story of the subject's life.  Fun Facts and Timeline differ in their form.  Fun Facts are in list form, while Timeline is a diagram.  Take a look at some samples:

The Kitchen Sink for the Week of 2/4/13

Readers’ Workshop

This week we will be studying various ways authors organize nonfiction texts.  Text structures include compare/contrast, progression through time, and problem/solution.  Look for these and other text structures during students’ 20 minutes of nightly reading. Also, students should continue to study and notice text features, as we will be having a text features quiz next week.

Writers’ Workshop

We will spend this week drafting a rough draft of our reports.  We will use the plans with the hands to form paragraphs as we draft.  Each paragraph needs to begin with a main idea topic sentence, followed by relevant, supporting details.  At the end of the week, students will begin searching for pictures to include in each section, per the report guidelines.  They will also begin drafting their captions.  Students may print out pictures online at home, make copies from their books at home, or they can draw or trace a picture.  Talk with your child about their plan.

Skills Block

There will be no spelling quiz or homework this week.

We will be having a vocabulary quiz this Friday.  To prepare, students should review the study guide they will receive Tuesday.