Patricia Polacco Author Study!!!!

My favorite children's author and illustrator, Patricia Polacco, came to Huntington Village to do a book signing. I missed this amazing event but decided to turn lemons into lemonade by creating an author study and share Patricia Polacco's stories with my first grade class. I dressed up as the author and transformed the classroom's reading corner into the magical world of Patricia Polacco!

Below is the Interdisciplinary Unit I designed for the Author Study which I began this week!

Author Study: Patricia Polacco

Book List: Meteor, Thunder cake, Babushka’s Doll.

Lesson	Standard	Bloom	MI	Performance Objective	Artifact	Assessment Instrument
Motivation Lesson 1	ELA ART	Understanding Remembering Applying Creating	Visual Linguistic Interpersonal Intrapersonal	Students will write in complete sentence form one wish.  Students will create a book mark and list three facts they learned about Patricia Polacco.	Meteor Wish And Book Mark.	Rubric
Lesson 2	ELA MST ART	Remembering Understanding Applying Creating	Visual Linguistic	Students will list a recipe for a storm and include an illustration.	Storm Recipe on Cake Cut- Out.	Rubric
Lesson 3	ELA ART	Understanding Remembering Applying Creating	Visual Linguistic Interpersonal	Students in pairs will create a doll and write instructions on how to take care of the doll.	Doll Craft and Instructions.	Rubric
Lesson 4	ELA MST	Understanding Remembering Applying Logical Creating Analyzing	Visual Linguistic Interpersonal	In groups students will create a picto- graph to represent their favorite Patricia Polacco book.	Group Picto-Graphs.	Rubric
Culminating Activity	ELA ART	Understanding Remembering Applying Creating	Visual Linguistic Interpersonal	Students will write a class letter to Patricia Polacco, thanking the author for “coming to their school.” Students will work together to paint images from their favorite P.P. book on the envelope.	Class Letter and Large Painted Envelope.	Portfolio

**Optional: Culminating Bulletin Board: To display student work throughout the Author Study.

(Monday) Lesson 1: Introduction to Author Patricia Polacco.


Instructional:

Students will listen and respond to a presentation on the life of Author Patricia Polacco.

Students will listen and respond to a read aloud of Patricia Polacco’s first book Meteor.

Students will write in complete sentence form; one wish on a meteor cut out.

Students will present their wish to the class.

 Slide show overview of lesson:

Read Aloud METEOR!

Q&A: Making predictions and checking for comprehension.

Class closes eyes to elicit visualization.

"Your meteor is falling!!"...(sound effect produced by large rattle)

Meteors falling from the sky into students laps while their eyes are shut.

Students are engaged with lesson, surprised to find  a meteor has really fallen into their laps!

Modeling how to write a complete sentence.

Independent practise: Writing a complete sentence. (Student writes her wish on meteor cut out.)

Conclusion: Students present their "wish" in complete sentence form to the class.

Student sharing his meteor wish.  "I wish that I can play the guitar with my friends".

Meteor Wish.



Extension: Students will list 3 facts they learned about author Patricia Polacco on a book mark worksheet.

Reflection:

I'm not sure who enjoyed this lesson more, me or the students! Students were engaged by me dressing up and really enjoyed the sound effects and meteor wish activity. I was extremely impressed by the students extension activity, everyone was able to write down 3 facts about the author, most wrote in  great detail!Later in the week students took home a Patricia Polacco book from the school library, and shared what they learned about this amazing author and illustrator with their families.