Having Fun with Literacy: Author Study

Having Fun with Literacy: The Power of Teamwork

Author ~ Jon Scieszka

This unit spends the first couple of days looking at the biography and the unique style of the author Jon Scieszka. Students are trying to determine where Scieszka came from, why he writes the way he does, and why his style of writing is so appealing to children. The third section of this unit comes together by having students combine Scieszka’s satirical words with Lane Smith’s brilliant pictures in order to create one final masterpiece.

Jon Scieszka teaches his readers that it is perfectly ok to have fun with literacy. His playful, witty, and satirical style demonstrates exactly why he is an effective author for children and adults. When asked why he enjoys creating such unique books with outrageous characters, Scieszka simply responded that he just “loves to make kids laugh” (Kidsread, 2009).

Jon Scieszka was born on September 8, 1954 in Flint, Michigan. He was the second-oldest of six boys. Ever since Scieszka’s mother read him Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham, he knew he wanted to be a writer (Scieszka, 2009). Dr. Seuss’s stories made Scieszka realize that books are absolutely allowed to be goofy, while still delivering a great message to the reader. Before becoming an author, Jon was first painted buildings and then a school teacher. He taught students in the first grade all the way up to the eighth grade. He enjoyed teaching students about math and science, but his true passion was writing and decided to take a year off to start working on a children’s book. During his trial and error with publishing his first story, he met Lane Smith, the future illustrator of many of his most popular books, and they began creating pictures to follow along with Jon’s twisted words. They worked very well together, especially because they both had the same sense of humor (Scieszka, 2009). Scieszka and Smith were turned away by many publishing companies at first and together they learned a great deal about being persistent and never giving up hope. Until finally an editor from Viking Books decided to publish their first book, The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs, and from that point forward Scieszka and Smith’s success has continued to flourish. Together they have won many prestigious book awards and are still creating many wonderful children’s books today.


Where do Jon Scieszka’s ideas come from – in his own words:

“I get my ideas from having been an elementary school teacher for ten years, growing up with five brothers, being a dad, staring out the window, reading books, staring out the window some more, listening to music, walking around Brooklyn, staring out the window again, and then writing stuff down so I don't forget what I was thinking when I was staring out the window” (Scieszka, 2009).

Grade Level: 4th

Author: Jon Scieszka
Illustrator: Lane Smith

Standards

Analysis and Interpretation of Informational Texts/Citing Evidence (IT:2)
R:IT:4:2.1: Connecting information within a text or across texts (State)

Analysis and Interpretation of Literary Texts/Citing Evidence (LT:2)
R:LT:4:2.5: Identifying author’s message or theme
R:LT:4:2.2: Describing main characters’ physical characteristics or personality traits; or providing examples of thoughts, words, or actions that reveal characters’ personality traits (State)

Initial Understanding of Literary Texts (LT:1)
R:LT:4:1.4: Identifying the characteristics of a variety of types of text (e.g., literary text: poetry, plays, fairytales, fantasy, fables, realistic fiction, folktales, historical fiction) (Local)

Writing in Response to Literary or Informational Text – Showing Understanding of Ideas in Text (RC:1)
W:RC:4:1.3: Connecting what has been read (plot/ideas/concepts) to prior knowledge, which might include other texts (State)

Writing in Response to Literary or Informational Text – Making Analytical Judgments about Text (RC:2)
W:RC:4:2.2: Making inferences about content, events, characters, setting, or common themes (State) EXAMPLE (of theme): honesty isn’t always easy

Books:

(1)Knucklehead
(2)The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales
(2)Squids will be Squids
(2)The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs
(3)Cowboy & Octopus
(3)Science Verse
(3)Math Curse

Prior Background Knowledge: Students must have an understanding of traditional fairy tales before beginning this unit.

Objectives: (1) To teach students how to link an author’s life experiences to the stories he or she creates. (2) To develop students’ understanding of a relationship between creative language and writing through stretching one’s imagination. (3) Students will also develop a better understanding of the author and illustrator’s relationship as they learn to associate descriptive writing with eye-catching pictures.

(1) Biography (see author description above)
This lesson looks at Jon Scieszka’s childhood, where ideas came from, and how his ideas developed into marvelous and quiet clever books. Students should note that Scieszka is known for his creative imagination and a love for witty humor.

Time: 50 minutes

Materials:
1 Scieszka book:
· Knucklehead
Computers with internet access (preferably 1 per students)
Writer’s Journals (1 per student)

Procedure:

1.) The teacher will explain to the class that he or she is starting a new unit on a specific author, Jon Scieszka that has changed the way we look at literacy for children today. Today’s focus is merely on the author’s biography (the student’s should be familiar with the term biography, but it is in the teacher’s best interest to go over the definition with the class in a Think-Pair-Share format).
2.) The teacher will read parts of Jon Scieszka’s exaggerated autobiography, Knucklehead, to give students a better understanding of how humor has constantly played an essential part of Scieszka’s upbringing.
3.) Students then will be given the opportunity to bit of research about Jon Scieszka’s life by exploring his website http://www.jsworldwide.com/ on a computer. Students will be given a couple of guiding questions that they will have to answer in their writer’s journals. Students should be doing the following while on the website:
a. Looking at how Scieszka’s childhood was unique from their own
b. How did Scieszka become interested in becoming a writer
c. Why did Scieszka choose the writing style that he did
d. How did his life’s journey lead him to where he is today
4.) When everyone is finished the teacher will conduct an open-ended discussion with the entire class to report back what students discovered about Jon Scieszka
5.) After the class discussion is over, students will have 10 minutes to record their own thoughts about Knucklehead and the research they did online into their Writer’s journal. Students should be recording their own opinions about why they think Scieszka is a respectable author – not simply repeating facts they recorded earlier in the lesson.

Assessment: Students will be judged on the efforts while researching on the computers as well as their responses they recorded into their Writer’s journals

(2) His Accomplishments in Literacy – Fractured Fairytales
(Lesson adapted from Scolastic.com)

Jon Scieszka once said, “My motto in writing is: ‘Never underestimate the intelligence of your audience -kids can be silly and smart!’” (Scieszka, 2009).

This second lesson looks at what the author has accomplished with literacy and language in his particular genre of writing. We will be examining Scieszka’s playful language with stories. For this particular lesson, we will be looking at how Scieszka twists classic fairytales. Each character in these selected stories are well articulate and clever creatures.

Time: 90 minutes

Materials:

2 Scieszka books:
· The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales
· The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs
Lined paper

Procedure:
1.) Before reading The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs, the teacher should ask for volunteers to tell the traditional story of the three little pigs. Let the volunteers take turns telling parts of the story. Then read The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs together with your class.
2.) Ask students to fold a piece of paper in half. On one side of the paper, they should make a list of what parts of this story are different from the traditional story. On the other side of the paper, they should make a list of what parts of the story are the same.
3.) In this retelling of the three little pigs, the author changes the point of view of the story. Usually readers sympathize with the pigs. Here, readers hear the wolf's side of the story. Ask students to write about whether or not they are convinced by the wolf's version of the story. Does he seem trustworthy? Why or why not?
4.) The teacher will then read a few parts of Scieszka’s book The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales to provide a similar style and characters for students to compare to The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs. The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales is a combination of nine clever short stories that have been altered from classic fairy/folktales. Have students point out similarities or differences between characters, the plot, language, etc. Help students to notice the format in which both stories are written and if this helps or harms the book in any way shape or form.
5.) Ask children to think about other fairy tales that might change if they were told from a different point of view. For example, how would The Daily Wolf cover the story of Little Red Riding Hood? How would Cinderella's stepsisters tell her famous story? How would Snow White's stepmother explain what happened to her? Have children write their own versions of famous fairy tales with a twist. (Due to time constraints in the classroom, it is more effective to have students chose a part of a famous story that they would like to add write twist to – rather than rewriting the whole thing.)

Assessment: The students will be assessed on their efforts they put into the written copies of their twisted tales.

(3) Adding Illustration – Playing with Surfaces

In this lesson, students are combining their work from the previous lesson and using the artistic style of Lane Smith to enhance their writing. Students will learn how a great book is created through a combined effort between the author and the illustrator.

Time: 60 minutes

Materials:

3 Scieszka books:
· Cowboy & Octopus
· Math Curse
· Science Verse
Scrap paper
Paint brushes
Paint sets (4 students to 1 paint set)
Tissue paper
Colorful construction paper
Markers

Procedure:

1.) The teacher will read through a couple of short stories in Scieszka and Smith’s book Cowboy & Octopus to demonstrate to the students how teamwork is important not only in Scieszka’s book but in real life as well. The teacher will guide the students through an open-ended discussion about their own experiences with teamwork and how one can act as a positive team player.
2.) The teacher will then show the illustrations from Scieszka and Smith’s Cowboy & Octopus, Math Curse, and Science Verse. He or she will record on the board the similarities in the artistic style of the pictures and in a separate column record how the students think the pictures match with the text in the stories.
a. It is important for students to recognize that Lane Smith “plays with the surface” of his illustrations just as Scieszka plays or twists the words in a story.
b. Smith particularly layers and uses various textures to make his work “come alive”. Then he completes his work using a fine detailed brush to add the finishing touches to his work.
3.) The students will then be asked to create rough drafts of the drawings they wish to associate with the text they created during the previous lesson.
4.) Once the students’ sketches are complete the students will then be able to create a final copy using various art supplies that help to make their artwork “climb off the page” just as Smith does with his work.

Assessment/Extension:

Students will be graded on the effort they put into their two final flipbooks that they created following Smith’s artistic style. This lesson can be extended into a potential forth lesson by having students research on their own an author and illustrator pair that have their own unique writing and illustration style.



References

Kidsread.com. (2009). “Jon Scieszka: Interview”. Retrieved from: http://www.kidsreads.com/authors/au-scieszka-jon.asp.

Scieszka, Jon. (2009). “Jon Scieszka Worldwide: Facing Tomorrow’s Challenges Today”. Retrieved from: http://www.jsworldwide.com/