Beverly Cleary Unit Launch
The teacher will use the following websites to introduce Beverly Cleary as a creative children's book author. The teacher will use the bibliographical information to explain Cleary's background in reading. Students will understand her purposes and reasons for writing about such characters in her books. The teacher will then explore "The World of Beverly Cleary" website with the students and this will give students a more detailed background of the characters in the books they will begin reading.
Author Profile: Beverly Cleary
Beverly Cleary was once a story teller at a children's library. She continues using her storytelling skills when she writes her children's books.
"What was writing for children but written story-telling? So in my imagination I stood once more before the yakima's story-hour crowd as I typed the first sentence: 'Henry Huggins' was in the third grade." ~http://www.beverlycleary.com/beverlycleary/index.html
A wonderful launch activity to use with your students is to mimic a Vivian Paley technique and fishbowl your students. (A fishbowl is to circle the students' desks or have them sit in a circle on the floor.) Mark off a stage in the center of the fishbowl. Explain to your students the purpose of the stage is to allow them to create their own story and act it out in front of their peers. When one student runs out of creative, descriptive ideas, another student can take over. As your students are speaking, you, the teacher, should be taking down everything that they are saying.
This technique is the same storytelling technique that Beverly Cleary uses when writing her stories. This allows students to understand that author's method when writing stories and therefore gain a more in depth understanding of the story itself.