Nonfiction reading part one: the impact of experiential learning

When we went to the Lincoln Park Zoo last summer, we were highly amused by the friendly beaver and stood for a long time as he swam back and forth in front of us. I marveled at his long orange teeth and flat tail and how he held his front paws in front of him, seeming to coyly show off in front of the crowd of visitors. Solana spent quite a bit of time filming these antics on my phone. (As an aside, how cool is it that the Lincoln Park Zoo is free?)  I can’t say that I was ever interested in beavers before, but when we came home and I saw some books on beavers at our local library, I wanted to read more about them. I was so much more engaged having had the hands on experience of seeing one up close.  It really made me experience as a reader the impact of experiential learning and background knowledge on motivation:  ideally something to replicate in the classroom either through virtual learning or hands on science centers.

Steve Jenkins Author Study

I recently finished an author study of Mo Willems with my ESL student, and was wondering where to go next. I’ve been attending and giving presentations on the common core standards, which emphasize how important nonfiction is. With this in mind and since my student loves books about animals, I thought Steve Jenkins would be a good choice for our next author study, and would make an interesting comparison/contrast with Mo Willems. After we read many of Mo Willems books, we watched a video I found on amazon of the author talking about his work and his process. I just found this video of Steve Jenkins describing his process for the book Move! on teachingbooks.net. There’s also an accompanying slide show that takes you through the steps of the process of writing Move! with his wife, Robin Page. I love how the two videos perfectly illustrate the difference between the manic hilarity of Mo Willems illustrations and Steve Jenkins’ calm deliberate approach.