Explore the life's work of one of the great children's authors using this ten-lesson author study unit. After first performing some whole-group research into the life of Cynthia Rylant, the class goes on to read six different stories, writing summaries and completing a series of activities as they compare and contrast this collection of children's literature.

Additional Tags

english language arts

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Instructional Ideas

• Include these lessons in a year-long series of author studies in primary grade classrooms
• Take time for student volunteers to share their journal entries and story summaries with a partner, small group, or with the whole class
• Supplement other Cynthia Rylant stories into the unit based on the needs, abilities, and interests of your class

Classroom Considerations

• Unit requires copies of six different Cynthia Rylant books, which can be acquired at your school or local library if you do not already have them in your classroom
• Save time by assembling the author study booklets for the students, handing them out on the very first day of the unit

Pros

• Includes all necessary worksheets and graphic organizers
• Offers an example of an anchor chart to create during class discussions
• Provides questions for guiding discussions about each Cynthia Rylant story read aloud during the unit
• A list of possible culminating activities are provided for students to choose from

Cons

• Mentions showing a Brain Pop Jr. video about Cynthia Rylant, which requires a paid subscription to that online resource
• Unit includes only a general outline of the activities for each lesson

Common Core

RL.1.1 RL.1.2 RL.1.3 RL.1.7 RL.1.9 RL.2.1 RL.2.2 RL.2.3 RL.2.7 RL.3.1 RL.3.2 RL.3.3 RL.3.7