From Creative Process to
Curriculum Connections: Children’s Books in the Classroom
Exploring Picture Book Biography
Teaching Invitations: The Craft of Picture Book
Biographies
Biographers’ Choices: Which Story
to Tell? When
writing biography for a child audience, authors make decisions about how to
frame the subject’s life; they make choices about which available information
to include and which to exclude. Gather together additional biographical
information about the subject of a picture book biography. Your local librarian
will be willing to help you locate additional biographies for a child audience,
including series titles. Read across the collection of biographies about a
single subject, noting commonalities and discrepancies in the way particular
events are relayed. Discuss how and why biographers make decisions about how to
tell a life story.
Biographers’ Choices: Life Story. Biographers must also make choices about which
events to highlight in a subject’s life. Some biographies highlight a
particular event in a character’s life, while contextualizing the event within
a life trajectory (for example, Rosa
by Nikki Giovanni, a picture book biography of Rosa Parks). Other biographies
focus on the childhood of a famous figure, foretelling their accomplishments
with childhood interests (for example Me..
Jane by Patrick McDonell, a picture book biography of Jane Goodall). Other
titles place more even emphasis across the lifespan of the subject. Assign
small groups of students several picture book biographies and ask them to
examine the structure and content of the book in order to describe how the
author narrates the subject’s story. This close look will prepare students to
make decisions when composing about how to structure a biography.
Characterization: Details that
reveal character.
As biographers relay the story of their subjects’ lives to their readers, they
must work to convey their personalities, traits, and idiosyncracies. We call
this ‘characterization’ or ‘character development.’ Often, authors incorporate
details and descriptions of characters’ actions or behaviors that reveal
character. For example in Who Says Women Can’t Be Doctors?, Stone lets the
reader know that Elizabeth Blackwell liked to challenge herself, exploring her
limit, revealing this characteristic by describing her as “a girl who tried
sleeping on the hard floor with no covers, just to toughen herself up.” Biographer
can also reveal character through dialogue (using quotes from the subject), by
describing the reaction that others’ have to the subject, and through
illustration. Work with your students to review a collection of biographies,
mining them for specific examples of character development. Make a two column
chart, recording quotes from biographies on the left side and a description of
how this quote reveals character on the right side. This exercise will prepare
students to write more sophisticated biographies.
The Author’s Note: Back Matter. Gather a collection of picture
book biographies and conduct a focused study of the back matter, in particular,
the Author’s Note. What kinds of information do authors include in an Author’s
Note? How does this information enhance or clarify a reader’s understanding of
the text of the book? Use a variety of Author’s Notes as mentor texts for
students’ own writing.
Who Says Women Can’t
Be Doctors: The Story of Elizabeth Blackwell
Written
by Tanya Lee Stone and Illustrated by Marjorie Priceman
Published
in 2013 by Henry Holt
ISBN:
9-780805-090482
Elizabeth
Blackwell: 1821 – 1910
Teaching Ideas / Invitations for
Your Classroom:
Pioneering Women. Gather a collection of picture
book biographies that feature women who were pioneers in their field. Divide
students into small groups and ask students to read the books and make notes
about the subjects of their books. Ask students to prepare a brief summary to
share with classmates. After each group shares their summary in a whole group
session, ask your students to brainstorm categories to construct a comparison
chart featuring the women’s lives and accomplishments. Return to small group
work with and ask groups to complete the information to construct the chart.
When the chart is assembled, hold another whole group discussion, noting any
patterns across the categories. The Classroom Bookshelf blog features several
titles ideally suited to this activity, including Me…Jane and The Watcher (Jane Goodall), Night Flight (Amelia Earhart), Annie and Helen and Helen’s Big World (Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan), Life in the Ocean (Sylvia Earle), Miss Moore Thought Otherwise (Anne
Carroll Moore) and Rachel Carson and Her
Book That Changed the World.
Persistence. Despite many obstacles, Elizabeth
Blackwell persisted in her goal to become a doctor. Ask students to recall the
opposition that Blackwell faced and her efforts to keep moving toward her goal.
Ask student to think about and then they write about a time in their lives when
persistence was needed. Students could illustrate their stories, which could
then be bound into a class book to share with others.
Focused Comparison: Tanya Lee Stone as
Biographer. Tanya
Lee Stone has also written a picture book biography featuring suffragist
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, titled Elizabeth
Leads the Way: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Right To Vote (Holt, 2008).
Read each title to first compare the life stories of these women. Next, reread
the stories with a focus on writing style.
What can you learn about writing biography from studying Tanya Lee
Stone’s writing choices? In each book, what events in the subject’s lives
receive most emphasis? How does Stone use details to characterize her subjects?
How are quotations used and documented? What kinds of information are provided
in an author’s note? For a broader study of biography, move into a comparison
on Stone’s writing style with that of other picture book biographers or extend your author study to include Tanya Lee Stone's other biographies (listed on her website).
Women’s Rights Movement. This book has a place in a more
comprehensive study of women’s rights and efforts to open doors previously
closed to women. Gather texts that support an understanding of the timeline and
advocacy involved in the Women’s Rights Movement. Suggested include Tanya Lee
Stone’s Elizabeth Leads the Way:
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Right To Vote (Holt, 2008), Shana Corey’s You Forgot Your Skirt, Amelia Bloomer (Scholastic,
2000), and Jean Fritz’s You Want Women to
Vote, Lizzie Stanton? (Putnam, 1995). These, and other books, can be
contextualized with the timeline found on the website of the National Women’s
History Museum (Smithsonian). You and your students may be inspired to explore
aspects of women’s history more deeply, developing inquiry questions to pursue
through books, primary source documents, and perhaps through first hand
research (for example, interviews).
Text Set Exploration. Who Says Women Can’t Be Doctors? could be read as part of a text set – a grouping
of topically or thematically related resources representing a variety genres.
Work with your school or public librarian to gather a text set that includes Who Says Women Can’t Be Doctors?. Two
text set options are: (1) A collection of biographies about famous physicians;
(2) texts that tell stories of women in the field of medicine; or (3) texts
that describe the experiences of women entering all male schools.
Online Resources
Macmillan
Group Book Page
Tanya Lee
Stone
NIH:
Changing the Face of American Medicine: Elizabeth Blackwell
National
Women’s History Museum: Elizabeth Blackwell
National
Library of Medicine
Times
Topics, Elizabeth Blackwell, The New York Times
The
Elizabeth Blackwell Society, New York City
Gale/Cengage:
Elizabeth Blackwell
Hobart-William
Smith/Geneva Medical College
The
Blackwell Sisters, Library of Congress
Elizabeth
Blackwell, Gilder Lehrman Institute
"Women
in Medicine: How Female Doctors Have Changed the Face of Medicine," Yale
Journal of Medicine and Law, May 2012
Biography
Books
Corey, S.
(2000). You forgot your skirt, Amelia
Bloomer: a very improper story. Ill. by C. McLaren. New York: Scholastic.
Fritz, J.
(1995). You want women to Vote, Lizzie
Stanton? Ill. by D. DiSalvo-Ryan. New York: Putnam.
Gorrell,
G.K. (2000). Heart and soul: The story of
Florence Nightingale. Toronto: Tundra Books (Grades 5-8).
Goldsmith,
B.Z. (2010). Dr. Mary Edwards Walker : Civil War surgeon & medal of honor
recipient. Adina, MN: ABDO
Pub.
Stone,
T.L. (2008). Elizabeth leads the way:
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the right to vote. Ill by R. Gibbon. New York:
Henry Holt.
Monsieur Marceau:
Actor without Words
Written
by Leda Schubert and Illustrated by Gerard Dubois
Published
in 2012 by Roaring Brook Press
ISBN:
978-1-59643-592-2
Monsieur
Marceau 1923 – 2007
Teaching Ideas / Invitations for
Your Classroom:
Comparing Picture Book Biographies
of Marceau. Pair
a reading of Monsieur Marceau with Marcel Marceau: Master of Mine by Gloria
Spielman (Kar-Ben, 2011). Compare Schubert’s and Spielman’s narrations of
Marceau’s life story. Which events and aspects of his life are highlighted by
each author? How does the author convey a sense of Marceau’s character? What
role do the illustrations in each book play in conveying Marceau’s character
and story? What sources were used by the authors?
Watching Marceau. A search of YouTube brings up
dozens of video clips of Marceau performing. Preview and choose several clips
that are appropriate for your students. Then, do the same with clips of Charlie
Chaplin. Discuss the influence that Chaplin had on Marceau and see if you can
find evidence of this influence in Marceau’s performances. Extend this
discussion by introducing the concept of a mentor. Ask students to identify
other mentor / mentee partnerships that they are aware of. Then ask students to
write about a mentor in their own lives.
Miming. The back matter of Monsieur
Marceau: Actor Without Words includes an invitation from Circus Smirkus founder
Rob Mermin to the reader to try out the practice of mime. Develop several other
similar scenarios that you feel your students could mime and assign small
groups the task of performing the mime for fellow group members and receiving
feedback on their expressiveness. As an extension, students could write skits
as a challenge for fellow groups to perform. Work with students to develop a
rubric to assess the effectiveness and aesthetics of the skits.
Text Set Exploration. Monsieur Marceau could be read as part of a text set – a grouping of topically or
thematically related resources representing a variety genres. Work with your
school or public librarian to gather a text set that includes Monsieur Marceau. Three text set options
are: (1) A collection of biographies about entertainers; (2) Texts that tell
the life story of Holocaust survivors / resistors and describe the impact these
experiences had on their life trajectory; or (3) Texts, including videos, and
articles about Marcel Marceau.
Online Resources
Search
YouTube videos for “Marcel Marceau” and “Charlie Chaplin”
“Silence
Falls on Marcel Marceau, Master of the Mime”
The World
of Mime Theater
The
Wallenberg Medal and Lecture: Marcel Marceau
Times
Topics: Articles About Marcel Marceau
Marcel
Marceau Photo Essay: Time Magazine
The
Guardian: Marcel Marceau
Circus
Smirkus
Books
Avi. Silent movie. Ill. by C.B. Mordan. New
York: Atheneum.
Lust, A.
(2003). From the Greek mines to Marcel
Marceau and beyond. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. (adult title)
Marceau,
M. (1976). The story of Bip. New
York: Harper & Row.
Spielman,
G. (2011). Marcel Marceau: Master of mime.
Ill. by M. Gauthier. Minneapolis, MN: Kar-Ben.
Colorful Dreamer: The Story of
Artist Henri Matisse
Written
by Marjorie Blain Parker and Illustrated by Holly Berry
Published
in 2012 by Dial Books
ISBN
978-0-8037-3758-7
Henri
Matisse 1869 – 1954
Teaching Ideas / Invitations for
Your Classroom:
Understanding Matisse’s Style. Provide small groups of students
with a collection of Matisse’s paintings and collages. Ask students to study
the images and to put them into different groups, categorizing them by
different traits (color, shapes, content, etc.). Challenge the groups to think
of as many possible ways to group them as possible within small groups. Convene
as a whole group to share and discuss different ways of categorizing the
images. Then, help students to place the images on a large timeline posted on a
classroom wall. Discuss changes in Matisse’s style over time. Return to
Colorful Dreamer for a close examination of Holly Berry’s representations of
Matisse’s work and stylistic changes over time.
Matisse as Muse. Use a document camera or LCD
projector to display large images of Matisse’s paintings and collages from
different time periods in his life. Invite your students to draw inspiration
from Matisse’s art, choosing to create either a written or visual response.
Collaborate with your art teacher to provide students with materials to
experiment with Matisse’s style. Alternatively (or conjointly) use Heart to Heart: New Poems Inspired by Twentieth Century American Art edited by Jan
Greenberg (Abrams, 2001) as a mentor text for student composed poems in
response to Matisse’s paintings.
Comparing Picture Book Biographies
of Matisse. Read
Colorful Dreamer along with two other picture book biographies of Henri Matisse: A Bird or Two: A Story About Henri Matisse by Bijou Le Tord
(Eerdmans, 1999) and Henri Matisse:
Drawing with Scissors by Jane O’Connor (Grosset & Dunlap, 2002). Compare
the information found in the texts (including author’s notes). You may want to
construct a timeline of Matisse’s life using key events drawn from the books,
coloring coding the text to identify the source book. Next, discuss the
illustrations in each text. What techniques have the illustrators used to
represent the art of Matisse, his life story, and themes emphasized in each
book? As an extension of this activity, you might have students identify
further questions that they have about Matisse and his art or you might begin a
broader study of artists and their representation in picture book biographies. The Classroom Bookshelf blog features several
titles ideally suited to this activity: Diego
Rivera: His World and Ours, Georgia
in Hawaii: When Georgia O’Keeffe Painted What She Pleased, and Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave.
Fauvism and Expressionism. Matisse’s artistic style has
been described as Fauvism, Post-Impressionism, and Expressionism. Invite your
students to learn more about these artistic styles and their place in history
by exploring some of the online resources below and Bob Raczka’s book, Name that Style : All About Isms in Art
(Millbrook, 2009).
Online Resources
Holly
Berry’s Website
Marjorie
Blain Parker
Times
Topics, Henri Matisse, The New York Times
Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York
Museum of
Modern Art, New York
Henri
Matisse Tour, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Matisse
Museum, Nice, France
The Tate
Gallery, London
A Tale of
Two Sisters and a Serious Eye for Art, NPR
A War
Time Matisse Full of Pain and Beauty, NPR
Biography.com
Books
Grenberg, J., Ed.
(2001). Heart to heart: New poems Inspired by twentieth century
American art New York: Abrams.
LeTord, B. (1999). Henri
Matisse: A Bird or Two: A Story About
Henri Matisse. Grand Rapids. MI: Eerdmans.
O’Connor, J. (2002). Henri
Matisse: Drawing with Scissors. Ill. by J. Hartland. New York. Grossett
& Dunlap.
Razcka, B. (2009). Name
that style : all about isms in art. Minneapolis, MN: Millbrook Press.
Winter, J. (2012). Just
behave, Pablo Picasso! Ill. by K. Hawkes. New York: Arthur A. Levine.
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