The Life of Helen Betty Osborne Teacher’s Guide
by Pat Adamson and Lauree Kopetsky
Portage & Main Press is pleased to announce a teacher’s guide for The Life of Helen Betty Osborne will be available soon*. You will be able to download the guide from our website for FREE.
In the guide, you will find:
- ideas for using a Graphic Novel in the classroom
- activities for reading and responding
- graphic organizers
- questions for discussion
- culminating activities
- related websites
and much more!
*Watch for more information to be posted in August about the availability of the guide.
Rhian Brynjolson
Congratulations Rhian Brynolson
P&M Press is pleased to announce that Goose Girl illustrated by Rhian Brynolson was awarded McNally Robinson Book for Young People Award - Younger Category.
Rhian Brynolson is a P&M Press author, a teacher, a visual artist, and an illustrator of children’s books. Rhian spent many years working in classrooms through an artist-in-the-schools program, and now teaches art and integrated curriculum in an inner-city elementary school in Winnipeg. Rhian has taught a variety of workshops to artists, teachers, and students. She also collaborated on developing a new arts curriculum for Manitoba schools. Her experiences have given her a unique perspective on using the creative process to guide student learning. Rhian is currently revising Art & Illustration for the Classroom published by P&M Press. This new title is scheduled for availability late fall 2009.
Many times we have our students conduct research on animals and related facts such as appearance and habitat. Take your students one step further in their thinking by having them do research on two animals and then compare and contrast their research findings. Download the helpful lesson Compare and Contrast: A Lesson Plan (see below) by authors Dave Leochko and Tom Rossi. This lesson will help you turn an ordinary animal research project into a higher-level thinking project. You can use it with your grades 4 to 7 students. If you like this lesson, more lessons on non-fiction approaches to reading are available in Guiding Readers Through Non-fiction.
Click here Compare&Contrast to download Compare and Contrast: A Lesson Plan.
P&M Press authors Dave Leochko and Tom Rossi offer a helpful lesson on editing that can be downloaded for free. You can use it with your grades 4 to 7 students. If you like this activity, more lessons are available in Key Strategies for Teaching Editing. This book is filled with many great ideas for teaching editing skills and strategies to your students.
Click here keystrategiesforediting to download Key Strategies for Editing: A Lesson Plan.
End the year with a positive feeling about learning. A useful and active way to have students think about what they have studied during the year is to use “60-second flashback.” Students give a brief, creative presentation on a character, creature, country, or concept as a way to review.
Steps*
Practical Ideas to Wrap Up the Year for Grades 4-8
- Introduce students to an activity called “60-second flashback.” We say: “To help you recall key ideas you have learned this year, you are going to choose different ways to show what you remember about a character, creature, country, or concept you’ve studied.”
- Make, and post, a list of some of the characters, creatures, countries, and concepts studied during the year. Ask students to suggest other ideas, and add these to the list.
- Talk with students about possible ways to present a “60-second flashback” (e.g., put on a skit, role-play characters, make collages or posters, make videos). Record ideas on a piece of chart paper.
- Have students choose an idea to review and to determine a way to present their “60-second flashback.” We give students the choice of working on their own, with a partner, or with a small group.
- Ask volunteers to demonstrate what a “60-second flashback” can look like, so everyone can see what they are expected to do in a very short period of time.
- Make a schedule, and invite students to sign-up.
- Give time for students to prepare and present their “60-second flashback.” We start each day with five presentations.
- After their presentations, talk with students about their favourite parts of the “60-second flashback.” Ask them how their presentations helped them remember ideas they learned during the year.
*Adapted from Inspiring Active Learning by Merrill Harmin, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), 1994
“60-second flashback” and more great ideas for the classroom can be found in the Voices of Experience set for Grades 4-8 and the Voices of Experience set for Grades K-3.
Kathleen Gregory
P&M Press author Kathleen Gregory has a great new website.
Kathleen assists many school districts in developing approaches to conferencing, report writing, and authentic assessment strategies. On her website, she presents some of these approaches in several short videos. Visit her website at www.kathleengregory.com.
