Awesome Authors

2-1/2 week lesson plan focusing on 6 authors that teaches using bookmarks on the internet, includes scavenger hunt for author information, writing, and presentation.  Plan also has parent letters for author information and websites to encourage family involvement. This is approximately a 2-1/2 week unit designed for 5th graders using these 6 authors: Eve Bunting, Tomie dePaola, Patricia Reilly Giff, Carol Gorman, Daniel Pinkwater, and Jerry Spinelli. This unit could be adapted to any 6 authors. The standards and benchmarks addressed are: a. Use technology to research and collect data from the Internet. 1) Search various web sites to locate needed information 2) Use bookmarks b. Read, understand and respond to a variety of materials for various purposes 1) Develop awareness and appreciation of authors and genres 2) Organize information into a presentation to communicate with others 3) Identify strategies and techniques authors use when writing c. Work cooperatively with others Complex thinking skills incorporated into this unit include: a. Induction - Knowing the pieces of information about this author and his/her works, what generalizations can you make? Would you like this authoru2019s works? b. Inquiry - If this author were to write a new book, predict and describe what that would be like. c. Classifying - Identify the genre(s) into which the works of this author would fit.