Using Tales of Beedle the Bard to Teach Storybook Writing

The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling

I am teaching a young author's class this summer and I wanted to try to engage my students by sharing with them short stories that also had visual counterparts. Strangely, my 3-5 grade students are obsessed with dark stories, which comes out in their writing. So when I was thinking of book examples to share with them, I immediately thought of The Tales of Beedle the Bard. In the last Harry Potter movie, they have that interesting animated vignette of "The Tale of the Three Brothers." Hermoine reads it and a shadow puppet style animated short is shown. It plays out the story.

So what I did was read the short story to them first. Then we watched the video and talked about how the images connected to the story. They loved it! Why do I need my students to connect images with a story? They are writing their own stories that they will also have to illustrate. So matching a story up to images is part of writing a storybook. I also showed them actual storybook examples.

Another reason I wanted to read stories to them was so that they could draw from their exposure. I asked the students to share what they were reading right now (or at home) and we looked them up on GoodReads.com. Then we talked about how they were using their inspiration from their current story to enhance their own story. This was something I got from a video interview I watched on Rick Riordan (The Percy Jackson & the Olympians Series). He had a little video where he gives advice to young authors and his three rules of writing are:

1. Read ALOT! As a writer it is your fuel. You have to "ingest those voices" which help create your own voice.

2. You have to practice! It's like a sport. You have to actually write a little bit everyday to help you improve. Build those writing muscles!

3. Don't give up! Keep going and have the determination and self-confidence to keep going.

In order to help my students achieve this, we've been doing little writing activities and I've been reading books to them and short stories. It has been an amazing experience. And that is why I used The Tales of Beedle the Bard. Each day we read a different short story. They wanted to hear them all, so we worked through the stories together. I didn't read all the additional commentary, because the students hadn't actually read the Harry Potter books (no... they saw the movies instead). So we used the short stories as inspiration and fuel.

Wow, look at all the nerdism coming through in this post just over one little story connection. The kids loved it and their stories are really exploding with creativity! The little stories in The Tales of Beedle the Bard were enjoyable, because they were still part of the Potter World, but without being part of the central story. The Hermoine commentary, which I did read on my own, was interesting and just builds on the universe Rowling created. Cool beans!

Halloween: Spooky Poetics and Sweet Treats

For Halloween, I knew I wanted to do something special for the kids. I always think about how to decorate the classroom and what my students can do to help make the classroom more seasonal. After working with my third graders to write Cinquain poems, I thought it would be a good way to encourage my students to be more descriptive writers, review parts of speech, and have fun writing about Fall/Halloween.

I took my Facebook Introductions bulletin board down and purchased a candy corn border, after my students expressed a passion for sugar. Then I taught my students how to write Cinquain poems (the students said they learned these are diamond poems, but I'd rather teach them the appropriate title). We practiced using the writing process steps.

Prewriting/Brainstorming

We did some chalk board brainstorming of words associated with October.  The students came up to the board and wrote a word or idea. The words ranged from Halloween blood and gore to the smell of Fall and leaves changing color.  My students are obsessed with gummy bears and zombies, so there were many words involving the Gummy Bear Zombie Apocalypse. 

Students were then given a Cinquain template and we discussed what nouns, adjectives, and -ing words are. Then we reviewed synonyms and came up with some phrase examples. The students then went work.

Drafting/Editing/Conferencing

Students wrote their first draft on their template. Then they were to self-edit using a dictionary and/or thesaurus to help with finding more creative words. Once they were comfortable with their poem, they gave it to a peer to review and edit. Before they could get a publishing template, they had to have it approved by the teacher.

Publishing

Due to the shortness of the poems, quickly reading their poems was easy enough. Then they were given the chance to choose from several different templates. They were instructed to write their poem in pencil first, then go over it with marker. After they finished their poem, they could color in the template and make sure they put their name on the front.

 

These made for a great bulletin board display. It also looked great with the Halloween decorations the students put  up in the classroom, such as shrouds over the drapes, pumpkin lights, and a Happy Halloween banner.

For Halloween, I made the students candy bags. I found a baggie topper template and I edited it to include a special message from me on the back. I included goldfish crackers, stickers, a spider ring, tootsie roll pops, and smarties. The kids LOVED them, but forgot the cardinal rule of treats: DO NOT open them if your next class does not approve of snacks. It made for a sad situation with the other teachers when the students did not follow the rules. So just be careful and talk to the other teachers about stuff like that before you do it. Let them know your explicit guidelines for the students just so that they know what is going on.