Ladies and Gentlemen,
Please write your letter in a document and save it before you post it to the blog so that we can have a nice printed copy to send in the "snail mail" if necessary.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Correspondent
As the Correspondent, your job is to write a letter or email. Your letter can be to the author (we'll actually send them or email them if possible) or you can pretend that you are a character in the book writing to another character in the book. If you have a better idea, I'd love to hear about it. Make sure to talk to me so that I can approve the idea and offer it to the rest of the group as an option. If you can't find en email or snail mail address for the author, we can try the publishing company.
In any case, your letter needs to demonstrate some advanced thinking. If you choose to write the author, choose one interesting or challenging excerpt from your book. Describe your thinking, questions, and inferences. Then ask the author to enlighten us! (Not sure what enlighten means? Look it up!) If you choose to write to a character, share your predictions and give the character advice about what to do next.
10 Billion Bonus Points will be awarded for any actual comments or responses you generate from students outside of East's fifth grade, and Double Bonus Points will be awarded if you can convince an author to visit and post on our blog! (The bonus points are fake - but wouldn't it be great if the real author commented on our page?)
You only need one approved comment to this post by the end of the literature circle.
Thanks!
~Ms. Vander Velde
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Dear George Selden,
I am reading your book, “The Cricket in Times Square” and let me tell you about what I like and what I don't like that much. One of the reason that I like your book because you have a lot of details. This is important because when we do our writing, I can use the techniques that you are doing. For example, one of the sentence that I like was when Chester the Cricket told Tucker Mouse about his story. I like that sentence because when Chester was smelling food, you told a lot of details like how it smells like. Another reason that I like is you have a lot of good leads. One of the leads that I like is when the book said, “A mouse was looking at Mario.” It gives me a question, “Who is Mario and who is the mouse. That is what both of my teacher said, always try to get the reader in the book. I used to think this book was about to be boring but when I read the lead, I can't stop reading it.
What I don't like your writing that much is because in some writing, the price of an item is too cheap. Here is an example of the sentence that I don't like that much. When Mario went to Sai Fong and bought the cricket cage, why was the price only fifteen cents? This is different than the real life because it would probably cost more. Another sentence was that doesn't really make sense is when Mario went to Sai Fong again and Mario ate dinner there. Don't you think that maybe Mario should pay a little price because Sai Fong gave Mario dinner?
But please don't get me wrong, I like your writing. Will you please visit our school website at www.eastdragonden.blospot.com and www.dragondenreadersc.blogspot.com? This is different from getting a comment from a plain author and getting a comment from a author that won the Newberry Medal author. Many people might think that this book is a boring book but I think it is a very cool book. Well, thank you very much for taking your time and reading this letter, I really appreciate it. Thank you very much.
Your reader,
Raymond
Dear George Selden,
I am enjoying reading your book you wrote “Cricket in Times Square” because it has good events and you explain quiet well what is going on. Explaining well what goes on well helps your readers because they understand better what you are telling them. My favorite character is Harry. Why you ask? Well I love cats and Harry seems to be the person that if he was real he would be the person everyone would want to be friends with because he is nice and wants to be friends with everyone even with mice!
This book has inspired me to read more and comprehend and practice all the reading skills I need to be successful. I bet it feels nice to have one of your readers be successful because of your book. Does it because it would for me?When my dad was little he had read your books. He loved every single one of them. He wanted to be a writer like you but it never happened. Now he delivers flowers but I bet it is a good job to have to smell the pretty flowers every day and knowing people loved the flowers when you come home.
I think writing “Cricket in Times Square” was probably one of the best things that could have happened to you, wouldn't you think? It would have been the best thing to ever happen to me. What was the book that sold the most copies that you have written? Was it “Cricket in Times Square?” If it is I would want to read all the other books in the “Cricket in Times Square” series.
The pictures the illustrator, Garth Williams, drew are wonderful. I like the picture on page 89. That picture was for when Harry sang to one of his favorite songs and then Chester sang. Chester really didn't sing though he chirped along with the music. M dad and I love to listen to the crickets in the summer time. Well I hope that your writing career goes well.
Your reader,
Savannah
Post a Comment