Author Presentation: Shel Silverstein

Sheldon Alan “Shel” Silverstein was born on September, 25, 1930 in Chicago, IL. He grew up there and attended the Chicago School of Performing Arts and other schools surrounding the Chicago area. Shel went on to have two children, Shanna and Matt. Shanna died at the age of 11 due to a cerebral aneurysm, and Matt was born in 1983 and presumed to still be alive. Shel died during the weekend of May 8, 1999 of a heart attack. Shel was a composer, an artist, and the author of numerous books of prose and poetry for younger readers.
Shel’s writing started kicking off when he was in the military in the 1950s. He wrote adult cartoons for the newspaper, Starts and Stripes. Some of his classics include:
Uncle Shelby’s ABZ Book (1961)
Uncle Shelby's story of) Lafcadio: The Lion Who Shot Back (1963)
The Giving Tree (1964)
Where the Sidewalk Ends (1974)
A Light in the Attic (1981)
Falling Up (1996)
Runny Babbit (2005) (published posthumously)
Don't Bump the Glump! and Other Fantasies (2008, originally published in 1964)
A Light in the Attic was actually the first children’s book to be on the New York Times best sellers list, and it stayed there for 182 weeks. Publishers Weekly did an interview with Shel on February 24, 1975 where he mentions when he was a young adolescent he wanted to be a star baseball player or a hit with the girls. However, he wasn’t great at either one so he started to draw and write, and that is when he developed his own style and own talent. He definitely has a unique one! Here is a list of some of the awards and honors Shel accomplished in his life:
1974 New York Times Outstanding Book Award for Where the Sidewalk Ends
1981 Michigan Young Readers’ Award for Where the Sidewalk Ends
1981 School Library Journal Best Books Award for A Light in the Attic
1982 International Reading Association’s Children’s Choice Award for The Missing Piece Meets The Big O
1983 Buckeye Award for A Light in the Attic
1984 George G. Stone Award for A Light in the Attic and Where the Sidewalk Ends
1984 William Allen White Award for A Light in the Attic
1985 Buckeye Award for A Light in the Attic
Shel was known and appreciated by many children as well as adults. People saw him as both wicked and giddy. His work is seen as sly and serious, and gruesome as well as just plain old silly!

Bibliography

Books:

Silverstein, Shel. Uncle Shelby’s ABZ Book. Simon & Shuster: New York, NY. 1961.

Silverstein, Shel. Uncle Shelby’s story of Lafcadio: The Lion Who Shot Back. Harper & Row :New York, NY. 1963.

Silverstein, Shel. The Giving Tree. Harper & Row: New York, NY. 1964

Silverstein, Shel. The Missing Piece. Harper & Row: New York, NY. 1976

Silverstein, Shel. Where the Sidewalk Ends. HarperCollins: New York, NY. 1974

Silverstein, Shel. A Light in the Attic. Harper & Row: New York, NY. 1981

Silverstein, Shel. Falling Up. HarperCollins: New York, NY. 1996

Silverstein, Shel. Runny Babbit. HarperCollins: New York, NY. 2005.

Silverstein, Shel. Don’t Bump the Glump! and Other Fantasies. HarperCollins Publishers. New York, NY. 2008.

Essays:

Thomas, Joseph T. "Reappraising Uncle Shelby". Horn Book Magazine. May/Jun 2005, Vol 81 Issue 3, p.23-293.

Myers, Mitch. "Shel Silverstein". Rolling Stone. June 1999, Issue815, p26.

Interviews:

Lingeman, Richard. "The Third Mr. Silverstein". New York Times Book Review. April, 30, 1978.

Mercier, Jean. "Shel Silverstein." Publisher's Weekly. Feb., 24 1975

Craft Lesson 10: My Mouth is a Volcano

Discussion:
This is a fun book that talks about children blurting out because their ideas are so important. Children's ideas are important but a lot of the time they are interrupting whenever they blurt out answers/ideas. I thought this book would be a good opportunity to incorporate something fun in the classroom like making a volcano to compare visually what happens when volcanoes erupt and when we blurt out ideas.

How To Teach It:

Some supplies are needed to make volcanoes:
6 cups flour
2 cups salt
4 tablespoons cooking oil
warm water
plastic soda bottle
dishwashing detergent
food coloring
vinegar
baking dish or other pan
2 T baking soda

First make the 'cone' of the baking soda volcano. Mix 6 cups flour, 2 cups salt, 4 tablespoons cooking oil, and 2 cups of water. The resulting mixture should be smooth and firm (more water may be added if needed).
Stand the soda bottle in the baking pan and mold the dough around it into a volcano shape. Don't cover the hole or drop dough into it.
Fill the bottle most of the way full with warm water and a bit of red food color (can be done before sculpting if you don't take so long that the water gets cold).
Add 6 drops of detergent to the bottle contents.
Add 2 tablespoons baking soda to the liquid.
Slowly pour vinegar into the bottle. Watch out - eruption time!

http://chemistry.about.com/cs/howtos/ht/buildavolcano.htm

This could be educational by explaining the different parts of the volcano, like lava and magma, and what makes volcanoes erupt. Be sure to compare what happens when the volcano erupts to what happens when we blurt out answers.

Craft Lesson 9: Zoom

Discussion:
I think it is important that children see that people have different perspectives. This book, Zoom, presents this idea perfectly.

How To Teach It:
I would provide each of my student's a copy of the book. I would have them look at it individually and then we would discuss it as a group. I would be interested to see what the students would say about this book and what ran through their minds while "reading" it. Next, I would have each of them take a picture of something around the school (not showing the whole object though) with a disposable camera . Then after I developed the pictures, they would present their picture to the class. The other children would then have to guess what the picture represented. This would bring about many guesses, clarifying the many perspectives that people have of the same thing. For example, a student could have taken a picture of part of a picture frame. Some students may see that as a picture frame, a piece of fabric, a piece of art work, a piece of a door, etc.

Chapter 17: Children's Literature, Briefly

I have always felt that motivating students to read will be a hard task when I become a teacher. I know that it is something obviously that I need to do; however, I know that I may not be able to reach every child in becoming a life-long reader. In my opinion, reading starts at the home which can affect a student for a life time. I think children now a days are so preoccupied with video games and technology at home that they are starting to gradually like reading less and less. My goal as a teacher is to implement these ideas discussed in this chapter into my classroom so that I can do my best in creating life-long readers. I need to know each of my students in my class so I know what books will keep them engaged and what books will not. The last thing I want to do is turn my students off from exploring the wonderful world of books.

Tunnell, Michael O. and James S. Jacobs. Children's Literature, Briefly. 4e. Upper Sadle River NJ: Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall, 2008.

Zoom

I really did enjoy this picture book. It makes me think about how there is always a different perspective other than yours and that there is much more to the world than just your life (which some of us need to be reminded of every once in a while). I think this would be good for younger students to tell their own story and to predict what the next page will bring. I think this book would be good for older students to get their minds thinking about the role their have in their lives and how this book introduces different perspectives.

Banyai, Istvan. Zoom. New York NY: Puffin Books, 1995.

Chapter 16: Children's Literature, Briefly

I found this chapter to be very interesting! Now a days as a teacher I feel like we have to be careful with everything we do. We have to make sure that the books we are presenting in class will not cause any problems with parents and students. As stated on page 207, teachers need to understand how to determine when a book is developmentally appropriate for their students. We need to be careful to not cause conflict with our parents as teachers; this could lead into many other issues and may even cost us our jobs.

Tunnell, Michael O. and James S. Jacobs. Children's Literature, Briefly. 4e. Upper Sadle River NJ: Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall, 2008.

Craft Lesson 8: Baby Mouse Our Hero

Discussion: This book discusses many emotions that Baby Mouse experiences. Emotions are important for children to understand and how to label and recognize changes in emotion is even more important.

How I Would Teach It: Cheryl Cox has a collection of activities for the elementary school classroom and a lesson that I am familiar with is about emotions using flash cards. I would use the flash cards that have different faces and emotional phrases on them. This lesson not only teaches emotions but also facial expressions that go along with the different emotions and synonyms of each of the emotion words. The words that are synonyms all share the same facial expression so this activity is self check. The words used in this particular activity are a little difficult so it is good that it is self-check. This would be a group work activity divided among the different tables. I would implement this into my classroom because it is an interactive lesson for the students; they are active in the learning process not just passively receiving information.

Cheryl Cox's website: http://www.cherylcoxedu.com/