Tom

Tom

Author:  Tomie dePaola

Possible Common Core Standards:

RL.4.3

W.4.3

Tom is a great springboard to getting kids to write about real life experiences with a special person in their lives.

To start with, read the book to the students.  Make a list of events as the book is read.  

After reading the book use the list to revisit the book and look for additional details which made the event interesting.  Assign an event to a pair or group of children and have them complete a web of details with one event on chart paper.  This would be a great way to discover that not all of the events have the same about of 'time' in the story.  I would ask for minor events and major events after working through all of them.

Next look for transitions in the story.  How does the author move from one event to the next.  Chart the transitions.

Ask students to think about a person in his/her life who is special.  It could be a grandparent, aunt, uncle, parent, older/younger sibling, friend or neighbor, but it should be someone he/she has contact with and spends time with on a regular basis. Brainstorm a list of events.  (If a child can't choose, he/she could write two names down and then brainstorm 'events' for both and finally choosing based on the events most interesting to the student.)

Remind students events don't have to be something major like the chicken hands.   Ask students to choose one event to write about.  I would continue to ask students to write about individual events without worrying about putting them together into a story.  Write them on separate pieces of paper.  Once all of the events are written and edited, ask students to put the events into an order than makes sense to them.   Students should consider one to be the beginning of the story and one should lend itself to concluding the story.  Refer back to Tom.  Talk about transition words that may work to link the events together.  

Title the book the name of the person who shared the events with the author.

Ask students to share their story with a friend or should partner to do the final editing.

Publish.  

I really like using studentpublishing.com.  If you have access to computers, students could type the story using word, convert to pdf and upload it to the website.  My students illustrated and then scanned the illustrations.  The jpg files were pulled into the document before converting to a pdf file.  We also typed the story on the website using their software and students can illustrate using the graphics on the website.  To manage each student's story progress I created a chart.  When I find the chart I will post a picture.)  There are other publishing companies on the web, but studentpublishing.com is the one I used and I was very happy with the results.  We used the published books as presents.