[jillms]

I am looking to do an author study, and I was wondering if anyone had any ideas or materials they would be willing to share?

[trexteach]

I've never done an author study on Chris VanAllsburg, but I do have a tidbit of info for you.

I got his autograph at a book signing once and got the chance to ask him the significance of the dog he used in one form or another in the majority of his books. (This was back in the 90s). He said the only significance was that it was meant to represent a dog that his neighbor once had. I certainly thought it would be something a little "deeper" than that.

Not very helpful, but maybe your kids would find it interesting.

[bchadwick]

I am looking to add to my authors study on Chris Van Allsburg.
I have gone to his website and also Bookbag and gotten a few ideas, I am not at school we are out for Thanksgiving break which I was in need of. But when I get me and my two year old ready we are headed up there I will add a few things that we do.
I usually end with The Polar Express, we have kindergarden buddies I thought we might do something with them.

[jillms]

Thanks for sharing, I would have thought it played more of an importance, too! My students will love knowing that because they enjoy looking for the dog in all the books.

[read2day]

I would end the unit with "The Mysteries of Harris Burdick." This would give your students a chance to write a story themselves.

[maryteach]

to end with Harris Burdick.

Use this author to teach theme! The Widow's Broom, The Wretched Stone and even Polar Express all have some pretty deep themes.

CVA is also good for teaching irony (sort of an advanced concept, so you may not want to go there). The Sweetest Fig is a great example of irony (pair it with a screening from the Twilight Zone. I'm thinking of the one where the guy who loves to read is left all alone in the world--with all the time he could ever want to read everything there is--and he breaks his very thick glasses).

Use any of his wonderful illustrations to teach "reading" an image, to teach how we read even unconventional texts, like illustrations (or film--whole different post). This can be a very powerful lesson on inferring, and lets kids work with "text" that they already have tools for. I actually saw a very interesting presentation on this at the NCTE convention in Philadelphia, so all sorts of stuff is running through my head right now about paintings, or images in any medium, as the stuff of inference.