A Variety of Van Allsburgs

My class recently completed an author study. 
We read a variety of books by the author, Chris Van Allsburg. 
It was magical!

By Tim Pierce (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0
 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Compare and Contrast

As a class, we read several Van Allsburg books: The Garden of Abdul Gaszasi, Ben's Dream, The Sweetest Fig, Jumanji, A Bad Day at Riverbend, Widow's Broom, and Two Bad Ants.  After reading each book, we did a compare and contrast of each story and the illustrations included in each. We loved Van Allsburg's award-winning illustrations and delightful drawings. Some illustrations had color, while others were black and white using pen and ink. Many had a dreamlike appearance to them. 

We often found a special dog named Fritz either as a main character or hidden in the illustrations. Who is Fritz? We also saw similar images between books. For example, we saw the train from The Polar Express in Jumanji, and the kitchen from Two Bad Ants in the book Ben's Dream.

Summarize Your Favorite

After we read and discussed six Van Allsburg books, students picked their favorite picture book to  summarize. Each student was given a Google doc via  Google Classroom.  Students planned and wrote a summary on a Google Doc using the summary poster below.  

Here is one student's 


Somebody 
Wanted 
But 
So 
Then 

digital plan for Riverbend. 

Summaries

Once each student completed a summary, I grouped students together according to their favorite book. They read each other's summaries and selected the best summary to represent their group. What criteria was used to determine the best? Following the Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then format, incorporating high level vocabulary, and inserting useful phrases.   Then students made revisions and made the best summary even better!

Here are the group summaries: (Click to enlarge.)

Jumanji

Ben's Dream

A Bad Day at Riverbend

The Sweetest Fig

Two Bad Ants

The Widow's Broom

The Garden of Abdul Gasazi

Which is your favorite Van Allsburg? 
Give at least two reasons with support.

Compare (what is alike) and Contrast (what is different) your favorite book with another book. 

What illustration is the best? 
Give at least two reasons with support.