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For Teachers

Creative Writing

Are you looking for ideas on teaching creative writing to young students? I recommend reading The Art of Teaching Writing by Lucy Calkins, who is at the Teachers College of Columbia University.

The Art of Teaching Reading by Calkins is another worthwhile read. Of course, her style may not work for everyone, but I have found both books of great use. Scroll down on this page for a list of more books for teachers by Lucy Calkins.

Discussion And Curriculum Guides

Here are a huge range of terrific lesson plans and a discussion guide that teachers can use together with The Witch’s Guide to Cooking with Children. A curriculum specialist in Massachusetts has also put together five simple lesson plan ideas. Ten quick easy questions for students about the book can be found here. Beyond these, the book's climax relies on German dog commands. One could try learning dog commands in a foreign language and role playing them with kids. The kids who play the dogs must learn the commands to follow them. Google “dog commands” and “french,” “spanish,” “mandarin,” etc. to find them. Also, kids love the riddles in the book. I'd recommend a riddle-based lesson.

The Witch‘s Guide to Cooking with Children also touches on many themes from “sibling relationships” to “guilt, mistakes, and forgiveness” to “science” and “stage fright.”

Hansel And Gretel

Looking for some Hansel and Gretel ideas? Different versions of Hansel and Gretel have been published over the years in different languages.

There is the well-known 1857 Hansel and Gretel by the Brothers Grimm. But there is also Nennillo and Nennella by Giambattista Basile, an Italian version written, I believe, in the 1630s, almost two hundred years earlier than Hansel and Gretel. Hop O’ My Thumb (late 1600s from France) also has children abandoned by their parents. In this version, it is the father’s idea.

Here is the website which has the text of many other folktales similar to Hansel and Gretel. (Please note that I have not fact-checked this website and cannot guarantee that the dates, text, or attributions are accurate.)

There is also the original version of Hansel and Gretel written by the Brothers Grimm in 1812. The 1812 version and the 1857 version are given side by side here. Interestingly, in the first version, Hansel and Gretel live with their real parents. Later, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm changed the mother character into a stepmother.

For the text of the Brothers Grimm folktales in English and German, try here.

Book Talk

I have skype and once in a while I have skyped into classes to give a book talk. The fee for this is reasonable since there is no travel time involved. Email me at teachers (at) keithbooks.com for more information. There is also a thirty-minute video interview with me which aired on NPR available here. In the first eleven minutes, I talk about teaching writing to children but after that the discussion turns to The Witch’s Guide to Cooking with Children. It is possible to pick out a few minutes of the later part of this interview to show the children as a free, non-interactive book talk.

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