Author's study

Introduction

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Welcome: The Life of Gary Paulsen

Description: This WebQuest is an author study about Gary Paulsen. We will be learning about Paulsen and reading one of his books. The students will be able to take an active role in their learning by participating in this WebQuest.

Grade Level: 4

Curriculum: English / Language Arts

Keywords: Gary Paulsen

Task

You are a book reviewer for the Elms Family Newspaper! You are studying the author Gary Paulsen. You will be asked to complete specific tasks to help you better understand the author. As a class we will also be reading one of his books in order to write a review for your newspaper. Writing for a newspaper is hard work. You need to remember that you must do your best work. Lots of people will be reading your review. Good Luck!

Process

Task #1

**Your first assignment is to find out more information about the author. You will need to do some research. Using the tools and knowledge you learned in class, search the internet for more information about Gary Paulsen. Using the following website and videos, answer the questions on the Author Data Sheet in your OWL binder.

Biography of Gary Paulsen. http://www.randomhouse.com/features/garypaulsen/about.html

Speech given by GaryPaulsen. Remember to take notes so you can write your summary at the end!

Task #2

**Your second assignment is to explore book reviews and/or book summaries of books written by Paulsen. Choose the book we are reading in class to summarize for your book review.

Book Reviews & Summaries

Task #3 **Create an newspaper article about Gary Paulsen's life and a review of his book.

The newspaper article should include:

Background information about the author. Please include information from the Author Data Sheet
The name of a book published by the author
A summary of the book that we read as a class.

Evaluation

#	Exemplary 4	Very Good 3	Developing 2	Beginning1	Score
Researching the Author	Student answered 10 or more questions completely on research worksheet.	Student answered less than 10 of the questions on research worksheet.	Student partially answered less than 8 of the questions on research worksheet.	Student partially answered less than 5 of the questions on research worksheet.	25
Writing Book Review	Book review had no spelling or grammatical errors. Was written with clear and concise thought and contained all components in the assignment.	Book review had few spelling and grammatical errors. Had many clear thoughts and contained most of the components in the assignment.	Book review had some spelling and grammatical errors. Expressed some clear thoughts and contained only a few of the components in the assignment.	Book review had many spelling and grammatical errors. Was not clear and did not include all componets in the assignment.	25
Newspaper Article	The student included a catch at the beginning of the article, the students used a lot of salsa words. The article was descriptive and interesting. The student included 10 or more facts about Gary Paulsen's life.	The student included a catch at the beginning of the article, the students used some salsa words. The article was descriptive and interesting. The student included less than 10 facts about Gary Paulsen's life.	The student included little catch at the beginning of the article, the students used few salsa words. The article wasn't very descriptive and interesting. The student included less than 8 facts about Gary Paulsen's life.	The student didn't included a catch at the beginning of the article, the students used very few salsa words. The article was not descriptive and interesting. The student included 5 or less facts about Gary Paulsen's life.	50

#

Exemplary 4

Very Good 3

Developing 2

Beginning1

Score

Researching the Author

Student answered 10 or more questions completely on research worksheet.

Student answered less than 10 of the questions on research worksheet.

Student partially answered less than 8 of the questions on research worksheet.

Student partially answered less than 5 of the questions on research worksheet.

25

Writing Book Review

Book review had no spelling or grammatical errors. Was written with clear and concise thought and contained all components in the assignment.

Book review had few spelling and grammatical errors. Had many clear thoughts and contained most of the components in the assignment.

Book review had some spelling and grammatical errors. Expressed some clear thoughts and contained only a few of the components in the assignment.

Book review had many spelling and grammatical errors. Was not clear and did not include all componets in the assignment.

25

Newspaper

Article

The student included a catch at the beginning of the article, the students used a lot of salsa words. The article was descriptive and interesting. The student included 10 or more facts about Gary Paulsen's life.

The student included a catch at the beginning of the article, the students used some salsa words. The article was descriptive and interesting. The student included less than 10 facts about Gary Paulsen's life.

The student included little catch at the beginning of the article, the students used few salsa words. The article wasn't very descriptive and interesting. The student included less than 8 facts about Gary Paulsen's life.

The student didn't included a catch at the beginning of the article, the students used very few salsa words. The article was not descriptive and interesting. The student included 5 or less facts about Gary Paulsen's life.

50

Conclusion

Now that you have completed all of your tasks, you should give yourself a round of applause. You have researched a famous authors and read one of his books. Through reading and writing about Gary Paulsen, I hope that you have learned to appreciate the author and his work.

Now are you ready to read more books by this author? Or have you learned about another author from one of your classmates that you would like to try? Keep on reading!

What did you like about this learning experience?

If you could pick one thing to change project, what would it be?

Teacher Page

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.7

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.1

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.4.2

flag Introduction

assignment Task

account_tree Process

fact_check Evaluation