the Take Home Teacher: #MCM

I love my husband, honestly, like I think he is the VERY BEST thing in the entire world. He's super handsome and has a personality that if you read his eHarmony bio, you'd think he was too good to be true. (*disclaimer: he DOES NOT have an online dating account)

And ya'll, he's an avid reader and phenomenal writer...

an author in his profession.

This ELA gal is L-U-C-K-Y!

Want to know a lil' secret though? I have another man crush.

A double whammy kinda guy. He's an author; an illustrator too.

And he writes to my profession...KIDS!

You probably know him already. He's a big deal.

hello, Oliver Jeffers

(don't you just LOVE that name?!?!)

He's written and illustrated some of my favorite books

STUCK, The Moose Belongs to Me, Lost and Found

and illustrated these amazing books by Drew Daywalt

The Day The Crayons Quit, The Day the Crayons Came Home

Obviously, he's SUPER talented, but he's got some other things going for him too...

But the MAIN reason I think Mr. Jeffers is just superb is because his books speak to children in a way that makes them think critically, even when they don't realize they are.

Read STUCK and watch how your students analyze the choices the main character, Floyd, makes. Even the youngest readers understand that Floyd's problem could be solved in a much more logical approach. So way back in 2012, I shared the story in my classroom. My students giggled hysterically throughout the reading! They stopped to discuss choices and decision making. They inserted their own opinions. They determined cause and effect. They made connections, detected absurdities, and created solutions. A 15-minute read cultivated an hour long discussion! I knew I was on to something...

I went straight to Teachers Pay Teachers and didn't find much.

Sidenote: That has drastically changed; when searching again last year, I was able to find great products revolving around this book.

I knew my students needed something. Something fun to drive home the comprehension piece, those ideas we discussed while/after reading the book, those pieces of understanding that could be taken directly from the text and those that needed to be inferred.

Voila!

STUCK Comprehension Game was born.

An interactive game focused on cause and effect and order of events through explicit and inferential questioning of the text.

It was a hit! A HUGE hit! Not just in my classroom, but in my friends' classrooms and with my own son (once he hit elementary school). It went on Teachers Pay Teachers and it was a hit there too.

My creation was good.

...Or so I thought.

Years later and awareness of copyright laws came about. I couldn't ignore the fact that my original product was infringing on my man-crush's creative property (I had copied unsecured images from Google). I couldn't do that...I couldn't "steal" from another person, a creative person, a person who I admired. And let's be honest, as a teacher, it's my job to be a role model for kids...stealing in any form is WRONG!

So I had to fix it...and fast...before my conscience ate away at me or worse, Oliver (or most likely, his people) called! That is NOT the way I want to meet this man. One day, I want to look him in the eye and tell him how much I appreciate his work without that gnawing feeling that I was taking his artwork and making money on it. NOT COOL!

I got to work and made an overhaul of the product. New images (with credit given to artists) and improved game board. And to make it worth the redownload for my original purchasers, I added a rebus reader. SAME PRICE...no bump. And my heart rests in knowing that I've done the right thing.

Here are some tips/highlights:

- give students the book for

reference if you think they

could benefit.

- game board is easy to set up:

print, snip, tape, laminate!

- plethora of questions!

55 questions in all.

With my love of STUCK reworked and completed, I knew I had another project to attack.

NEXT UP: My love for Oliver Jeffers' talent was cultivated when I first opened The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt. I couldn't get enough of the text and the amazing illustrations. I created this Response to Literature/Comprehension Game for TDTCQ; now that my creative juices are following again, I knew I needed to bring fresh life to this creation.

* No copyright infringements in original version, just wanted to give it a facelift.