You will receive 12 minutes at each of the four stations around the room. You will be rotating through them in your book club groups.
I. Author Biography
Split into four activities, this station will familiarize you with David Almond's childhood, long road to success, experiences with rejection, and books. With a timeline, feather "fun facts," a matching game between Almond's personal history and book plot elements, and a pin-the-award-on-the-right-book sorting activity, you will get to know the author and understand how Almond's past influences his writing.
II. Book Themes
We've adapted the popular children's game, Go Fish, to help you gain a general sense of David Almond's work, in terms of book-specific characters and overlapping themes. By collecting categories of four cards and reading them aloud to your fellow players, you will be introduced to characters, author's craft, motifs, and the overarching themes in his books.
III. Instructional Uses
Showing you supplemental texts - like picture books, poems, and letters - to pair with his novels and potential activities to teach characterization, text structure, and text-to-self connections, this station will reveal the instructional value of David Almond's books.