If you had the chance, what would you say to children’s author Robert Munsch?
That was something the Grade 3 students considered as they ended an investigation into storytelling, and particularly the storytelling of Robert Munsch. First, they wrote letters, and then they decided to record them as video. The video here is a compilation of their letters.
“ … your books make me feel joyful and excited. My favourite book of yours is Smelly Socks because it is funny and my dad bought it for me on my first birthday.”
These letters came at the end of a consideration of not only what it means to tell a story, but particularly what it means to tell a story in a specific style. “We began by familiarizing ourselves with many of his works,” says Grade 3 teacher Caitee Cheung. “David’s Father, We Share Everything, Mmmm Cookies, and [we] began to generate common themes in his books.” They also drew inspiration from books by other writers to deepen their understanding of story elements such as sequencing, point of view, and theme.
The challenge, then, was to write their own original works that would extend the ending of The Paper Bag Princess. “We brainstormed a possible extension and then students either worked independently or in a small group to write their drafts,” says Cheung. “They received feedback on spelling, clarity, and word choice. We always brought it back to the question ‘is this what Robert Munsch would do?’” They considered the reasons why they thought he would, or wouldn’t, based on the voice, feel, perspective.
And then they wrote and recorded their letters to the author. The books they mention—Smelly Socks, Angela’s Airplane, Boo—are familiar to generations, and certainly their parents would have had some of the same thoughts, perhaps not about those specific books, but certainly about the author who wrote them.
