Had Bridge to Terabithia been Katherine Paterson’s only book, her fame would be secure in the annals of young adult writers—and the memories of her readers. Fortunately she has published dozens of books over her nearly forty-year career and has become one of young adult literature’s most decorated authors: two National Book Awards, two Newbury Medals, a Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction, a Hans Christian Anderson Medal for lifetime achievement, and most recently the 2006 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. Teaching the Selected Works of Katherine Paterson helps you navigate her long and illustrious resume so that you can bring her powerful work to a new generation of adolescents.
In Teaching the Selected Works of Katherine Paterson, Lois Thomas Stover introduces you to Paterson’s body of work then takes you into middle and high school classrooms to see specific ways of teaching Bridge to Terabithia and other Paterson classics, presenting:
- proven-effective instructional applications
- teaching strategies that support comprehension and analysis
- classroom activities that help students respond to what they’ve read
- advice for dealing with the challenging issues that some of Paterson’s novels raise
- examples of successful student discussions and samples of completed student work.
Illustrating several different approaches, Stover describes a variety of situations in which to use Paterson’s work, including:
- increasing student choice and voice through literature circles
- teaching a historical fiction unit with Paterson’s novels
- encouraging the development of boys’ literacy during out-of-school book groups.
If you’re looking for teaching strategies for using Katherine Paterson’s texts in your classroom—to help students connect with her characters, to conduct follow-up activities that encourage improved responses, and to move readers toward critical and creative analysis—read Teaching the Selected Works of Katherine Paterson. Whether you want to teach Bridge to Terabithia or try other favorites such as Come Sing, Jimmy Jo; Lyddie;and Jacob Have I Loved, you’ll find a variety of ways to succeed in bringing this widely recognized master of young adult literature to your students.
