Teresa R. Funke - For Teachers




Book Clubs and Media For Kids For Teachers


	Home Books Events Reader Stories Writing Workshops Bio Contact Links © 2008 Teresa Funke			For Teachers Home-Front Heroes Collection The Home-Front Heroes Collection is a series of middle-grade novels designed to offer quality children's books set in World War II, a time period that holds natural fascination for young students. Each book will feature a child protagonist between the ages of 12 and 14 living in America. The characters are from diverse ethnic groups and areas of the country. As young readers follow the adventures of these wartime kids, they will also learn details about life in the 1940s. Each book is based on an actual person's experiences and children will learn about the real "hero" in the back of the book. Each book will also contain back matter with additional information about life in the 40s. Lesson plans will be provided to go along with each book. Teachers can choose any novel in the series depending on the focus they think would most interest their class. A Fun Assignment for Your Students Here's a fun assignment for your students that will teach them interviewing and writing skills and a bit about history. Once they've turned their interviews into stories of no more than 250 words, they can submit their stories to me and I'll post them on my website. I'll even choose one or two to highlight from each class. In this way, we'll start to develop a nice resource for kids to learn more about history from the people who actually lived it! Assignment: Bringing True Stories to Life Have your student choose a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle or older neighbor and ask them if they have any good stories from their childhood. If they can't think of one, have the kids read them this list and see if they have any good memories of any of these events: World War II, The Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, the death of President Kennedy, the day the first man walked on the moon. Have the kids write down the story in 250 words or less. It doesn't have to be a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. It could be just one exciting, interesting, sad or even funny memory. But if you want to add a creative writing element to this assignment, you could ask the children to turn their real person into a character and try to bring the memory to life in scene. Have the kids send me their stories and I'll post them on my website. Please make sure the subject matter and language is appropriate. Ask the kids to use their best writing skills since others will be reading these accounts. Make sure you send me the teacher's name, the kids' grade and the name of the school they attend. WWII Links for Teachers http://connections.smsd.org/veterans/wwii_sites.htm http://www.history.com/classroom/classroom.html http://www.pbs.org/teachers/				School Visits and Lesson Plans School Visits Teresa at a recent middle school visit. I offer dynamic half-day and assembly school visits which center around writing and the history of World War II utilizing three themes: 1: Citizenship—by referring to the many and varied ways children were called upon to contribute to the war effort, I show that kids CAN make a difference in their world. 2. True Stories—by talking about the importance of collecting true stories, I teach the kids that proper interview techniques can help them take true stories and turn them into engaging reads. 3. Perseverance—by sharing my own writer's journey and my passion to see my words in print, I inspire kids to follow their dreams and work hard at their writing. School Packet (PDFs) Series Info Q and A Testimonials Fee Schedule About Author Author Poster Lesson Plans To accompany the books in the Home-Front Heroes Series, we have developed some lesson plans. The links will open a Word document. Lesson Plan One Lesson Plan Two School Visit Endorsements "Everyone was over-the-top pleased with Teresa Funke's presentation to our intergenerational group of seniors and 8th graders. Teachers, elders 60 and better, and many students praised her thoughtful remarks. Everyone left with sound writing advice that was easy to use." Bill Ellis, author and writer-in-residence at Sunset Middle School, Longmont, CO. "The junior high students truly enjoyed Teresa's motivating talk. And many of them commented they loved her book. She has truly inspired many of us here." Joanna L. Keiss, Librarian, St. Joseph School "The kids learned SO much from Teresa about writing and WWII. They were even able to make connections between that war and others!" Jill Fenn, Fifth Grade Teacher, McGraw Elementary On more than one occasion, students have opted to skip recess to stay and hear more from Teresa. She takes this as the highest compliment! Student Comments - Elementary "Thank you for teaching us about WWII. I learned so much from you about the war. I never knew that kids were so important in this time." Brittany, fifth grade "Thank you for coming to our class and talking about your books and WWII. I learned so much!!! Our class was lucky you came." Joanie, fifth grade "Thank you for coming to our school to teach us cool information. It was very interesting!" McKenna, fifth grade "I learned that you have to do a lot before you write a book and get it published, like think of how to start and end it." Syliva, fifth grade "I thought you were wonderful. I couldn't get my eyes off of you when you talked." Alex, fifth grade Student Comments - Junior High "I read your book Remember Wake in one day. I could not put it down. And you really are a wonderful speaker." Julian, junior high "Your presentation inspired me to want to read and write more. Your presentation never had a dull moment." Kara, junior high "Thank you for your amazing presentation. It was amazing to me how interested I became in what you were saying. I can honestly say that was the quietest I've ever seen the seventh and eighth grade classes!" Caito, junior high "I really enjoyed your presentation. You inspired me to try to find something I love to do." Emily, junior high "Your speech inspired me to want to follow my dreams even more. Thank you SO much for coming and talking to us. You made a real difference." Katlin, junior high "Before you came, I never really thought about how much different my life would be in another time and place. I may never write a book, but now I might try a littler harder on my school writing assignments." Kalinda, junior high "Your substantial information on the theme of writing has inspired me to create my own short story." Zachary, junior high "I have to say, your book is one of the best historical fiction books I've ever read." Marissa, junior high "Your presentation truly inspired me to voice my feelings about the world around me." Daniel, junior high "Thank you for your presentation today. It was very informative. It inspired me to write a lot more. It also inspired me to look into history more." Jarrod, junior high "Thank you very much for coming to speak to us kids. I think many of us now (including me) are interested in becoming writers." Alexander, junior high "I loved your presentation. You are cool." Chris, junior high top of page