Book Rap: A book discussion conducted by email

Welcome to the Book Week 2003 – Early Childhood Books rap

Dates
Coordinator
Joining the rap
Book rap support materials
Additional resources
Credits

This book rap on the Book Week – Early Childhood Books will be available during Term 3, 2003. It will focus on the 2003 shortlisted Early Childhood books.

The Book Week - Early Childhood Books rap is suitable for Stage 2 (Years 3 and 4)

Dates: (approx)
*Rap live for subscription	21 July 2003
*Introductions from	28 July 2003
*Rap point 1	4 August 2003
*Rap point 2	11 August 2003
*Rap point 3 (Book Week)	18 August 2002
*Rap wrap up	25 August 2002

Coordinator: Wendy Chapman (Wollondilly Public School, Goulburn).

Joining the rap

From 21 July 2003, you may participate in the Book Week 2003 - Early Childhood Books rap by entering your email address in the boxes below and clicking the ‘Submit’ buttons. Please ensure you have registered the email addresses before doing so.

Teacher email will not be archived to protect privacy. The teacher rap runs concurrently with the book rap to provide additional support for teachers, and the opportunity to discuss issues which may arise during the rap.

You will receive confirmation emails for your Class group and the Teacher support listserv. Please save these messages as they contain important email addresses, and simply follow the instructions these contain when posting messages.

Archives of the class email discussion

Book rap support materials

Rap points
Program and planning Stage 2
Additional resources
Rap maps
Rap lingo
Rap sheets (for use with Rap points)
Implementing a rap (Book rap FAQs)
Email – Instruction sheet for students
Rap reflection sheet
Parent information letter

Rap points

These discussion questions guide the book rap. The question for the week is posted to the rap at the beginning of that week by the coordinator. Class groups post their answers and can respond via the rap to other school's replies during the relevant week for that rap point.

Rap point 1
Rap point 2
Rap point 3

Rap point 1 (For related class activities see Program and planning)

Term 3, Week 3: week beginning 4th August 2003

These shortlisted books include some great characters. Choose a character that appeals to you, and after gathering all the information you can on Rap sheet 1, create a poem about this character.

Just for fun, why not turn this rap point into a mystery, by not including the character’s name in your poem? You can then invite other rappers to guess your mystery character! Be sure to put “Can you guess?” in the subject line.

Send your poem and your guesses to the rap address.

If you think you can guess a group’s mystery character, send a message to the rap address with the school’s name in the subject line, letting rappers know you are having a guess eg. Wollondilly, are we right?

Rap point 2 (For related class activities see Program and planning)

Term 3, Week 4: week beginning 11th August 2003

Imagine you were the illustrator of one of the Early Childhood books. Now that you have been shortlisted, people want to know more about your techniques.

Write a short piece, perhaps for a publisher’s website, explaining your illustrations, giving examples of the choices you made and why, particularly at important parts of the story (use Rap sheet 7 and Rap sheet 8).

Rap point 3 (For related class activities see Program and planning)

Term 3, Week 5: week beginning 18th August 2003

The authors and illustrators shortlisted in this section have contributed to other books. Investigate other works an author or illustrator has created. Choose one title to compare with this year’s shortlisted book, and identify similarities and differences in style, theme, presentation and other features.

Send a message to the rap explaining your findings, and identifying what you think are this author’s most valuable writing and/or illustrating techniques.*

* This Rap point might not work so well for Guess the baby as Simon French’s other works are novels. However, this could be an opportunity to discuss the writer’s intended audience (English K-6 syllabus p 33) and how this might be identified.

Rap maps

Find examples of maps and tally sheets. Students may use these to identify and locate schools participating in the book rap. Use these or create your own based on ideas from these examples.

Rap lingo

Book rap	An online discussion about a book
Rappers	The people involved in the book rap
Rap map	A map marking other rappers’ locations
Rap point	A topic, issue or event from the book to discuss
Rap record	Print out of messages responded to
Rap reflections	Sheets for rappers to reflect on their experiences and skills
Rap rep	The person typing the responses
Rap reporters	The people relaying rap news to others
Rap rules	Guidelines of a book rap discussion
Rap wrap up	Final message about a book rap

Rap sheets

Rap sheet 1 (for Rap point 1)
Rap sheet 2 (haiku for Rap point 1)
Rap sheet 3 (cinquain for Rap point 1)
Rap sheet 4 (biopoem for Rap point 1)
Rap sheet 5 (limerick for Rap point 1)
Rap sheet 6 (acrostic  for Rap point 1)
Rap sheet 7 (for Rap point 2)
Rap sheet 8 (for Rap point 2)
Rap sheet 9 (for Rap point 3)
Rap sheet 10 (for Rap point 3)

Rap reflection sheets

Ready to rap (for rappers to reflect on prior learning and expectations)
Rap reflection 1 (for rappers to reflect on the experiences and skills they have gained)
Rap reflection 2 (for rappers to reflect on the experiences and skills they have gained)

Credits

Thanks to Wendy Chapman, teacher-librarian, Wollondilly Public School, for developing the programming and support material for support this rap.