The Boy on Fairfield Street:How Ted Geisel Grew Up to Become Dr. Seuss by Kathleen Krull and Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher,ill.New York: Random House, 2004.

ISBN: 978-0375822988

Annotation: This picture book biography shares real life experiences of  beloved author Dr. Seuss as he was growing up Theodore, (Ted)  Geisel. His German ancestry made him an outsider and target as a child. His mother taught him rhyming and poetry, his father brought him horns and tusks from his job at the local zoo. Ted, with his passion for doodling, even when a teacher tells him he will never get anywhere with his art, draws uniquely individual art from childhood, through high school and college, and later becomes one of the greatest children’s authors of all time.

Media: paintings 

Curricular Connections: 5-8th grades: Biography, Dr. Seuss Day

Themes: Outsider, Being True to Self, Follow your Passion. This is a great read aloud, but with plenty of discussions pertaining to the many experiences Ted had which mirror today, not fitting in, being different from others, passionate about something that others might find a bit quirky or strange, the importance of following your passion to realize your destiny, and the struggle it might take to reach your goals.

Rating: 4Q/4P 

RAC 7.27.09

 

 

 

Boy on Fairfield Street, The: How Ted Geisel Grew Up to Become Dr. Seuss by Kathleen Krull and ills. Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher. New York: Random House, 2004.

 

ISBN: 0-375-92298-9

 

 

 

This biography tells the story of Dr. Seuss and of how his childhood home, located between the library and zoo, inspired his quirky children’s books illustrations.

 

                                                                                                           

 

Themes: There are two main themes in this book—being an outsider (Ted was ridiculed for not being athletic, for being the son of German immigrants, for not being studious) and following your own path. Despite numerous rejections, his mother’s wishes that he become a doctor, and society’s belief that “doodling” was not a worthwhile career, Ted continued with it and found his own way to a fulfilling life and career.  

 

 

 

Curricular Connections: Middle School, Biography/Writers’ Lives

 

 

 

Rating: 5Q/5P

 

Posted by LA 4/6/8

 

 

Lesson Plan: American History through Biography

 

 

 

Boy on Fairfield Street, The: How Ted Geisel Grew Up to Become Dr. Seuss by Kathleen Krull and ills. Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher. New York: Random House, 2004.

ISBN: 0-375-92298-9

 

 

 

Dizzy by Jonah Winter and Sean Qualls, ill. New York: Scholastic, 2006.

 

ISBN: 0-439-50737-5

 

 

 

Eleanor by Barbara Cooney. New York: Viking, 1996.

 

ISBN: 0-670-86159-6

 

 

 

Marvelous Mattie: How Margaret E. Knight Became an Inventor by Emily Arnold McCully. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 2006.

 

ISBN: 0-374-34810-3

 

 

 

Only Passing Through: The Story of Sojourner Truth by Anne Rockwell and R. Gregory Christie, ill. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000.

 

ISBN: 0-679-89186-2

 

 

 

She’s Wearing a Dead Bird on Her Head! By Kathryn Lasky and David Catrow, ill. New York: Hyperion, 1995.           

 

ISBN: 0-7868-2052-7

 

 

 

Story of Ruby Bridges, The by Robert Coles and George Ford, ill. New York: Scholastic, 1995.

 

ISBN: 0-590-57281-4

 

 

 

Surfer of the Century: The Life of Duke Kahanamoku by Ellie Crowe and Richard Waldrep, ill. New York: Lee & Low Books, 2007.

 

 

 

What Charlie Heard by Mordecai Gerstein. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 2002.

 

ISBN: 978-1-58430-276-6

 

 

 

Wilma Unlimited: How Wilma Randolph Became the World’s Fastest Woman by Kathleen Krull and David Diaz, ill. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1996.

 

ISBN: 0-15-201267-2

 

 

 

Woman for President, A: The Story of Victoria Woodhull by Kathleen Krull and Jane Dyer, ill. New York: Walker & Company, 2004.

 

ISBN: 0-8027-8908-0

 

 

 

Woody Guthrie: Poet of the People by Bonnie Christensen. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001.

 

ISBN: 0-375-81113-3

 

 

 

Grades: Middle School

 

 

 

Time: Five class periods of approximately 40 minutes each

 

 

 

Supplies: books mentioned above, excerpts of various Terri Gross Fresh Air shows

 

 

 

Overview: This lesson plan uses picture book biographies as a window into American history. It invokes the students’ creativity by asking them to use these picture books as a jumping off point to exploring and performing for the class the life stories of these diverse characters (from athletes to authors and conservationists to composers) from American history.

 

           

 

Activity:

 

            Students will pair off into twelve groups of two (this lesson was created for a class of 24), each with two copies of one of the above books. Allow students a class period to read and discuss their book and begin brainstorming interesting ideas and questions that arose from their readings.

 

            Play for students several excerpts from Terri Gross’s Fresh Air show, and discuss with them how she interviews cultural figures, introducing them, and then drawing their stories and insights out of them. As homework, have the students conduct more research on those whose biographies they’ve just read, and tell them that their final project will be to conduct a ten-minute interview (with one student playing the interviewer and the other dressing up as the famous person) in front of the class revealing the significant details and stories of their character’s life. Encourage the students to ask a variety of interview questions that will yield both factual information and humorous stories. Also have them ask their characters, if they could come back to life today, what their reactions would be to situation (politics, the environment, the art scene) in modern-day America.

 

 

 

Posted by LA 4/6/8

 

The Boy on Fairfield Street : How Ted Geisel Grew Up to Become Dr. Seuss by Kathleen Krull; paintings by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher; with decorative illustrations by Dr. Seuss. New York : Random House, c2004. ISBN-10: 0375855505

This illustrated book tells the story of Ted Geisel's life as the son of German immigrants. It describes how his mother taught him rhymes and how he was inspired by his father's work at the zoo. An interesting story of how Dr. Suess became who he was, and where the inspiration for his drawings and poetry came from.

    - Media: color drawings

    - Rating: 4Q/5P

    - Curricular Connections: Grades 5-8, Art, Language Arts

 

Possible Lesson Plan Ideas

Grade Level: 5-8 Language Arts, Art

 

 

Read The Boy on Fairfield Street: How Ted Geisel Grew Up to Become Dr. Seuss aloud to the class in a circle.

 

 

Discussion Ideas

How might the unique aspects of your family life contribute to who you are as a person? Might they contribute to your capacity to do a certain job especially well? Let’s explore these questions by thinking about and journaling about what qualities make our lives special, and how our talents might be formed by those unique qualities.

 

 

Assignment Ideas

Go home and observe your family life. What skills or talents seem to embody the work or interests of your family? Write down what you observe and keep them in mind for class the next day.

 

 

Once back in class, have the students share some of the traits and qualities they observed with the class and place them on the board. Talk about what occupations or hobbies these qualities might fit. Have the students freewrite about what they observed and how they think what they observed might translate into a hobby, talent or occupation.

 

CHA 7/31/09