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First Chapter Friday: Megan E. Freeman reads from Alone

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Welcome to the first episode of the author spotlight series here at Spark Creativity. In this series, you’ll hear from authors sharing their work directly into your classroom. Today we’re hearing from Megan E. Freeman, reading from her book, Alone. Stay tuned throughout the year to hear from many more wonderful authors, including Matt de la Peña, Payal Doshi, and Nancy Tandon.

Megan E. Freeman attended an elementary school where poets visited her classroom every week to teach poetry, and she has been a writer ever since. Her bestselling novel in verse, ALONE, won the Colorado Book Award, the Massachusetts, Maine, and Vermont children’s book awards, is an NCTE Notable Verse Novel, and is included on over two dozen “best of” and state reading lists. Megan is also a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet.

My hope is that you’ll play this episode to your students on an upcoming Friday, sharing the guiding sketchnotes handout below with them so they can jot down their key takeaways as they listen.

You can play this episode for your students directly using the player below, project the episode on your wall with the Youtube version here, or  click here to play it on any podcast player.

What’s First Chapter Friday?

If you’re new to First Chapter Friday, you can read all about it here. But the quick version is this. On Friday, you share the first chapter of a book with your students. You can read it aloud, you can invite a guest, you can let an author read aloud through Youtube or a podcast, or you can play the first chapter (or any selection really) from an audiobook.

I think it really helps students pay attention if they can focus their energy as they listen on taking sketchnotes. The sketchnotes also come in handy later when kids are looking for their next book to read. If you have them keep all their FCF sketchnotes in one place, then they can quickly browse through for a title they’re interested in.

You can grab a free set of FCF sketchnotes templates to use with any read throughout the year right here if you’d like. Read on for the special one I’ve designed for this episode!

Sketchnotes for this Episode: Alone by Megan E. Freeman

In Alone, twelve-year-old Maddie wakes up to realize her entire family, all of her friends, and in fact everyone in her city have been evacuated during the night and she is completely and truly alone.

In this podcast episode, Megan reads from the moment Maddie starts to take in what has happened. Alone by Megan E. Freeman is a powerful book.

Your students can use this book-specific sketchnotes sheet as they follow along with the reading, and you’ll find the text of the first 60 pages of the book available free on Overdrive.

Alone by Megan E. Freeman

Learn more about Megan E. Freeman

Megan E. Freeman attended an elementary school where poets visited her classroom every week to teach poetry, and she has been a writer ever since. Her bestselling novel in verse, ALONE, won the Colorado Book Award, the Massachusetts, Maine, and Vermont Children’s Book Awards, is an NCTE Notable Verse Novel, and is included on over two dozen “best of” and state reading lists. Megan is also a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet, and her poetry chapbook, Lessons on Sleeping Alone, was published by Liquid Light Press.

An award-winning teacher with decades of classroom experience, Megan taught multiple subjects across the arts and humanities to students K-16, and she is nationally recognized for presenting workshops and speaking to audiences across the country. She studied theater and dramatic literature for many years, earning degrees from Occidental College and the Ohio State University. 

Megan is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, Northern Colorado Writers, Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, Columbine Poets of Colorado, and Lighthouse Writers Workshop. She is an Impact on Education Award winner, a National Writing Project fellow , a Fund for Teachers fellow, and a member of the Colorado Poets Center. She used to live in northeast Los Angeles, central Ohio, northern Norway, and on Caribbean cruise ships. Now she divides her time between northern Colorado and the Texas Gulf Coast.

Visit her website here.

Alone by Megan E. Freeman

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