Madison Nalewanski

560:Text Set

Topics: Fonts

Objective: The purpose of this collection of texts is to provide a multitude of examples

for students and to show how the variations of fonts can be used to help make their words
be more or less dramatic. The authors of these texts use different types, sizes, and shades
of fonts to help convey their messages. Showing students examples of fonts being used in
mentor texts will help them get an idea of how, when, and where they too can use fonts to
exaggerate or change their own writing.
Carle, E. (2010). The grouchy ladybug. Washington D.C: Teaching Strategies.
This story talks about a grouchy ladybug that wants to fight a very sweet ladybug.
But then, decides it will go and pick on an animal its own size. The book has flaps after
the first couple pages, and each flap has a new animal on it and shares the exchange the
grouchy ladybug and other animal have. Eric Carle using both the flaps and a variety of
fonts to help tell the story of the ladybug working up to bigger animals. At the end of the
story the fonts and text size return to be what the book started as.
Cleary, B. P. (n.d.). But and For, Yet and Nor. Lerner Publishing Group, 2010: Scholastic INC.
This book is a great book that can once again be used for both a mentor text for
the teacher to use when introducing and instructing conjunctions, but also for the students
to use to practice. The fonts that are used are generally bigger when a conjunction is used,
and are colored differently. This helps not only bring this part of speech to the attention of
the reader, but almost makes it like a game when reading.
Dahl, M., & Loewen, N. (2008). Word Fun Series: Word Fun. Capstone Press.
This book is part of a series. The book is filled with colorful pages of animals and
a variety of parts of speech used in context. You can find easy-to-read and relatable
sentences that use the part of speech being focused on. There is also a kid friendly
definition written out before that part of speech begins to be used. The parts of speech
practiced throughout this book are nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns,
conjunctions, interjections and prepositions. This is not only a great way to practice
identifying these parts of speech while reading interesting and relatable content but also a
fabulous resource for teachers!
Emberley, R., & Emberley, E. (2010). If You're A Monster And You Know It. Scholastic, Inc.
This is a unique spin on the song If youre happy and you know it. This is a text
that can either be read or done as a song. This would be a very cool, bright, and familiar
text to use to show what receptiveness looks like. This would be a book teachers could
use as mentor text, or young readers could use when first starting out. Similar to nursery
rhymes, once they were familiar with the song, this is something they could work on
tracking and following along with in the book. The author uses fun pictures of colorful
monsters and fonts to keep it playful and not dark or scary.

Gliori, D. (1994). A lion at bedtime. Hauppauge, N.Y: Barron's.

 A little boy Ben is having trouble sleeping through the night because a lion keeps
coming and scaring him. After nights of needing to call out to his parents to get rid of the
lion or to share a bed with his parents, they finally dont hear from Ben one night. During
that night Ben rolls over to find the lion curled up next to him. Ben takes it upon himself
to deal with the lion after his parents dont wake up. Instead he has fun taking care of the
cold lion, and the two enjoy the night together.

Lacome, J. (1988). On the farm. Martinez, CA: Discovery Toys.

Throughout this book a cat travels from farmhouse to hen house to the stables
complaining about all the areas being too noisy. When the cat arrives at each new place
the animals that are their make their noises, which appear in different fonts than the rest
of the story. While this story has a lot of repetition and follows the same pattern from
location to location one thing doesnt change until the end, the animals are not like him.
Finally the cat finds a barn and when he arrives he decides it is just right, and quiet!
Better yet, he can purr quietly with other kittens.

Schachner, J. B. (2005). Skippyjon Jones in the dog house. New York: Dutton Children's
This is a fun loving book that is very light, and easy to laugh at! Skippyjon Jones
gets into a little bit of trouble with his mom after coloring on the walls and acting more
like a Chihuahua instead of the Siamese kitty that he is. This lands him in time out in his
room. Little does his mom know that he will be on to his own adventure thanks to his
incredible imagination. In his own land Skippyjon has a Spanish accent and refers to
himself as Skippito Friskito to all of his Chihuahua friends. Throughout the story
Schachner uses different fonts to help show the difference in accents from when
Skippyjon is in real time with his mom and in his imaginary land as a Chihuahua. This
gives us a more exaggerated, silly take on his expressions and choice of words.

Seuss. (1954) Horton hears a Who! /New York : Random House.

This story is about an elephant that sees a speck and ends up discovering a town
on it that he calls Who-ville. The Whos are unique to Horton not only because they live
on the speck but because he can only hear them, not see them. He promises the Mayor of
this town to transfer them to safety. Seuss uses the small fonts compared to the rest of his
text when he writes the responses he gets from the Mayor. This is a fun way to help the
readers imagine just what this town might be like. It also is very different for Seuss, who
usually uses the same size fonts throughout his text. This book would be a great mentor
text for students who wish to use font size or shape to tell the readers something about the
characters in the story, or even help them imagine a setting.