Candice McMath

I have been a busy gal these past few weeks! As a part of my graduate coursework for my MAE, I recently discovered the wonderful world of Tom Angleberger’s “The Strange Case of Origami Yoda.” This wonderful little series combines the best of graphic novels, middle childhood chapter novels, doodling, origami, and, of course, Star Wars!

My Origami Yoda! Isn’t he cute?

Part of my “Secondary Reading Methods” course required me to do an alternative book report on a “Rock Star Author,” an author that is currently popular among children and critics alike, but new to me. I chose Tom Angleberger because I had come across his “Art2-D2’s Guide to Folding and Doodling,” and wanted an excuse to purchase it. I am so glad I did! What a fabulous book!

The cover art for the first book in the series, “The Strange Case of Origami Yoda.”

My alternative book report for this project included a book trailer video I created with the help of my friend’s two sons, a video camera, and iMovie. You can view the video here.

Thank you to my friend’s sons, who are nicknamed String Bean and Squishy (not kidding) for their help in making the video, and their awesome Origami Yoda creations!

Also, I used the whole series as a jumping off point for a 5-lesson plan interdisciplinary unit that focused on syntax, or the pattern of how the parts of a sentence work together to create meaning. It covers English, Spanish, Yoda’s unique syntax, and culminates in the students getting to create their own character and their syntax, as well as create a podcast using their characters to advocate for peaceful conflict resolution. Some pictures of the graphic organizers I created for that project are below.

This is the first page of the character creation lesson, where the students get to doodle their character (“doodling” seems less intimidating than “drawing”), answer a few questions about its characteristics, and start to create it’s unique language syntax.

Page 2 of the graphic organizer, where the students answer questions about conflict resolution in their native syntax. And what better conflict to resolve than the ancient battle between Origami Yoda and Darth Paper? (I can’t make this stuff up. These books are genius!)

All in all, I can’t say enough good about Tom’s “The Strange Case of Origami Yoda,” series, and I’m so excited that there is a new book coming out this summer!