I spent the end of last week in Rhode Island participating in the March Into Reading festival, and I plan to spend this week reliving the coolness here on my blog. I hope you’ll tune in.
The festivities began for me on Thursday, when I visited the fourth and fifth graders at Elmhurst School in Portsmouth. I was welcomed to Elmhurst by librarian Gloria Schmidt, who worked incredibly hard to make my visit a truly enriching experience for her students*, and by parent Jenny Williams, who created this great sign …
Mrs. Schmidt had let me know that her students were studying the art of nonfiction*, and so we spent a good bit of time, the kids and I, talking about writing. We agreed that research is a blast and that the writing itself is usually fun. Revising, on the other hand, is plain old hard work. They seemed pleased to know that even a published nonfiction writer gets back papers that look like this …
 |
(I can’t get this to appear more legibly, but I think you get the idea. It is a page from the first draft of TRACKING TRASH … covered with comments from my editor.) |
After my presentations, the Elmhurst students recorded our Q&A sessions so that they could prepare a podcast. (Mrs. Schmidt had helped the students prepare questions ahead of time*.) They have promised to send me a link when it is finished and I will share it when they do.
I spent the night on Aquidneck Island and, thanks to Mrs. Schmidt, had a driving tour of Newport and a seafood dinner down by the pier. We talked books, of course, and I came away with a new list of must reads. Believe it or not, I also got some early feedback on my presentations … she had spent time collecting comments from her students during the last period of the day, while my visit was still fresh in their heads.*
I’ll share some of their comments tomorrow. For now I want to thank Mrs. Schmidt, Jenny Williams, the staff and—most especially—the students at Elmhurst School. I enjoyed my time with you!
*FYI, these teacher-motivated activities helped to make the visit to Elmhurst extraordinary … for me and for the students.