Author Visits
Each year the 112 Education Foundation provides funding to each of the districts 11 schools to bring nationally known children’s/young adult authors to our students. The authors provide students with a window into their craft via school assemblies and classroom workshops with students.
During the 2009-2010 school year, the 112 Education Foundation provided funding for a visit by illustrator David Catrow to our elementary schools. David Catrow’s zany illustrations have illuminated over 30 books for kids (e.g., I Ain’t Gonna Paint No More and I Wanna Iguana), and his editorial cartoons are syndicated in more than 900 newspapers in the U.S. and Canada. Mr. Catrow showed the kids how he made illustrations out of simple squiggles. He read his newest book to the younger children and demonstrated how to illustrate a manuscript to the older students.
Northwood Middle School enjoyed a visit from Anne Shimojima. Anne has delighted youth and adult audiences of all sizes with her graceful and spirited tellings of folktales from her Asian heritage and around the world. She presented to the sixth-grade students as a culminating event for their Folktales unit.
Author Kathryn Erskine conducted a writing seminar and discussed her book Mockingbird at Elm Place and Edgewood in April.
Author visits provide powerful lessons in literacy. Before the visits, the teachers and students read their books together and use them for lessons in reading and writing. With an illustrator, students are able to study artistic styles and materials. The students learn that behind each book is a real, live human being. They hear the stories of their lives, how they view the process of writing, and what inspires them.