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Meet the Author Book List (view books and purchase)
Meet the Author
Introduction
Creating a Classroom of Writers
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Meet the Author
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Creating a
Classroom of Writers
The MEET THE AUTHOR Collection
Writing is a craft, which
means that it can be learned and its skill developed through informed practice.
The Meet
the Author collection will provide you with a multifaceted resource for teaching
this craft. This ever-growing collection contains many inspirational examples
of the writing process for use in your classroom.
The Meet the Author collection is an essential classroom resource for
personalizing the writing process for young writers in second though fifth grade. This
collection offers an exciting opportunity to promote the development of life-long writers
in your classroom and is an effective tool for teaching the writing process.
Meet the Author books are:
- wonderful models of good writing;
- a way of inspiring young writers;
- invitations for students to write their own stories; and
- excellent resources for engaging students in the writing process.
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Meet the Author
and Your
Classroom
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The writing
process has four components*: forming intentions, composing and drafting,
correcting and publishing, and outcomes. The Meet the Author
collection helps young writers explore these stages by giving examples of
the writing process in action, enabling them to experience the writing
process on a personal level. Young writers will be both comforted and
surprised to find that their favorite authors go through the same process as
they do when they write. Authors such as Jane Yolen, Patricia Polacco, Eve
Bunting, and Paul Goble not only answer questions about writing but invite
each child into the process. Writing becomes an adventure instead of a
chore!
*Dancing with the Pen: The Learner as a Writer.
Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media Ltd. for Ministry of Education of New Zealand, 1992.
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A Model of the Writing Process
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Diagram from Dancing with the Pen: The Learner as a Writer:
Wellington. New Zealand: Learning Media Ltd. for Ministry of Education of New Zealand,
1992, page 23.
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When teaching writing using this model it is important for
the teacher to keep the following in mind:
- Although the process has four basic components, it is not a "lock-step"
process;
- Writing should be for authentic purposes;
- Writing involves many genre; and
- All pieces brought to publication should be perfect in content and form.
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Forming Intentions
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The
first component of the writing process is forming intentions. During this stage, the
writer clarifies the purpose for writing and the audience, gathers information, and tests
ideas. It involves thinking, talking, drawing, remembering, reflecting, and searching
for and organizing information.
How often have you heard, "But I have nothing to |
write about!"? Choosing a topic can be difficult for a young writer,
but the authors of the Meet the Author collection help make this
task easier by showing children that they really do have something to write about. Karla
Kuskin is often asked, "Where do you get your ideas?" In her book Thoughts,
Pictures, and Words, she helps children see where they can get their ideas: |
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Pages 24-25 from Thoughts, Pictures, and Words.
Text © 1995 by Karla Kuskin. Illustration © 1975 by Karla Kuskin from Near the
Window Tree reprinted by permission of HarperCollins. Photograph © 1995 by Nicholas
Kuskin.
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Fascinating first-person accounts from published authors will motivate
your students to explore the experiences in their lives that could become a story, a poem,
or an essay. By choosing a topic in this way, your students experience a
child-centered, meaning-centered approach instead of a teacher-driven one.
Children learn that many events in their lives are important enough to be the topic of a
story and have an audience. For example, the loss of a beloved pet can be a traumatic
experience for anyone at any age and relating it to others in written form can bring some
comfort. Patricia Polacco, in her autobiography Firetalking, recalls:
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Page 17 from Firetalking Text © 1994 by Patricia
Polacco. Photograph © 1994 by Lawrence Migdale. Cover from Mrs. Katz and Tush ©
1992 by Patricia Polacco and reprinted by permission of Bantam Books, a division of Bantam
Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.
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Anything can be an inspiration for writing, as shown in Ruth Heller's Fine
Lines:
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Page 9 from Fine Lines. Text © 1996 by Ruth Heller
Trust Fund. Illustration © 1995 by Ruth Heller from Behind the Mask: A Book
About Prepositions reprinted courtesy of Grosset & Dunlap, Inc.
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Composing and Drafting
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This
part of the writing process involves getting thoughts down on paper, rereading,
reorganizing, and revising. Authors do this in different ways, as do children and
teachers. Some write first in pencil or pen, and others prefer the typewriter or word
processor. Children become aware that the tools are not as important as the
process. Eve Bunting evokes a humorous example of this phase of the writing process
in Once Upon a Time:
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Page 22 from Once Upon a Time. Text © 1995 by Eve
Bunting. Photograph © 1995 by John Pezaris.
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The heart of the writing process is the creation of meaning. The focus of
the revision phase is on clarifying and extending meaning.
Writers of any age are often reluctant to revise. The Meet the Author
collection affords children the unique opportunity of having authors model the revision
process. Jean Fritz, in Surprising Myself, reassures children that it is
difficult (even for her) to choose the "right words" from the beginning and she
graphically shows them what revision looks like:
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Page 5 from Surprising Myself. Text © 1992
by Jean Fritz. Photograph © 1992 Andrea Fritz Pfleger.
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In A Wordful Child, George Ella Lyon lets students
in on a secret about revision that might surprise them!
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Page 26 from A Wordful Child. Text © 1996 by George Ella Lyon.
Photograph of Richard Jackson courtesy of Sandra Jordan.
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Correcting and Publishing
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This
stage involves correction, proofreading for spelling, grammar, and punctuation, and a
concern for neatness. All pieces of writing that are developed to the point of
sharing with an audience must be correct. This is especially true in the classroom, where
a published work will be used as a model for others. Correctness shows respect for one's
audience.
Students are encouraged to proofread and self-correct their own work as much as they can,
relying on the teacher for the final corrections. Teachers edit students' writing, leaving
one teaching point to do at an editing conference, one-on-one with the student.
The teacher is an editor for students in the same way professional writers have editors to
help them get their work ready to meet an audience. In Playing with Words, James
Howe relates how his wife acts as the first editor of his books:
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Page 23 from Playing with Words. Text © 1994 by
James Howe. Photograph © 1994 by Michael Craine.
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Writers in your classroom must take into consideration factors such as
design, style, and the medium when they are considering publishing. It is important
not only for the classroom to be equipped with a wide selection of materials for this
purpose, but for students to be exposed to a variety of published models.
Young writers should be given the opportunity to publish in a variety of forms, including
posters, articles, displays, and books. In The Writing Bug, Lee Bennett Hopkins
shows how a poem that he wrote wound up as a bookmark:
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Page 30 from The Writing Bug. Text © 1993 by Lee
Bennett Hopkins. "Good Books, Good Times" Text by Lee Bennett Hopkins and
reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd. Artwork © 1985 by and appears courtesy of
Marc Brown.
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Outcomes
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The
writing process does not end with publication. The outcome stage is just as important as
the other components of the process. It is during this stage that young writers share
their work, get responses, and come to see the purpose and value of publication. They also
learn to accept and give praise and constructive criticism.
In responding to others' writing, and profiting from others' responses, learners will*:
It is important for the teacher to provide a supportive environment and to
make time for sharing published work. There should be many opportunities for work to be
displayed or read and students should have easy access to the writing of others.
Sharing one's work can be a creative process and can take place in a variety of ways: a
presentation, making the written material available in the school library, or writing
letters. Margaret Mahy, author of My Mysterious World, puts on an outrageous wig
and shares her stories with classroom children.
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Page 20 from My Mysterious World. Text ©
1995 by Margaret Mahy. Photographs ©
1995 by David Alexander.
*Dancing with the Pen: The Learner as a Writer. Wellington, New Zealand:
Learning Media Ltd. for Ministry of Education of New Zealand, 1992, page 80.
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The Meet the Author collection is an important classroom
resource
for teachers who value the writing process as well as the product.
The real-life experiences of the prominent children's authors in the
collection will provide both example and inspiration for your
second- through fifth-grade students. Create a classroom of writers
by using the ever-growing Meet the Author collection and providing
a supportive, child-centered environment in your classroom.
Help your students do something important...
 
Pages 6-7 from Best Wishes. Text © 1992
by Cynthia Rylant.
Photographs © 1992
by Carlo Ontal.
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... help them become writers!
Meet
the Author books
Ministry of Education, Wellington, New Zealand
Professional Book List |
Dancing with the Pen
is for primary and middle grade teachers. It
aims to develop their understandings of the writing process, helping them create a
teaching environment in which learners feel confident to develop their writing and
providing them with some ways to foster writing development. Writing is viewed as a
tool for communication, recording, and understanding. Dancing with the Pen has
been built on the experience of New Zealand teachers, and has been greatly influenced by
the work of Sylvia Ashton Warner, Elwyn Richardson, Don Holdaway, and Marie Clay. |
Teacher Notes © 1997 by Richard C. Owen Publishers, Inc.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval
system without the permission in writing from the publisher.
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