Last week, I went to Marshall, MN, for a young writers conference. Kids from all over southwestern Minnesota came to the university there for a day of writing fun. It was an uneventful drive on a sunny, warm, January day (in Minnesota?!) through farm country. Becky Fjelland Davis gave a
A few weeks ago, I shared the Praise Poems workshop I did with 4th-8th graders at a week’s worth of Young Authors Conferences. One of the very best things about this set of YAC is that the kids pick their favorite session (out of the 3 they attended) on an evaluation
Week before last, I spent Tuesday through Friday at Young Authors Conferences here in the Twin Cities. I’ve been doing this for four or five years now, and I always enjoy it. The 4th-8th graders are, in general, very smart, enthusiastic, and excited to be college students for the day.
On Friday, I shared just a few of the cool poems that 4th-8th graders came up with in my Young Authors Conference workshops. A few people asked about the process, so I thought I’d share the outline of what we did. Each session was only 50 minutes, which gave us 45
I had a great time working with 4th-8th graders at Young Authors Conferences in May, and I wanted to share (with their permission) just a few of their poems. We imagined certain scenes/settings, and then the writers brainstormed all the things Hope and Fear could do in those situations. They
On my recent school visits, a student raised his hand and asked if I got lots of fan mail. I almost choked on my microphone. Um, no. I’ve gotten some nice emails from teachers telling me how much their kids liked a certain book or poem or something, but fan
I’m sharing this not because it’s some stellar presentation, but because it’s always so helpful to me when people share the activities they do at school visits. I wouldn’t copy anything exactly, but it gives me good ideas and let’s me know what’s realistic. At the Young Authors Conference, I
I presented at a Young Authors Conference yesterday and worked with 4th and 5th graders all day at Anoka Ramsey Community College in Minnesota. What a great group! After some brainstorming and group writing, the kids wrote individual poems (cinquains) from the point of view of either a castle or
Hi! Thank you for your attention and participation and enthusiasm yesterday. You guys rocked! I had so much fun writing poetry with you, and I hope you did, too. Here are the three group poems we wrote yesterday. For anybody reading this who wasn’t there, we worked on cinquains that
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