Darlington welcomed children’s author and national writing consultant Lola Schaefer back to campus last week to conduct a three-day writing workshop with students in grades 1-4. During the week, she also met with parents, teachers and spoke at assembly.
“Lola Schaefer was amazing,” said Patricia Ayer, computer instructor. “I watched her engage and inspire students to give profound answers to her question, ‘Why do writers write?’ She also asked them to describe the most important thing they had ever written. One child told a story about himself, another mentioned a class assignment, but one student thought the most important thing he had ever written was a letter to a soldier thanking him for his service to our country. When Schaefer told this to the parents, she said that the most important things we ever write are to those people with whom we have relationships.”
Schaefer, who was last year’s visiting author, has published more than 265 books for children, including picture books, easy readers, classroom books and informational texts. A former teacher, she has won dozens of awards for her nonfiction and narrative works, including the Outstanding Science Trade Book Award, the Charlotte Zolotow Honor Award and the Zena Sutherland Award.
During her three days on campus, Schaefer shared age-appropriate writing prompts with each grade to enhance the students' skills. First-graders spent a few moments with their eyes closed, remembering an event that was exciting or frightening to them. After writing down the who and what, they wrote three details that would help paint a picture in the reader’s mind.
“Lola was wonderful with first grade,” said teacher Gayle Monk. “She has a great ability to pull the creativity out of a child.”
Kindergarten teacher Janice Cox said she "invited herself" to the first and second grade meeting and she is so glad she did. "Lola covered the strategies of teaching genre and craft and I learned so much," she said. "Her presentations are filled with great information, but knowing that it all comes from an experienced classroom teacher and author makes it even more valuable."
Jody Deaton’s second-graders worked on becoming wordsmiths. Schaefer advised students never to use words like “went” or “awesome,” but to use more specific words. Headmaster Tom Whitworth sat in on this lessons and suggested “gallop” instead of “went.” Jennifer Helbing’s second-graders learned to write a cumulative text, such as “This is the House that Jack Built.”
Third-graders worked on building characters and adding specific details to an informative text.
“I loved how she described conferencing with students as ‘giving them a tool in their backpack’ to improve their writing,” said third-grade teacher Alice Clements.
Third-grader Trystin Wright said he had a lot of fun working with Schaefer. “She shared some of the many books she has written and explained how she developed the character line in these stories,” he said.
Fourth-graders focused on using nouns and verbs to build expression instead of layering adjectives.
“I feel so inspired to really teach writing and she has provided me with the tools to accomplish my goals,” said fourth-grade teacher Rebekah Kinney.
Fourth-grader Nicolas Seijo said he liked the way Schaefer helped them write stories for a younger audience. “This was my first experience working with an author,” he said. “She joked around with us and that helped us write our stories.”
When Schaefer spoke to the parents, she showed them how to encourage more writing without excessive criticism or false compliments.
“At the parent coffee, she had mothers opening their hearts and lives to share stories about reading aloud to their children,” Ayer said. “Many, including me, had tears in their eyes when they realized the importance and power of words, both written and spoken.”
Becky Bates, the parent of a kindergartener and a fourth-grader, agreed that the parent meeting was incredible. “Lola is a wonderful speaker and had such insight into the kids,” she said. “I want to thank Tiger Pride for bringing her to the Lower School for both the parents and the students.”
