• Home
  • Books
    • A River’s Gifts: The Mighty Elwha River Reborn
    • Planet Ocean
    • Eavesdropping on Elephants
    • Neema’s Reason To Smile
    • Zoo Scientists to the Rescue
    • Sea Otter Heroes: The Predators That Saved an Ecosystem
    • Plastic, Ahoy! Investigating the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
    • Ebola: Fears and Facts
    • Jingle the Brass
    • Nugget on the Flight Deck
    • Surviving Animal Attacks
    • Elite Operations series
    • Energy Lab series
    • QuickReads Fluency Library
    • Books for English language-learners
    • Writers write all kinds of things
  • Author Visit Programs
    • FAQs
    • Calendar
  • Blog
  • Educator Resources
    • STEM + Literacy Activities
    • LitLinks
    • Teacher Guides
    • KidLit creators who make kids want to read
  • Writer Resources
    • Manuscript or Proposal Critiques
  • Who is Patricia Newman?
  • Contact
    • Stay In Touch
Patricia NewmanPatricia Newman
Sibert Honor Children's Book Author & Environmentalist
  • Home
  • Books
    • A River’s Gifts: The Mighty Elwha River Reborn
    • Planet Ocean
    • Eavesdropping on Elephants
    • Neema’s Reason To Smile
    • Zoo Scientists to the Rescue
    • Sea Otter Heroes: The Predators That Saved an Ecosystem
    • Plastic, Ahoy! Investigating the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
    • Ebola: Fears and Facts
    • Jingle the Brass
    • Nugget on the Flight Deck
    • Surviving Animal Attacks
    • Elite Operations series
    • Energy Lab series
    • QuickReads Fluency Library
    • Books for English language-learners
    • Writers write all kinds of things
  • Author Visit Programs
    • FAQs
    • Calendar
  • Blog
  • Educator Resources
    • STEM + Literacy Activities
    • LitLinks
    • Teacher Guides
    • KidLit creators who make kids want to read
  • Writer Resources
    • Manuscript or Proposal Critiques
  • Who is Patricia Newman?
  • Contact
    • Stay In Touch
#Writing workshop excites kids about developing characters #literacy #elemed #reading #lrnchat

#Writing workshop excites kids about developing characters #literacy #elemed #reading #lrnchat

March 20, 2012 Common Core, School Visits, Speaking engagements, The Process No Comments
At a recent school visit 25 sharp third, fourth, and fifth graders discovered first-hand how authors create compelling characters. By the end of our 60-minute session, we had brainstormed and argued about the sex of our character, her back story, her age, her emotional state, and her conflict. I lead the discussion with open-ended questions that mimicked questions I ask myself when creating a character. The students’ ideas could not be contained on one white board! Their hands shot in the air with the urgency of their ideas. The creative energy crackled. Isn’t the thrill of discovery what writing’s all about?

In order to participate, students completed an application explaining why they wanted to attend the workshop. Here are some of their responses copied exactly as they wrote them:

Sophia #1:  One of the biggest problems in my writing is putting in emotion. I am hoping this class could help.

Cody:  I would like to have my writing and reading skills to expand to greater hights then I could ever imagine.

Isabelle:  I want to be a author gist like you. I write and I write but I gist don’t git it.

Jenna:  I think you should pick me because I’m smart, kind, and I can read two chapter books two weeks.

Joshua:  Every day I spend my lunch recess in the library and read…

Annalise:  I wold like to because when I grow up I want to become a author.

Sophia #2:  First of all it’s a honor to be chosen. One reason is because I love to write, LOVE to write. Writing is one of my favorite subjects.

Dayla:  I would also like to know how you come up with such great books because I would like to learn how to write good books like that.

Malina:  Every day in class I help my friends read since they have trouble sometimes.

Paige:  I’m working really really hard on righting a good book.

Mikayla:  I would also like to know how authors even make the characters in books.

Damian:  I want to know how an author creates a character that I feel is alive.

Avery:  I would like to know how to write a book your way.

Charisma:  I don’t want to do school work because most of it is hard.

Ayden:  I write little comics for myself.

Brennen:  I think it would be really fun to go and brainstorm with a real author.

Kiley:  I think it would be a great opportunity to have fun.

Jacob:  I want to express myself. I am very creative.

Aleah:  I am writing a book but I always have trouble coming up with names and characters. I am positive that this workshop would be the perfect place to learn about characters.

Emily:  Writing books as an author is my dream job in the future.

Kobe:  I would like to attend because I love thinking, writing.

Sabrina:  I want to express my passion to write and I really want to be chosen to learn about writing and becoming an author.

 

Tags: School VisitsSpeaking EngagementsThe Process
No Comments
Share
0

You also might be interested in

#PictureBookMonth Theme: Numbers :|: Read Roman Numerals I to MM by Arthur Geisert #literacy #mathchat

#PictureBookMonth Theme: Numbers :|: Read Roman Numerals I to MM by Arthur Geisert #literacy #mathchat

Nov 30, 2011

For Roman Numerals I to MM, Geisert drew a total of[...]

What high school classes do I recommend for students and why?

Dec 3, 2009

At several recent signings, I’ve been approached by high school[...]

Writers’ Conference–California State University, Sacramento, August 2007

Sep 24, 2007

If you live in Northern California, this is an excellent[...]

Leave a Reply

Your email is safe with me.
Cancel Reply

Click the logo to have LitLinks delivered to your inbox

LitLinks Logo-2022

Author Visits

https://youtu.be/ziN0UrqaDYI

Post Categories:

Blog Archive

Top Posts

LitLinks: How to share our ocean connections with kids and teens

LitLinks: Let’s learn to decode photos in STEM nonfiction

LitLinks: How Elephants Can Make Your Sound Unit ROAR!

LitLinks: Easy ways to build students’ science communication skills

Proof that science connects kids to the larger world

Recent Comments

  • Annie Lynn on LitLinks: Best practices for making connections between kidlit and science My pleasure! We are stronger together!✌🏽💖🎶🔬📚🌻
  • Patricia Newman on LitLinks: Best practices for making connections between kidlit and science Thank you for putting the A in STEM, Annie!
  • Annie Lynn on LitLinks: Best practices for making connections between kidlit and science As usual, this was a fantastic, helpful, detailed post that…

I also write for STEM Tuesday

STEM Tuesday
Empowering young readers to act

Latest Blog Posts

  • LitLinks: How time travel will help students reduce single-use plastic
    LitLinks: How time travel will help students reduce single-use plastic
  • LitLinks: An easy lesson to help students write a desert rap
    LitLinks: An easy lesson to help students write a desert rap

What's happening on Twitter

  • It's #internationdayofthegirl 🥳 Celebrate #girlpower w books abt ♀️ #scientists #WomenInSTEM #scicomm #STEM…  http://t.co/ALmXSCYDrs 
  • 6 months ago
  • RT  @mstewartscience : Love seeing all those smiling faces!
  • 6 months ago

Follow @PatriciaNewman

Action Shots

Check out the STEM Tuesday Blog

© 2023 — Patricia Newman

  • Home
  • Books
    • A River’s Gifts: The Mighty Elwha River Reborn
    • Planet Ocean
    • Eavesdropping on Elephants
    • Neema’s Reason To Smile
    • Zoo Scientists to the Rescue
    • Sea Otter Heroes: The Predators That Saved an Ecosystem
    • Plastic, Ahoy! Investigating the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
    • Ebola: Fears and Facts
    • Jingle the Brass
    • Nugget on the Flight Deck
    • Surviving Animal Attacks
    • Elite Operations series
    • Energy Lab series
    • QuickReads Fluency Library
    • Books for English language-learners
    • Writers write all kinds of things
  • Author Visit Programs
    • FAQs
    • Calendar
  • Blog
  • Educator Resources
    • STEM + Literacy Activities
    • LitLinks
    • Teacher Guides
    • KidLit creators who make kids want to read
  • Writer Resources
    • Manuscript or Proposal Critiques
  • Who is Patricia Newman?
  • Contact
    • Stay In Touch
Prev Next