When she grows up, Andrea Alvarez wants to be a poet. Or an artist. Or an author.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mostly like to write poetry and stories,\u201d she said, telling a little bit about her most recent story, a tale of a boy waiting in the principal\u2019s office. \u201cI like writing because you can write whatever you want.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Nov. 17, the 10-year-old Daniel Elementary School Student got encouragement from Eric Ode – an artist, poet and author – about how she can write better stories and poems.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe learned how to express our feelings while we\u2019re writing,\u201d the budding author said. \u201cIt was fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like all students at Daniel, Alvarez took part in the school\u2019s fourth-annual Young Author\u2019s Day, designed to encourage students to do more writing. This year, Ode was on hand to help the kids get a better idea of what it is like to be a writer.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very beneficial,\u201d instructional coach Lien Le said. \u201cThey gain insight into the writing life.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the event, each class took part in a workshop with Ode, who led them through brainstorming exercises and worked with the group to create a poem. Afterward, the classes were split into smaller groups to continue working on their writing skills, something fourth-grade teacher Angela Clinton said can sometimes get lost behind a focus on reading and math.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn everything we do, we write just like we read,\u201d Clinton said, adding that the kids often are told to practice their reading and math, but not writing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to do that with writing as well,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Throughout the school, community members and district officials joined the small groups to lead exercises on reading ad writing, encouraging the kids to be creative and to write their own endings to poems and stories, before finding out what the author had in mind.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re hoping to inspire and build a lot of authors,\u201d said media specialist Marie Moran. \u201cThey\u2019re doing a lot of writing today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moran said the day helped show the importance of being a good writer.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot only is it fun to have things to read, but it\u2019s a great outlet,\u201d she said. \u201cThe more we\u2019re able to do it, the better off we are.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said it also gets the kids going creatively and thinking in different ways.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo matter where you are you can be a success as a writer,\u201d she said. \u201cEverybody has ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Principal Janet Muldrow said the goal was also to create lifelong writers as a way to make a connection to what they are reading, as well as practice other skills.<\/p>\n
\u201cWriting is important,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen they are starting to write, we know they are assimilating skills for reading.\u201d<\/p>\n
Le, who helped organize the event, said the day was made possible in part from a grant from Target, as well as donations from the Daniel Community Association, the school\u2019s parent-teacher group.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are very excited to do this and the kids love it,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is a wonderful event and we are looking forward to doing it every year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When she grows up, Andrea Alvarez wants to be a poet. Or an artist. Or an author.
\n\u201cI mostly like to write poetry and stories,\u201d she said, telling a little bit about her most recent story, a tale of a boy waiting in the principal\u2019s office. \u201cI like writing because you can write whatever you want.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":3758,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-3757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3757"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3757"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=3757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}