Today, Barrow students were honored with a visit from talented author, Laurel Snyder. We’ve been planning this visit since the beginning of the school year and building the anticipation of her arrival. Before she came, students in Prek-1st grade heard about all of her chapter books and read Baxter the Pig Who Wanted to Be Kosher. Students in 2nd & 3rd grade read Inside the Slidy Diner and Baxter the Pig Who Wanted to Be Kosher. Students in 5th grade read Inside the Slidy Diner and part of Any Which Wall. I also surveyed teachers in all grades about what they would like their students to gain from an author visit. All of these details were sent to Laurel before the visit, and after hours of work to prepare, she magically wove these elements in her talk.
Prek-1st grade students walked through a PDF version of Baxter the Pig and saw how the words and illustrations had been revised from the original version. They also read Inside the Slidy Diner and began writing their own version of the story called Inside the Leaky Library. Students thought very carefully about the words that they chose so that the words painted the best picture they could for the reader. Many classes continued working on this story when they got back to their classrooms. Finally, students were able to walk through the pages of Laurel’s newest book, which isn’t going to come out until next spring! She had to get special permission to be able to show it to us…..so shhhhhhhh!
Students in 4th and 5th grade heard a story about Laurel’s life as a writer from the time she was in 4th grade until now. Along the way, they saw how Laurel’s writing has come full circle to the kinds of things she wrote about as a child and how her writing is developing into things that are more personal from her life. Students saw how Laurel’s first novel, Up and Down the Scratchy Mountains, took 8 years to write and had multiple rejections and revisions before it was finally taken into the publishing process. Finally, these students worked with Laurel to brainstorm the beginnings of a book and looked a the story arc of where the book needed to go by the end. Students were encouraged to continue working on this brainstorm and share the finished stories with Laurel and the media center.
Students in 2nd and 3rd grade had a similar program as 4th and 5th grade, but they also had the opportunity to listen to Laurel read Baxter the Pig and worked on their own version of Slidy Diner.
Today was an incredible day, and the energy that the kids had about Laurel’s books and writing was electric. They had so many ideas stirring in their minds. I can’t wait to see the stories that students create after this inspiring day. Thank you, Laurel!