Literature Festival

Janet Wong did such a great job with the morning session of the Literature Festival, that I decided to pull my grandson out of school so he could attend the afternoon session. I did not regret the decision.

During the morning session, I enjoyed watching Janet Wong interact with the students. Her suitcase filled with props, was a good way to grab their attention while she introduced and read her poems.

After picking up Jonathan, we attended Mel Glen's session on poetry writing. The room was half full of middle school students. I thought I would be in for a long session with kids interrupting the presenter with ridiculous questions and comments. I was never so glad to be wrong! Mel did a terrific job not only interacting with the students, but also got them involved in writing poetry. I was surprised to find how simple he made it. The kids were anxious to write and then share their writing. And their poems were terrific. Mel did such a good job of creating a nonthreatening enviornment, that both Jonathan and I found it easy to write; I even got up and shared a poem.

I never thought I would buy a poetry book that was not required reading, but that afternoon I found myself in line, waiting for authors to sign my 12 books of poetry! As much as I enjoyed listening to, meeting, and talking with all three of these authors, the frosting on my cake came after arriving home.

After an afternoon of, "This is boring", "I'm bored", and "Let's go, I'm hungry", I overheard Jonathan telling his friends that he had met "all these authors"—he was showing the kids the books Janet Wong, Mel Glenn, and J. Patrick Lewis had signed for him. He was telling them about spending the afternoon at Tech with his "guela", meeting "her professor"and "he's a writer, too". He told them about writing a poem and listening to the other students' poems and "I should have read mine, too". I really wasn't eavesdropping—I was listening to my "bored" grandson bragging how he had missed school that afternoon.

Craft Lesson 3

Introduce Minn and Jake by Janet Wong. Have your third or fourth graders make predictions of the story line and record on butcher paper. Allow students to view the pictures in the book to help with predictions. Beginning reading.

After reading the first few chapters (1& 2 and/or 3), check the predictions and ask students if they wish to make changes and/or if they have discovered one of the main subjects of the story line (help them to identify "how to make friends"). Ask students to list some characteristics of a friend. On butcher paper, write all responses.

At the end of each reading, students will make a journal entry about the characteristics they found in the reading that was or was not on their list. Allow students to read and/or share their entries.

At the end of the book, students will use their journal entries to help them write a story on how they can become a good friend.