A highlight in the lower school is the Visiting Authors Program – a unique opportunity for our youngest students to become inspired by the stories of the authors themselves. Of course, it is a wonderful experience to sit at the feet of these talented and creative artists and hear about their childhoods and inspirations for their characters, their views as seen through their wonderful books and their interests in becoming authors. Each time that I hear an author’s story, I am reminded of how the youngsters in the audience can translate the experience into possibilities for their own lives.

This year, we were visited by three authors – Daniel San Souci, an illustrator, Robert San Souci (his brother), an author of children’s fiction, and Sneed Collard, an author of non-fiction. Each author spent time with small groups of students showing slides of his own life and work while talking about his ideas on the craft of writing. Each enthusiastically demonstrated in various ways the art and skill of writing, impressing on children that writing is joyous but deliberate, creative but carefully planned and orchestrated.

Sneed Collard talked about the thrill of doing research and translating that information into books for others to read. His trip deep into the ocean in a special little submarine, cataloging and observing marine life, that he related, mesmerized the students. Daniel San Souci provided a window into the world of illustration as he showed the children on a large flip chart many of the tricks of the trade. And Robert San Souci, who has written for many, many years, talked about his evolution as an author in terms that even a first grader could clearly understand.

The Visiting Authors Program has become an important part of the landscape of our literacy instruction in the lower school. The modeling of good writing happens every day through teachers. However, bringing in someone whose entire career has revolved around the craft can lift a child’s thinking about writing onto a different plane. Excellent writing programs do much more than sit a child down for daily writing. Writing permeates the heart of our school in very exciting ways. Student writing is always displayed in and outside the classroom. Writing happens in every subject and is evaluated in the same ways regardless of where it occurs. So, a math log is expected to demonstrate quality writing of a first draft nature just as is a written research paper on the first go around.

Polished writing moves into a different arena so that when a professional talks about the editing process in our school, he is speaking to a well-informed audience. But, the professional author goes many steps farther. When an author speaks about taking a year to complete a book after numerous edits, students begin to understand that a finished written piece takes on an artistic quality. Most importantly they can begin to look at a professional piece of work with the appreciation one has when gazing before a daVinci in an art museum. It’s quite simple really, the more students appreciate the polished work of others, the more carefully they will craft their own.

Writing then becomes not only a subject to be studied, but also an art form. The child begins to see the difference between the daily journal, where thoughts are key, to the final polished draft, where the thoughts of someone reading the work may be critical. One begins to think of the aim of presenting a piece to a reader – what we want a reader to understand. Does this transition in thinking about writing happen at first grade? Likely not. But over time, with good direct instruction and the exposure to fine authors who speak about this, older students will be able to express the obligation that a professional feels to help the reader understand. The child’s own writing gradually begins to take on the characteristics of careful and thoughtful editing.

It would be a treat even to have established authors pop in for a quick book signing, but the effect of that on children would be minimal. The fact that each author spends about an hour with the children in small groups where questions are encouraged and exchanges happen easily makes all the difference. The children become accustomed to having conversations with the authors and to think about writing in a different way. They think about more substantive questions having to do with the craft of writing and get answers that match. It’s an amazing, small piece of a dynamic instructional program.