Children's Author Makes Writing Fun!

Valley View students enjoyed a visit from Gary Hogg, children's author. On May 12, Gary Hogg came to help students understand that writing can be fun. He began the day with the first through fifth graders together in the gym. First, he read from his book Garbage Snooper Surprise, a book in his Spencer series. He also read from Beautiful Buehla and the Zany Zoo Makevoer. While sharing this book, he invited Cody Knight and Austin Funderburg to join him. As he read about the zoo makeover, he made Cody and Austin a part of the story. The students enjoyed listening to the stories. They were at the edge of their seat, hanging on every word.

When Mr. Hogg was finished reading his books, he discussed some key aspects of writing and how to make it exciting. He shared that many students believe that writing is boring. This is because their stories are boring. When students use more exciting words, it makes their story more exciting, which makes writing fun.

During the rest of the day, Mr. Hogg took each grade level for 40 minutes to work on writing. They discussed boring words and words that made stories more interesting. He would provide the students with a basic word and asked the students to come up with more interesting words. Next, he asked the students think of an idea to write about. Finally, he had the students write. As the students wrote a story, he would read what they had written and discuss ways to make it better. He also discussed the need for sloppy copies, editing, and revising, all important concepts in the writing process.

When the students came back from their workshop, we heard them say things like, "can we continue to work on this story?" They came back to their class excited about writing. This was a fun assembly that supported standards and may have changed some students perception of writing. Mr. Hogg spent the entire day with our students. We look forward to having him come back in years to come.

The Valley View P.T.O. generously paid for this assembly. To find out more about Gary Hogg and see an example of the assembly we had, please visit his website at http://www.garyhoggbooks.com/index.html.