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Hazelwood Dist. Students Participate in National Day on Writing with Authors
Hazelwood Dist. Students Participate in National Day on Writing with Authors
The National Day on Writing was Oct. 20 and students in the Hazelwood School District were involved in a host of writing activities, had a chance to listen to published authors Seymour Simon, Rob Rains and Sally Tippett Rains, and post writings to an online gallery.
The National Day on Writing is an initiative organized by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). The day serves to show “how integral writing has become to daily life in the 21st century” and “to draw attention to the remarkable variety of writing.” The National Day on Writing includes opportunities for elementary, middle, secondary and college students across the nation.
Carrie Launius, science coordinator, said that National Day on Writing will be integrated across the District curriculum in all content areas.
“This day is a joint effort between organizations to increase writing not only in communication arts, but also in other disciplines,” Launius explained. “The effort was started by NCTE and they brought in other groups. The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) has joined forces and hopes to have all students writing.”
On its Web site, NCTE is collecting writings such as stories, poems, recipes, blogs,
e-mails, audio, video and artwork for an online gallery to showcase the works of people from all walks of life across the country. The gallery opens on October 20.
The Hazelwood West High School Writers Group is collecting writings for their own online gallery on the NCTE site. Students and staff at the school are invited to contribute submissions.
Seymour Simon, well-known among educators for his non-fiction children’s science books such as “Whales,” “The Universe,” “Volcanoes” and many others, will visit several elementary schools to speak to fourth and fifth graders. Simon will go to Armstrong, Lawson and Walker elementary schools on October 20. Students from Garrett Elementary will attend the presentation at Armstrong; and students from McNair Elementary will attend the presentation at Lawson.
Simon visited Jana, Cold Water and Arrowpoint elementary schools on Oct. 21. Students from McCurdy Elementary will join the Jana event, students from Lusher Elementary will join Cold Water and students from Keeven Elementary will attend Arrowpoint’s presentation.
Launius said Simon will blog with students from the District after his visit.
Rob Rains, author of more than 30 books, including “Albert Pujols: Simply the Best,” will spend two days visiting each middle school in the District. Rains will visit Hazelwood East, Hazelwood Southeast and Hazelwood Central middle schools on Oct. 20. He will visit Hazelwood West, Hazelwood Northwest and Hazelwood North middle schools on Oct. 21.
Sally Tippett Rains is an author of more than 10 books, and is a trainer in writing and speaking. Her latest book is “The Making of a Masterpiece: The True Story of Margaret Mitchell’s ‘Gone with the Wind.’” Tippett Rains talked to students in second through fifth grades about writing at Russell, Barrington, Grannemann and Brown elementary schools on Oct. 20. She talked students at Townsend, Jamestown and Larimore on Oct. 21.
For more information on the National Day on Writing, visit www.ncte.org/dayonwriting
(story courtesy of Hazelwood School District Communications Dept.)
