Author Shares Writing Techniques With Sixth Graders
Sixth grade students – who are writing their own memoirs in their English language arts classes – welcomed author and writing expert Ralph Fletcher to their school on Sept. 20 to gain inspiration and craft suggestions.
“This was a truly meaningful and useful day from Ralph Fletcher’s visit that will transfer into students’ daily writing experiences,” teacher Judy Nadler said. “We have been using Mr. Fletcher’s varied memoirs to launch our memoir unit, and the opportunity for our students to meet the award-winning mentor was an experience that will continue to resonate with them.”
During his visit, Fletcher met with each of the sixth grade English language arts classes and helped inspire the students as they brainstormed ideas about their own memoirs and challenged them to several writing prompts. After reading aloud from his poem, “The Good Old Days,” he prompted them to complete the sentence “I still remember the good days,” followed by “I still can’t imagine anything better than that.”
Teacher Alison Meiseles said the prompts helped the students zoom in on a memory and reflect on why it was significant. He also engaged the students in an activity called “The A Student,” based on one of his own memoirs, where he encouraged students to explore and reflect on the areas of their lives where they view themselves as A students.
“What was really inspiring was that he would share his experiences, read from his book ‘Marshfield Dreams: When I Was a Kid’ and give students a short writing prompt related to what they just heard, and then the opportunity to read their responses aloud and get feedback,” teacher Carol LaBella said.
In addition to LaBella, Meiseles and Nadler, co-teachers Karen Acrish, Jessica Doughtery and Barbara Scholler were also involved in the lessons. Over the next several weeks, students will read a variety of memoirs, including Fletcher’s “Marshfield Memories: More Stories About Growing Up,” and write a memoir based on their own life experiences.
Fletcher’s visit was generously funded through a grant from the Irvington Education Foundation.