Virginia native Lee Smith, a bright and prolific author of novels set in her native Appalachia, rounds out the new season. Mann uses Signature with her students to give them insight into the creative process and to help them draw on their own past experiences for creative inspiration. They live life and write about it, which is one of the biggest benefits of the series. It also converts my students from the North to see the culture we have here. Helping students see themselves as writers is the most common reason many teachers are using the series in English and creative writing classes.
Teachers say the authors help motivate students to write about what they know.
The programs on McClanahan and Mason, for example, allow students from rural areas to feel more secure about writing from a small-town experience about the people and places most familiar to them. Students also learn that writing is hard work, and they see how these commercially and critically successful writers have experienced their share of failures. The series shows just how human these writers are. Social studies teachers are using it to talk about cultural boundaries, attitudes, and customs. The series is complemented by a teacher's guide, which includes an overview of the history of Southern literature, profiles of each author featured in the Signature series plus a complete bibliography of their work, and ideas for classroom activities that further extend and enrich the content covered in each program.