Make this person real to the children. You focus on this author s writings for 2 weeks. Read the author s books and displays them in this corner. Students can look for more works of this author when they go to the library. You can help the students to find common themes in the books, pictures that the author likes in the books, common characters, etc.
Students begin to develop a preference for reading works by particular authors.
When students share their writing, they begin to think of themselves as authors and it validates their thoughts. I do this with all my students especially after lessons that require reflections on the topics we covered. It gets students to think about what we talked about and it gets them to unleash their ideas about the topic in a non-threatening way. I do check the journals because I want to know how students are approaching the topics we learn about in class. It also gives me insight into how much they have processed and to what extent.