Authors Who Help Us

This is my tattered but precious classroom copy of one of my favorite books: LOVE THAT DOG by Sharon Creech.

I read it every year during my Writer's Workshop unit on poetry. It's a short-enough book that I usually finish it in one or two sessions. But I don't finish it BECAUSE it's short. I finish it because my students don't want me to stop reading it. (That's the sign of a great read-aloud.)

Today we got to the part where Mr. Walter Dean Myers visited Jack's classroom. (If you haven't read the book, I highly recommend it). Jack is the main character, and he's written a poem based on "Love That Boy" by Mr. Myers. We talked about how great it was that Mr. Myers visited Jack's actual classroom. We've had an author visit this year, and we've Skyped with some of them, too. So the thought of having an author come into our classroom was wonderful to think about. Curious, I asked my class who THEY would want to have visit our own classroom.

A flurry of names flew about the room--names blurted together in excited shouts and frantic exclamations. . Here are a few of them:

• Sharon Creech
• Katherine Applegate
• Dan Gutman
• Barbara O'Connor
• Rick Riordan
• Jeff Kinney
• C.A. London
• James Dashner
• Amy Dyckman

You should know that this is only a partial list. There were many more-- too many for me to keep track of. Most of them were familiar. Some were not. (I really loved that. It means my readers are discovering authors on their own!)

I realized I'd opened up the flood gates with this question. The answers kept coming, and everyone had a name to share. Or two! Or five!The conversation continued on Edmodo that evening, and I read the posts from home feeling utterly pleased.

My students could name authors so easily, and I knew this was possible because they'd done more than read their books. They had connected with these authors in meaningful ways--ways I hadn't really taken notice of until today. I was bringing in books, doing book talks, showing book trailers, recommending books, but I wasn't the only one helping my students develop a love of reading: the authors (who weren't even in the room) were doing their part, too. It seems we've all been working together like one big literacy collaboration team.

And as I wrote this post, I started to understand something really fantastic. My students had been WISHING that these authors would step foot in our classroom, but all of them already had! Sharon Creech had shown us poetry was a way we could all express out thoughts! Ame Dyckman brought us our very own robot that makes everybody smile. Barbara O'Connor gave us an opportunity for rich discussions. C.A. London took us on crazy, fun adventures that made us laugh. Rick Riordan is in our class every day with his friend Percy. And Katherine Applegate? She retells Ivan's story whenever we like! All we have to do is pull that special book off the shelf! (Our read-aloud of THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN helped build our classroom community in ways I still discover daily.)

This discussion helped me reaffirm my sincerest admiration for children's authors who share their talents as they do. I couldn't teach without them.

Here's my OTHER copy of  LOVE THAT DOG. It's one of my treasures.

Now it will be a reminder to me that I'm not the only literacy role model in my classroom. I have many friends who help. Some of them are listed in this blog post.