The write idea
<p>Taylor Johnson, a third-grader at Skyway Elementary School, fills out a worksheet Thursday during a school-wide writing festival where students learned writing skills from area authors.</p>
<p>Brynn Adamson eagerly raises her hand to answer a question by guest author Deby Fredericks.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE - Deby Fredericks holds firm to one idea: There's just no way to screw up a story.
"Sure, you have to spell everything right so people understand what you're saying," the children's author conceded on Thursday morning as she addressed a fidgety crowd of students at Skyway Elementary. "But beyond that, you really can't mess it up. No matter what, I want you to believe that you are a writer and can do a good job telling your own story."
Words to live by. And to write by.
And Fredericks, author of several fantasy books, would know. Sharing her gems of published wisdom to the potential scribes, she prodded them to grasp that writing doesn't just eat up paper, but allows for history and ideas to endure.
"Each of us is already in a story. Your moms and dads have stories, and you're part of them," Fredericks said. "Each of us has our own story to tell, and our own way to tell it."
There's no bad excuse for recreational writing. But Skyway Elementary has found a good one: An emphasis on writing at the school over the past four years has improved students' focus and test scores.
"Since we've had this focus (on writing), ISAT (Idaho Standards Achievement Test) scores have continued to improve," said fifth grade teacher Janet Ackerman. "We really believe writing is one of the most complex assessments of focus and concentration we require of students."
The Coeur d'Alene elementary school aimed to continue that trend on Thursday with its second writing festival, facilitated by Ackerman, where PTA funds brought in published children's books authors Fredericks, from Spokane, and Renee Riva from the Tri Cities to discuss their craft and prompt kids on their own work.
Coeur d'Alene author Susan Nipp, responsible for the "Mudgy and Millie" phenomenon, also volunteered her time for free.
Each child will receive individual feedback on their writing from the authors, Ackerman said, and will also share their stories at a school event on Feb. 16.
"We have a school goal that 82 percent of students will be proficient or advanced on the state writing rubric," Ackerman said of the ideal results. "But to me it's more the inspiration, and to realize when you read a book by an author, that is a real person. And now they can say 'I've met a real author, and the author looked at my writing and said I did a good job.'"
Riva relayed to the students how her obsession with animals has spurred her choice of quadruped characters. She emphasized the importance of chronicling their lives in journals, a steady source of material when writer's block threatens later on.
"I want you to know how important these years are for you to remember," Riva said. "Everything that comes to us comes for a reason. Even the bad things are good to remember."
Reading her books to classes later, Riva was open to artistic suggestions from fifth-graders, some of whom questioned a plot twist where animals chose to snack on cake instead of each other.
"The natural enemy of the spider is the bee," pointed out realist Presciliano Gonzalez.
But the kids also discussed her use of rhyme scheme, and were quickly dishing out their own anecdotes that her stories joggled.
"You guys could write a sequel," she encouraged students jabbering over her story of an Italian rat who soups up his gondola.
"I think she's a really good writer and she should keep writing," said Gonzalez, 10, adding that he likes penning storm stories and mysteries. "(A good story) is if you don't know what's going to happen next."
Whitney Lambert, 11, said she loved hearing new stories, but confessed "Mudgy and Millie" is still her favorite.
"Because it looks interesting, plus it's in Coeur d'Alene," she said.
Fourth grade teacher Wendy Culpepper said she has noticed her students' joy for writing grow, which she attributes to events like Thursday's.
"During free time, they ask, 'Can we write a story?'" Culpepper said. "That's new."
She notices other differences, too, like kids becoming more involved with their families to share their stories.
"When kids become better writers, they become better students, better readers," she pointed out. "I love to see kids this excited about writing."