CET Students Close Out the Last Chapter of the School Year with the Annual Writers Workshop

Avocadude is a 69-year-old avocado who lives in Fridge Land. He wears a backwards baseball cap and loves to hang out with his friends who are pieces of shredded cheese at the place where he works - The Cheese Shredding Shop. He has bumpy skin that’s kinda spotty (he’s an avocado, after all) and others describe him as “weird”, “cool”, and “bumpy”. No, this is not the premise for a new Nickelodeon show; it’s from the imagination of Clover, a CET fourth grader who developed the character during a special day dedicated to inspired writing.

Just prior to the summer send-off, CET second and fourth grade students spent their last Friday in school experiencing the many different ways to be inspired to write. The CET Writing Workshop Day has been a tradition for several years. Conceived and organized - every year - by fourth-grade teacher Ms. Strattner, the goal is to put the power of creativity into the hands of the students with a variety of workshops and visits from special guest speakers. This year, the students heard from two authors -  Lauren Tarshis, Scholastic’s ‘I Survived’ series author and Tommy Greenwald, author of ‘Game Changer’. Both authors talked to the students about their genres, how to write books about real life, and the many different styles of writing.

While in the workshops, students were able to experience a variety of writing styles based on their interests. “The goal is to engage students in a creative and personal way,” said Ms. Strattner. “They get to pick their top four choices and attend two of those workshops. It’s a great way for them to learn about writing in a way that is engaging, exciting, and fun.”  

All of the workshops are run by parent volunteers who bring their own area of creative expertise. “Many parents are repeat visitors with a diverse range of professional backgrounds, from authors to illustrators, performers, publishers, and even lawyers,” said Ms. Strattner. The schedule included workshops such as interview-based “Got Any Good Questions”, poetry writing in “Surprise Endings”, graphic novel themed “Storytelling in Sequence”, perspective focused “What Would Spider-Man Do at CET”, creating compelling lawyer arguments in “Guilty or Not Guilty”, and character analysis in “Stage to Page” - which has been taught every year the program has been in existence by Melissa Hansen, who has a second and sixth grader in the district. “Sometimes a whole story can be based on a single character,” said Ms. Hansen. “The more students develop the character through analysis and detail, the more interesting their story becomes. I encourage them to be curious about the character and ask themselves questions about this character they are creating, and to be specific about their vocabulary choices to make it unique. It’s a great exercise for the summer, especially if they’re bored. They can be entertained by their own stories.”