Hawley Celebrates Literature

By Eliza Hallabeck

From Monday, April 30, to Friday, May 4, Hawley Elementary School celebrated all things “Literature.”

During the school’s Literature Week, students experienced many activities, from hearing storyteller Len Cabral on Monday to dressing up as their favorite character on Friday.

One of the week’s endeavors had the Hawley’s Kids Care Club collecting new and gently used books and monetary donations to donate to University Place Elementary School in Tuscaloosa, Ala., which was destroyed by tornadoes last year. Each morning a mystery author read a passage from a children’s book over the loudspeaker, and the book, author, and reader were revealed the following day. The mystery readings were also repeated later in the day.

“This is the start of our Literature Week,” said Hawley lead teacher Chris Breyan as he introduced storyteller Len Cabral to students in the school’s Multipurpose Room. Mr Cabral began his presentation by explaining he learned some of his stories from his parents, and he also writes some of his stories himself.

“But most of the stories I tell,” Mr Cabral said to the room full of Hawley students, “I learn from books.”

To prepare students for author David Adler’s visit to the school on Thursday, magnifying glasses were shared between classrooms. According to an explanation of the week’s events, the magnifying glasses honored Mr Adler’s Cam Jensen and Bones mysteries. When a magnifying glass reached a classroom, the students were expected to drop what they were doing a read for 15 minutes.

When speaking before one of two groups of students, Mr Adler explained he gets his ideas for characters and stories from life. One of his nonfictions books, America’s Champion Swimmer: Gertrude Ederle, he said tells the story of the first woman to swim the English Channel. News coverage at the time, Mr Adler said, predicted Ms Ederle would not make it. Not only did Ms Ederle make it, Mr Adler told students, but she beat the men’s record for the swim by two hours.

To write America’s Champion Swimmer: Gertrude Ederle, Mr Adler said he visited libraries, read newspaper accounts of her swim, and spoke with some of her relatives to gather information.

“I wasn’t always a writer,” said the man, who later in the presentation said he has published more than 220 books.

Before becoming a writer, Mr Adler said he taught math and was an editor. There are so many wrong answers in math, Mr Adler said, but there are no wrong answers with writing.

Also during his presentation, Mr Adler explained part of his writing process.

“The first taste of your story should be like a piece of cake: The reader should want more and more and more,” said Mr Adler.

Once stories have been committed to paper, Mr Adler said they can be rewritten and revised, and, for him, the first sentence is revised the most, along with the first chapter.

“If you want to write good stories,” Mr Adler said, while explaining where one story idea came from, “just pay attention.”

As a special reminder to the school for Mr Adler’s visit and Literature Week, Vinny Albano, Hawley kindergarten teacher Donna Albano’s husband, presented a portrait of Mr Adler he created to him to autograph that will be put on display at the school.

Mr Albano also designed bookmarks, printed by the Newtown High School Graphic’s Department, that were given to each student at the school as part of the Literature Week celebration.

Autographed books by Mr Adler were also delivered to classrooms at the school.

Other Literature Week events included guest readers visiting classrooms to read to students, and individual classroom celebrations of reading.

Literature Week Committee members were Lea Attanasio, Stephanie Dunshee, Tracy Fanelli, Judi Qualey, Marilyn Aylward, Dee Pearson, Kathy Leja, Donna Albano, Debbie Cowden, and Mr Breyan.