Young Writers' Workshop Celebrates 20 Years

Saturday March 21 marked the twentieth anniversary of the Scarsdale PT Council's Young Writers' Workshop. It took place at the Scarsdale Middle School from 9 AM to noon.

Open to all third, fourth, and fifth graders that go to Scarsdale elementary schools and nearby private schools, the Young Writers' Workshop is an event in which students participate in numerous workshops of varying topics. These workshops have as great a range from learning how be a food critic to learning how to write a mystery novel and encompass many fields including journalism, technology and art. "Kids enjoy these workshops because they show them that writing isn't just what they are doing in the classroom; writing can take them in different directions. It shows the students that writing is wonderful and inspiring. We are so grateful to have all these creative minds come together. This workshop just gives kids a little bit more," exclaimed Karen Palaniappan who co-chaired the event with Chris Peckett.

The morning began with a keynote presentation in the middle school auditorium by the author of Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library and former improvisational comedian, Chris Grabenstein. During his presentation, he told the students about how his dreams have evolved from when he was a little kid.  He is now a New York Times bestselling author. "Say yes" to whatever life throws at you, was Grabenstein's main take-away. He also gave the students a preview of his new chapter book, The Island of Dr. Libris. "I did improvisational comedy in New York with a group called The First Amendment for five years," Grabenstein told me after his keynote presentation. "There's a rule that all of us in the group live by, which is 'Say Yes' to whatever your partner does; you never say no. And that's how I write, that's how I do improv, and that's how I live. Whenever an opportunity comes along, I always say, 'Yeah, I'll try that!' It's just a better way to live."

After the keynote presentation, the students hurried to their first of two workshops of the day. There were more than thirty professionals in creative work who presented over thirty-four creative workshops.

One workshop I sat in on, "Taste Test," was a class for students who are interested in becoming food critics. The students learned how they judge the food they eat and how to properly comment on it. During the first half of the class, the leader of the workshop, writer Barbara Josselsohn, taught the students how to write a basic review; she emphasized the most important aspects of food analysis and how evidence, not opinion, is the major part of any review. Josselsohn wrote the basic format of a good review on the board and the students copied it into their notebooks. During the second half of the lesson, the students conducted a taste test between Entenmann's chocolate chip cookies and Chips Ahoy! chocolate chip cookies, using the skills they learned in the first half of the class and wrote summaries about which cookie they preferred and why. At the end of the class, Josselsohn asked the students about which factors influenced their decisions. It was fascinating to observe how each student judged both types of cookies and how these observations differed in their reviews.

After an hour in the first workshop, the students then hustled to their final workshop. Two popular workshops for the second part of the day were "Turn Your Expertise Into a How To Guide or Book" led by Jocelyn Greenky Herz and "Famous Pop Artist Leads Collage Workshop" with Michael Albert. In Herz's workshop, the students started off by writing  lists of everything they are good at doing. The students then shared their talents with the class, while Herz encouraged the students to be open to encouragement and suggestions. In the middle of one very positive exchange between two fourth graders, Herz turned to me and said amazedly, "It's all right there, they all already have it."

In the "Famous Pop Artist Leads Collage Workshop", Michael Albert began by telling the students that his main goal: "is to create something that is a true masterpiece that can be in a museum some day." He showed posters of some of his more famous collages to the kids, who oohed and aahed over the various shapes, colors, and designs in each work. Albert invited the students to comment and interpret his work. During the second half of the class, he invited the students to make their own collages, playing The Beatles and raffling off poster versions of his collages while they worked.

The workshop was a huge success! It was amazing to sit in on so many different classes. One can almost see the students' minds in action as they were encouraged to think creatively.

Congratulations to the PT Council's Young Writers' Workshop on twenty great years.