Duration: 2 class periods of 45-55 minutes
Adaptation: Upper Elementary (4-5), “A Person You Admire” Prompt, Expository Writing
Printable: “Favorite Person” Lesson Plan, Middle School (6-8), Expository Writing

Favorite Person Prompt:

We all have a favorite person, someone who we like or respect more than anyone else. Think about the person in your life you consider your favorite. What is this person like? What does this person do to make him or her your favorite?
Write an essay about this person explaining what he or she is like and the things that he or she does that makes him or her so special to you. (more…)

What made you decide to be an author, and at what stage in your life were you when you made that decision?

I wanted to be a dancer when I was younger, but I couldn’t major in that in college. I always liked reading, so I thought of English – you get to read a lot of books! This brought me into some writing classes, and at that point I got bitten by the bug. I started out with poetry, since you didn’t have to fill up the page with poetry. I then moved to writing plays because it is mostly dialogue driven and is very, very natural. Then I ended up with young adult novels. That was my progression.

You indicated that reading played a role in your becoming a writer, what role did reading play in your youth?

I think it was just someone to relate to. I liked characters that were very different from me, that lived in different parts of the country, that went on different adventures; it broke a lot of barriers for me. I was a middle child, and you’re always looking to be heard and to be understood. Reading was very appealing to me for that reason, plus I lived two blocks from the library, so I went through a lot of books as a young person, pretty effortlessly.

As a Young Writer (1:44) (more…)

Duration: 7 parts, including six 45-50 minute periods

Printable version: Pocahontas lesson plan 

The Double Life of Pocohantas by Jean Fritz Pilot Prompt

Imagine that Pocahontas kept a diary. Choose a particular event in her life and write about it from her point of view. Tell about the event as if you were Pocahontas writing in her own private diary. (more…)