Getting Ready for Janet Wong at Get Lit!

Janet Wong loves interacting with her young audience and she provides many opportunities to do just that.

First, she has an excellent blog, where she interacts directly with students. Janet will post one of her poems and invites students from kindergartens to 8th grade to comment and ask questions. Then comes the exciting part: Janet responds! She gives great insight into her writing style, culture, and writing process. Teachers whose students have participated on the blog report that their students discovered a purpose for their writing through their interactions with the poet who responded to their comments, became engaged in the revising and editing process through sharing their poetry and comments, increased their enthusiasm for writing, and engaged in dialogs with students in other schools by posting their writing and discussing each others’ work.

The other way you can prepare for Janet Wong's appearance at the Get Lit! Festival is by downloading a free advanced copy of her book Me and Rolly Maloo by going to the Charlesbridge website and using the username: Charlesbridge, password: ARC. Here you can download not only the book, but discussion and activity guides, as well as enter to win a free classroom visit with Janet Wong via Skype.

If you know any kids who love writing, get them excited about Janet Wong coming to the Get Lit! Festival through her blog and her latest book. These two activities will get them prepared for the Kids Poetry Workshop with Janet on Saturday, April 17 at 9:30am, and Janet Wong's Essence of Childhood reading at 10:45am, both at the Kress Gallery during the Get Lit! Festival. Janet will also be teaching a free workshop for educators about incorporating social-responsibility into reading and writing lesson plans (Friday, April 16 at 4:30pm, EWU Riverpoint Campus). Advanced hardcopies of Me and Rolly Maloo will be available for purchase at the Festival as well.