Excited second-graders created a make-believe story with an award-winning children\u2019s author during a special event at the University of Central Florida. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The activity was part of the 2011 Young Authors\u2019 Conference held Friday at the Teaching Academy, part of the College of Education.<\/p>\n
Nearly 160 young authors from Catalina and Ivey Lane elementary schools came to UCF for the event, which was a special function of this weekend\u2019s UCF Book Festival.<\/p>\n
More than 60 renowned local and national authors will speak at the festival, which will be held at the UCF Arena from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, April 16. Admission and parking will be free.<\/p>\n
Special guest Carmen Agra Deedy spoke to students on Friday about storytelling, and she shared some of the things that inspired her stories. Deedy is the internationally renowned author of children\u2019s works such as \u201cThe Library Dragon\u201d and \u201cMartina the Beautiful Cockroach: A Cuban Folktale.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the conference, she explained to young writers how to brainstorm story ideas and spoke to them about the essential ingredients of a good story.<\/p>\n
The second-graders also participated in small-group sharing sessions. The students sat in circles and took turns discussing their writing processes. They also presented stories they created in school.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love encouraging students to think outside of the box,\u201d Deedy said.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s important for them to be able to communicate their thoughts and experiences eloquently because it affects how they see the world and how the world sees them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Excited second-graders created a make-believe story with an award-winning children\u2019s author during a special event at the University of Central Florida. \u00a0 The activity was part of the 2011 Young Authors\u2019 Conference held Friday at the Teaching Academy, part of the College of Education. Nearly 160 young authors from Catalina and Ivey Lane elementary schools came to UCF for the…","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":22813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-twocol.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-22812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-education"],"yoast_head":"\n