Workshop 1: April 8, 2011
Workshop 2: April 15th, 2011
Grade 1
In spring of 2011, a first grade class at CS 21 worked with author-illustrator Susanna Pitzer on her book, Not Afraid of Dogs. Ms. Pitzer’s book tells the story of a young boy who copes with – and eventually overcomes - his fear of dogs.
Over the course of two workshops, Ms. Pitzer spoke to the students about story structure, illustration, and character development. Ms. Pitzer demonstrated to the class that fears are often based on one’s imagination or a lack of knowledge. She introduced the concept of story structure using her book as a model and led the class in creating a story together by brainstorming for each story component.The students then wrote their own stories using the story structure that Ms. Pitzer had explained. Ms. Pitzer had emphasized the importance of a beginning, middle, and end in a story, which the students were careful to include.
Prior to Ms. Pitzer’s visits, the class had discussed both the story structure and content of Not Afraid of Dogs, as well as how the book’s illustrations conveyed the meaning of the story. The class had also discussed their own fears and each student had decided on the main character of their story.
The students had a final draft of their story completed in time for Ms. Pitzer’s second visit, which was focused on illustration. Ms. Pitzer used her own original illustrations as models for the artistic process
and demonstrated how an illustrator chooses to illustrate the parts of a story that draw the reader in. The students then worked on illustrating the parts of their original stories that depict an exciting part of the plot and capture the reader.
