Students celebrate reading day early
Reading is important at the School for the Talented and Gifted in Pleasant Grove, and students celebrated Read Across America Day ahead of March 2 with a visit from Morr Meroz, author of the graphic novel Snowlands.
As the fourth and fifth graders streamed into the cafeteria and Principal Reymundo Cervantes Guajardo introduced Meroz, the students let out what is known as an Owl greeting—a whooping cheer and a thunderous round of applause.
Meroz began the meet-and-greet with a fun game consisting of a series of slideshows displaying scalloped silhouettes of characters in the novel. Questions appeared above the row of silhouettes: Best leader? Most clever? Funniest? With hands up in the air, students shouted out their answers. Prompted by Meroz, some even defended their choices.
Author school visits are a common way to encourage students to read and write more; it is a way to show students that they too can become storytellers, Cervantes Guajardo said. When authors visit, reading suddenly takes on a more tangible reality.
“I think when students meet authors, reading stops feeling abstract,” Cervantes Guajardo said. “It gives them an aspirational sense to become storytellers, because that’s what they are.”
By meeting authors, he said, students learn to demystify the person whose name is on a book cover. They realize that authors are people with struggles, hopes, families who take time to create stories that bring others joy.
“When our students study the author’s biography alongside their work, it changes everything,” Cervantes Guajardo said. “Seeing them connect those life experiences to the chapters they’ve just read—and then having them here with us today—creates a truly unique and powerful feeling.”
As the visit continued, Meroz led students through a storytelling workshop. He asked them to pick any animal they liked and to think of a setting and conflict for them—anywhere in the world. Together, the students—about 120 in total—brainstormed a plot for Jeremy, the clownfish living in a hot spring in Arizona. Jeremy, the students decided, should embark on a quest to find his missing family. Meroz then walked the students through his brainstorming process and discussed what he calls “stacking problems,” a process for building up conflict in stories— smaller problems incrementally get bigger and bigger.
During the final minutes of his visit, Meroz discussed character building and the writing process as a whole, showing early drafts of illustrations and dialogue. For the Q&A session, students peppered Meroz with questions ranging from inspiration to characters to future installments in the series. Each student in attendance received a signed copy of Snowland.
“There’s so much competition now for students’ time,” said Michael Douthit, the librarian at TAG. “To be able to carve out some time every day–or 20 to 30 minutes–to read is critical for their education and their development.”
TAG, like other schools in the district, reinforces the importance of reading to students by establishing small rituals that turn into lifelong habits. The latest of these is “Drop Everything and Read” Fridays, a time during which students pause to focus solely on reading. In addition, the school encourages students to visit the library weekly and hosts book fairs—a common practice across Dallas ISD. Themed-celebrations, such as Hispanic Heritage Month and Black History Month, are seen as occasions to spotlight minority authors and to make reading feel special, engaging, and relevant.
“The feeling of reading a book is what we want to keep alive, and I see that engagement leading to an increase in scores,” said Cervantes Guajardo. “Because our students are reading, they are becoming very fluent—and it shows in their vocabulary when they talk.”
