BOWDOIN

“Let’s just listen to this,” said author Ralph Fletcher to Bowdoin Central School kindergartners who gathered in the library Tuesday morning to hear his presentation on writing.

“This is called ‘Waves,’” Fletcher said. “Waves of the ocean, little waves in the sand. My father calling me with the wave of his hand. The wavy grain of wood and the wave of your hair. The waves of confetti tumbling through the air. A wave of sadness when I think of that day. My best friend Vinny moved far, far away.”

Fletcher asked students, “What did that sound like when I said that?”

“A poem,” the students echoed back in concert. “It rhymes.”

He repeated the poem and had them count how many times he said the word wave.

Fletcher had the kids laughing as he told them he used to stay outside in the rain as a child.

“I’d pretend I was taking a shower from the sky,” he said, adding he’d be singing, “La da da,” and pretending to scrub himself despite his mother’s commands to get inside.

Fletcher read from and showed illustrations from his picture books, pointing out techniques the illustrator uses in a process

separate from his own. He
also showed them the dummy
of one of his books, full of
sketches absent of color with
notes from the artist attached.
He asked first and second
graders which of his books
has been written but will
never be published, referring
of course to his writer’s notebook.
Fletcher pulled out the
notebook and shared with
them the list he’s been making
of ideas for scary poems.
It’s like an incubator for your
ideas, he said, or a piggy bank
of ideas.

The oldest of nine children,
Fletcher showed students a
photo of himself and his siblings
as infants as he
explained that he often writes
about his family. Younger
brother Tommy was a wild
child always in trouble and
punished by being made to sit
under the kitchen table. It
became fodder for Fletcher’s
book “Fig Pudding” — part
true and made-up stories —
and on the book’s cover is a
young boy peaking out from
under a table.

Fletcher has been an
author for about 25 years. He
started off as a writing consultant
in New York City. He
worked with the Teacher’s
College Writing Project and
then branched off. He started
dragging around books to
show students examples they
could try in their writing.

“And then what happened
is, unexpectedly, I began
falling in love with the books
themselves,” Fletcher said. “I
realized these books were
really beautiful, some of
them, and really powerful.”
He then started writing
those books himself, getting
many rejections at first before
finding success in having his
work published. Fletcher has
since written books across
many genres for different age
groups and, as a teacher of
writers, serves as a mentor
for teachers.

Stephanie McSherry, the
literacy teacher leader at
Bowdoin Central School, said
the school, as part of School
Administrative District 75,
uses the Teacher’s College
units of study for writing. It
allows the kids a chance to
practice authentic writing
rather than writing to
prompts.

There are some kids who
won’t be star athletes or the
lead in the play, Fletcher said.
Writing gives the quiet creative
kid an opportunity to be
heard. While there was once
more emphasis on assigned
writing, a big component of a
good writing program in
schools now is choice, so students
choose a topic to write
about they’re really interested
in.

“We try to hold onto that
because that gives them the
motivation and the ownership
and buy-in to really work
on it,” Fletcher said.
He works to meet students
on their level and talk to them
seriously as writers.

“The one thing I realized
about kids is they love a good
story,” Fletcher said. “If the
kids write on a regular basis
then when they hear an
author, they can sort of see
from an insider perspective,”
as they’ve worked on their
own stories and books. He
tries to help kids see the invisible
steps between the idea
and the published book to
make it tangible.

Fletcher tries to make that
process visible for them and
while writing isn’t the most
important thing in the world,
it’s important. Visiting students
also lets him see what
the kids like and what they
respond to.

McSherry, who asked the
school’s parent teacher club
to consider bringing Fletcher
to Bowdoin Central, is happy
to see the school has a community
that provides this
kind of opportunity for students,
who do write regularly
— poetry, narrative, persuasive
essays and more.Hearing
from a real author like Fletcher
validates their writing and
propels them forward.

He draws them in, she said.
“It makes it really real, but
also not so intimidating so
that (they realize) ‘OK, I can
keep writing, I can get my
voice out into the world, I can
tell my stories,’” McSherry
said, “and that’s really want
we want for our kids is for
their voice to get out in the
world.”

dmoore@timesrecord.com