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Professional Writer Outreach
SAYW is compiling a database of writers (Poets, Fiction, Nonfiction) willing to participate in school visits including writing workshops or writing lectures for students in grades four  through six in their local community. The database is available free of charge to teachers and administrators. Only the minimum contact information is required to preserve privacy. As the mission of SAYW is to bring schools and writers together in an educational partnership, we ask that you consider participating for little or no compensation. Many small schools lack the budget to afford significant honorariums. If the mission of SAYW sounds appealing to you, consider the waiving or discounting of your fees as the only dues you have to pay. Upon signing up with your contact information, you’ll be a full member of SAYW. Unlike other organizations that bombard you with mailings or e-mails, frequent news updates will be posted on the website rather than in your mailbox or inbox. Membership also brings the knowledge that a young writer can and will be inspired by your visit to pursue a career in writing.
SAYW’s goal is to have at least two writers from every state, but it would be tremendous if there were enough writers to provide full coverage for every state. The educational opportunities provided by a clearing house of professional writers willing to get involved are boundless. A working author before a class is a powerful tool.
When asked what they considered as a good role model for students, most teachers agreed that anyone who had taken the chance to become a published author and succeeded no matter how small the publication was perfect for the task. Children are often shy of presenting material in class to their peers let alone sending their work to a publication or contest to be judged. To hear adults speak about overcoming their own fears is a powerful insight for a young writer.
Engagements are negotiable and teachers are well aware that the writer’s schedule has to come first when planning such visits. Being listed in the database means a writer is willing to try but may not be able to meet a school’s need.
If you are an author that would like to participate in your local schools’ creative writing efforts, please click on the SAYW Writer Registration link to the left or click here. Once you have completed the form, that’s all it takes to become a member of SAYW and help schools and kids get the inspirational contact with professional writers that is desperately needed.
Kidlits Webzine
The fourth, fifth and sixth grades are the most formative in a child’s writing education. SAYW has developed a Web based magazine entitled Kidlits. (www.kidlitszine.com) This publication is offered quarterly with three regular issues during the school year and one special edition for summer. Only poems and stories by fourth, fifth and sixth grade students will be published. What makes Kidlits unique is the fact that the fiction and poetry editors are fourth through sixth graders themselves. This publication will provide a place for young writers to stretch their creative legs and perhaps get published for the first time. The magazine will also feature interviews with writers they are currently reading plus articles on writing in general. Currently there are very few sites publishing youth works. One charges $12.95 for the privilege while others don’t focus solely on written works. Kidlits Webzine is completely devoted to the young writer and her works.
As a publication of the SAYW, there is a resource page that helps teachers and parents with suggested writing activities and ways to foster creativity. Kidlits Webzine is designed for young writers to get published and for teachers to integrate the website into their classrooms and lesson plans.
Please visit the embedded link above for additional information.
Creative Writing and Assessment
To further its mission, SAYW is in the process of developing a supplemental curriculum for schools to use in conjunction with Kidlits Webzine. After several interviews with fourth through sixth grade teachers, it was discovered that many of them would love to teach more creative writing but simply don’t know how. Creative writing is one of the most difficult courses to teach. The curriculum will provide guidance while leaving the teachers the flexibility to dovetail their current classroom lessons with the suggested exercises in the supplemental curriculum. Starting this fall, SAYW will be seeking to pilot the program with several local schools. It is SAYW’s hope that the curriculum will be ready and tested for widespread distribution by fall, 2010.
If not a full supplemental curriculum, SAYW is also exploring the possibility of creating guidelines and manuals for initiating after school programs in creative writing and publishing.
In addition to the curriculum or after school programs, schools may also run a separate edition of Kidlits for their school. An easy to use interface will allow schools to publish their own stories as an intra-school bulletin board or they can join the Kidlits community and share their works with other schools publishing a school edition of Kidlits. All Stories and poems published will be eligible for inclusion in the parent edition of Kidlits Webzine.
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