Young Authors' Tea Entertains All

The Brookside 5th graders presented themselves as published authors and celebrated their achievements last week at the Young Authors’ Tea. After working to create unique pieces of fiction, the 5th graders shared their tales with a delighted audience of parents and teachers.

The Young Authors’ Tea has been a Brookside tradition for many years, but its current format was not established until 1990. 2nd grade teacher Angie Higgins, then a 5th grade teacher, observed that the Young Authors' Tea she attended in 1989 was not a “proper” tea, and that all of the students sat on the floor while the teachers spoke. The following year, she changed the format so that the students spoke about their stories, and then everyone had afternoon tea.  Not only did this new arrangement reinforce the various areas of Language Arts – reading, writing, listening, and speaking – but it also resulted in an enjoyable "meet the author" atmosphere.

But what did it take to put on this year's Young Authors’ Tea? Although students published their stories and perfected their speeches in a mere six weeks, the writing process actually went farther back. 5th grade teacher Belinda Mitchell explains, “The Young Authors’ Tea is a cumulative writing process that features not only the writing skills they have learned this year but also everything they have learned so far in elementary school.”

The 5th graders first worked on understanding the elements of a story’s plot line – the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. After brainstorming story ideas, students created detailed character sketches and developed story frames. Once these were approved, students could begin writing their rough drafts.

Belinda Mitchell and Susie Tweed, the Language Arts teachers, read through the rough drafts and offered their revisions and comments. Students then worked on editing their stories. “Editing involved a lot of hard work,” says says one fifth grader. “Mrs. Mitchell hands us a ton of revisions, and you have to work with your story to make it better.”

Next, the 5th graders formatted their stories and added a title page, dedication page, “about the author” page, and illustrations. Parent volunteers then covered and bound the books, giving the books a polished look.

Preparation for the Young Authors’ Tea did not end there, however. Students had to learn public speaking etiquette, prepare a speech, and practice giving it. At the Tea, each student shared some plot elements and inspiration for his or her story. After reading an excerpt, each student graciously thanked the audience and the people who were involved.

Once the speeches were done, everyone kicked back and celebrated with some cookies and tea.

“Published authors have at least a year to write a book,” notes one student. “We did it in one and a half months!”