Author Grace Lin Teaches First Graders: 
"You Need the Idea First"

First grade students at Newman Elementary School spent two days with children’s book author and illustrator Grace Lin, who spoke about her work, her cross-cultural experiences growing up, writing using your own experiencing, and the publishing process.

The grant committee wrote:

“Students seemed to grasp on to the idea of using events from your own life to write about, and were excited to find out that Grace had taken some poetic license in the writing of her books, such as “erasing” her sisters from the story! As the presentation progressed, the students seemed to mentally move from being aware of Grace’s Chinese heritage (diversity) towards focusing solely on her author/illustrator skills (inclusion)."

Teachers wrote: “Grace was a perfect author to visit our class.” “The children were trying to speak to her author to author, and used some of the writer’s workshop language.”

The students said:

”I learned that you need the idea first.”

“I learned to take time to do my illustrations.”

“I learned that it takes a really long time to make a book, and that surprised me.”