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(Naples, FL) (February 16, 2018) From February 12 through February 16, the entire student population of Community School of Naples celebrated the school’s annual Writers Week. The Lower School (LS), grades PreK3-5, celebrated all week, beginning on Monday with Ruth Chan, author and illustrator of Where’s The Party and Georgie’s Best Bad Day, who spoke to students about how she switched careers from being a Wellesley and Harvard educated teacher to a full-time illustrator and author. She showed them her illustrations and talked about the importance of practice and perseverance when writing. Her books are based on her own pets, Georgie and Feta. On Tuesday, Tom Sullivan, author of Blue vs. Yellow and I Used to be a Fish, showed the LS students how he made his illustrations using the process of layering. Mr. Sullivan also demonstrated how to transform simple shapes into characters by giving them life-like characteristics, like hands and faces, which then became the main characters in short stories that he wrote with the students. On Wednesday, classes participated in a Drop Everything and Write activity. Then on Thursday, students from kindergarten to fifth grade attended their Open Mic, which allowed students the opportunity to share their favorite writing pieces. Finally, author Heidi Schulz wrapped up Writers Week LS activities on Friday. Students enjoyed her writing workshop where they were given a piece of chocolate to learn how to use all of their senses when writing stories. All students had the opportunity to have books signed by each author. From plays to short stories to poetry, sixth through eighth grade students (MS) spent Writers Week immersed in words. Each grade level worked on different types of writing activities in English classes throughout the week. For example, sixth graders had the opportunity to write, rehearse, and perform an original play all in one class period. Seventh graders flexed their creative writing muscles through writing varied-perspective short stories and poems. Eighth graders produced a gallery of visual literacy projects which combined imagery and words, such as mind-maps and paintings with poetry. On Tuesday, the Upper School (US) kicked off Writers Week with their Poetry Out Loud finals. Each English class had held competitions in mid-January, from which 40 semifinalists were chosen. The finalists then had to recite their poems again for a panel of judges from the English Department. From there, 14 finalists emerged. Those students then had two weeks to memorize and present a second poem. The school champion was Bridget Denzer '19, followed by runner-up Jack Ciabaton '18 and 3rd place finisher Leaf Kalikow '18. Jack Ciabaton will represent CSN at the State Poetry Out Loud Championship in Tampa, FL on March 10th. The US also hosted several guests during the week, beginning on Tuesday with Richard LeBer, the President and CEO of the Harry Chapin Food Bank, who focused his presentation on the importance of clear written communication using the Food Bank's mission statement to illustrate his point. After talking about how the leadership team at Harry Chapin crafted their new mission, Mr. LeBer then put students to work by asking them to draft their own mission statements for known not-for-profit organizations in Southwest Florida. Students volunteered to share their missions, which Mr. LeBer and the rest of the students analyzed for strengths and opportunities for improvement. This practical activity demonstrated the relevance of every English teacher's expression--"Every Word Counts"--in a real-world context. Naples resident Ed Grace spoke with MS and US students all day on Wednesday. He recounted his experiences as a recent college graduate and MIT engineer involved with the design of the Inertial Navigation System used for Command and Lunar Modules on all Apollo missions. With the aid of his presentation, Mr. Grace illustrated the concept of using the earth’s, moon’s and sun’s orbits like a constantly moving roadmap in space. Mr. Grace gave the students a first-hand, behind-the-scene look at Houston Mission Control for the Apollo 13 flight, the mission during which NASA had to devise a strategy to return the astronauts to earth safely after their spacecraft suffered massive internal damage. During a break in the day, MS and US students participated in “Sidewalk Chalk,” writing love poems for Valentine’s Day on large sheets of paper laid on the sidewalks from the LS flagpole to the Student Union at opposite ends of the campus. On Thursday, blogger Jeremy Price (CSN ’12) and Cristela Guerra, a journalist with the Boston Globe, visited US English classes throughout the day. During their sessions, Mr. Price and Ms. Guerra interacted with each other and the students, discussing the similarities and differences between digital and print media. They talked about the importance of finding a “voice” through which the writer is most comfortable so that their storytelling flows unhindered. While the voice in digital media is somewhat laid-back, print media is only slowly changing toward being less formal. Ms. Guerra predicted that in the coming few years, all media will be digital, and newspaper journalists will have to adopt a more casual tone in their writing. Writers Week wrapped up on Friday for the MS and US with Open Mic sessions held in various locations. LS students had already enjoyed their Open Mic readings on Thursday in the Shea Amphitheater. It was a long and activity-filled week for the nearly 800 students and their teachers before their Winter Break next week.