1) The school hosted a literacy event called WordaPalooza to celebrate Family Literacy Day and promote writing as an art. Twelve Canadian authors conducted writing workshops for students throughout the day. 2) Students, parents, and staff commented that they enjoyed interacting with the authors and being inspired to write. Many students continued writing over the weekend. 3) The school will continue its focus on reading and writing in the following months with other activities like an MS Read-a-thon and writing contests.

1. A Day of Authors… A Day of Writing…
On Friday, January 26
th
we hosted a special school-wide literacy event to celebrate Family Literacy
Day and to promote writing as one of the five fine arts. WordaPalooza was “A Day of Authors” and
“A Day of Writing” giving all students the opportunity to interact with Canadian authors.
We began and ended our special day with sharing assemblies introducing, honouring and thanking
our literary guests: Nancy Jo Cullen, D. D. Elliott, Barb Howard, Lee Kvern, Bernadette McCormack,
Lorie McNaughton, Kim Palmer, Roberta Rees, Simon Rose, Eric Rosenbaum, Sandra Ruttan and
Scott Sharplin. Each of our guests conducted 3 writing workshops for students throughout the day.
WordaPalooza was an outstanding success. The authors enjoyed the opportunity to share their talents
with our students and were overwhelmed by the welcoming atmosphere here at Calgary Arts
Academy, as well as the enthusiasm of our students. Many of the authors commented that our
students were fabulous and that they loved their energy and enthusiasm. They also enjoyed the
opportunity to meet our staff and to meet with other writers.
Many students have commented about how much they enjoyed their day meeting various authors
and that they had learned something new! We have also received positive comments from parents
who really appreciated the focus on literary arts and students who were inspired to write, not only on
Friday during their sessions, but throughout the weekend following the event!
Staff Comments:
 I enjoyed hearing about the various writing processes that each artist takes.
 I enjoyed the personability and approachability of the authors.
 I enjoyed seeing how engaged the students were and how proud they were of their
accomplishments.
 I enjoyed the wealth of information and the succinct direct manner in which it was
presented.
 I would like this to be 2 day event.
 I thought the day was 100% perfect.
Student Comments:
 It was great!
 It was pretty cool!
 It was very interesting.
 I would go back – a lot!
 I enjoyed learning how authors put their book together.
 I enjoyed learning new writing techniques and meeting all the awesome authors.
 I enjoyed learning how to write better stories.
 I enjoyed making my own character…and then killing it!
 It made me want to write!
 I hope we can do it again!
 I wouldn’t change anything. It was super fun!

2. Parent Comments:
 My kids came home from school on Friday talking about WordaPalooza and they were
all very excited about their day.
 I was glad to see this big event emphasizing literary arts.
 I thought it was very well organized and interesting.
 My daughter came home from school on Friday inspired to write! Throughout the
weekend she mapped out her world, wrote out character sketches and started writing
her own story, and it wasn’t even assigned homework!
 [My daughter] really enjoyed the day. She liked working with the different authors and
trying out different types of writing. Thanks so much for all your hard work!!!!!!
We will be continuing our school focus on reading and writing throughout the months of February and
March. The MS Society will make a presentation to our students on the morning of Friday, February
2
nd
to kick-off our participation in the MS Read-a-thon.
Many of our students will also have the opportunity to enter the Scholastic Kids are Authors
competition and/or the Poetry Institute of Canada’s Young Writers Creative Writing Contest.
Further information will be sent home with students in the next week.
In the words of guest author Simon Rose, “may you be forever cursed… with inspiration.”
Sincerely,
Darlene Edwards