Grades
K - 3
Help your students discover their inner creative writer by using the Stella Writes series to hone their narrative, informative, opinion, and poetry writing skills.
Inspired by the young writers she has mentored, author Janiel Wagstaff created Stella, a peer mentor for teaching writing in her series of educational picture books, Stella Writes. By incorporating the series into your own writing curriculum, you can guide your students through the idea generation, initial drafts, and final writing compositions of narrative, informative, and opinion texts, while encouraging your students to become confident creative writers and year-round poets.
Every child who has ever told a story is capable of writing one, but many young writers struggle to transform their ideas and opinions into structured writing pieces.
Author and literacy consultant Janiel Wagstaff has spent years mentoring young writers: guiding them through the narrative writing process, and helping them formulate opinions, research informative topics, and craft poetry. She was inspired by their voices, their struggles, their persistence, and their triumphs, and she transformed the varied experiences of student writers into an educational picture book series.
"I got this crazy idea; this crazy, wonderful idea. Her name is Stella. Wrapped up inside her are all the little writers I’ve taught over the years."
"I thought a lot about the strugglers—those who stare at the page blankly, who feel they have nothing of worth to say, who have a profound dislike for writing—as I formed Stella, because students like her help lift the writing bar. Stella is a model of writing hope, and her classroom is a place of writing joy. The struggle is worth it! Everyone has a story to tell. Everyone has something we need to take the time to hear."
In the Stella Writes series, Stella’s second grade teacher guides her class through various writing exercises, while Stella stands in as a peer mentor, demonstrating how ideas become narratives, and how to strengthen opinions, revise drafts, and incorporate poetry exercises throughout the year.
"Stella’s teacher has much to do with the writing joy in her classroom, as all fabulous teachers of writing do. She capitalizes on writing opportunities; teaches with intention; gives her students time to write, talk, and share every single day; and makes their writing relevant and meaningful."
In this collection of articles from Janiel Wagstaff, you can read more about Stella and learn how to incorporate the Stella Writes series into your writing curriculum.
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