![\"winner-5th-grd-3rd-pl-ali-beidoun-1-sm\"](\"https:\/\/iblog.dearbornschools.org\/alberta\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/246\/2016\/11\/Winner-5th-grd-3rd-pl-Ali-Beidoun-1-sm.jpg\")
<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nFour Dearborn Elementary School Students Awarded For Their Outstanding Writing at the 2016 Young Authors\u2019 Festival<\/strong><\/p>\n Four students from Dearborn elementary schools received awards for their writing at the University of Michigan-Dearborn Mardigian Library\u2019s 4th<\/sup> annual Young Authors\u2019 Festival. The half-day event was held in the Mardigian Library on Saturday, November 12. Around 120 young writers from grades 3 to 5, parents, and teachers listened as the award winners read their winning entries aloud. Congresswoman Debbie Dingell stopped by to congratulate award winners and encourage students to read and write. Winners received Barnes & Noble gift cards as awards.<\/p>\n 3rd\u00a0<\/sup>Grade,\u00a02nd<\/sup>\u00a0Prize: Owen Strieff (Lindbergh Elementary) for \u201cFamilies,\u201d<\/p>\n 3rd\u00a0<\/sup>Grade, 3rd<\/sup>\u00a0Prize (tie): Hussein Mansour (William Ford Elementary) for \u201cFamily Memories,\u201d<\/p>\n 4th<\/sup>\u00a0Grade,\u00a03rd<\/sup>\u00a0Prize: Nameh Sharif (Henry Ford Elementary) for \u201cMy Life, My Everything,\u201d<\/p>\n 5th<\/sup> Grade,\u00a03rd<\/sup>\u00a0Prize: Ali Beidoun (Howard Elementary) for \u201cBig Dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n The 2016 Young Authors\u2019 Writing Contest received around 260 entries from children in grades 3 to 5. Entries were judged by UM-Dearborn pre-service teachers.<\/p>\n At the festival, young writers learned tips on what it takes to be an author from Newbery Medal-winning author and special guest speaker, Christopher Paul Curtis.\u00a0 Curtis was born in Flint, Michigan and is a graduate of UM-Flint. Curtis is the author of the highly acclaimed books, \u201cBud Not Buddy,\u201d \u201cElijah of Buxton,\u201d and \u201cThe Watsons Go to Birmingham\u20141963.\u201d<\/p>\n He told the eager audience to be observant and listen, and encouraged them to use what they see and hear in their everyday lives in their stories. He gave an example about how writing can be a collaborative process through the challenges he faced when writing a book from a girl\u2019s perspective. He got a lot of advice from the girls and women in his life to help him shape his character\u2019s personality and voice. Curtis also took time to autograph books and have pictures taken with the children attending the event.<\/p>\n Children also participated in 11 fun, educational writing workshops conducted by UM-Dearborn pre-service teachers. While the children were in workshops, their parents were getting tips on how to inspire their children to continue writing and reading. Workshop topics included: collaborative group writing, how to create a picture book, creating a story to accompany a piece of music, a bookmaking workshop, and more.<\/p>\n This event is sponsored by the College of Education, Health and Human Services; the Mardigian Library; the Salloum Family in honor of Abdallah & Leila Salloum; Mrs. Judith Smith; the Metro Detroit Book and Author Society; the Hub for Teaching & Learning Resources; the Office of Metropolitan Impact; and the UM-Dearborn Barnes & Noble College Bookstore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Four Dearborn Elementary School Students Awarded For Their Outstanding Writing at the 2016 Young Authors\u2019 Festival Four students from Dearborn elementary schools received awards for their writing at the University of Michigan-Dearborn Mardigian Library\u2019s 4th annual Young Authors\u2019 Festival. The half-day event was held in the Mardigian Library on Saturday, November 12. Around 120 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":179,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-class-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iblog.dearbornschools.org\/alberta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iblog.dearbornschools.org\/alberta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iblog.dearbornschools.org\/alberta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iblog.dearbornschools.org\/alberta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/179"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iblog.dearbornschools.org\/alberta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iblog.dearbornschools.org\/alberta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iblog.dearbornschools.org\/alberta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iblog.dearbornschools.org\/alberta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iblog.dearbornschools.org\/alberta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}