"Children's book author Tony Medina was recently greeted like a rock star by second graders at Bedford-Stuyvesant's Community School 21. But Medina isn't just making a celebrity appearance. He was there to teach, and not just one but several lessons over the next few weeks, culminating in a class project related to his book. It's all put together by Behind the Book, a literacy non-profit that connects authors with public schools.
'Each student gets a copy of the book, then they read the book and study it before the author gets there. And we do between three and seven visits with each classroom, depending on the kind of project we create with the teacher,' said Behind the Book Executive Director/Founder Jo Umans. 'So it could be anything from a super hero project that we do with a bunch of second grade classes, a poetry project, we've done school newspapers before.'"
'Each student gets a copy of the book, then they read the book and study it before the author gets there. And we do between three and seven visits with each classroom, depending on the kind of project we create with the teacher,' said Behind the Book Executive Director/Founder Jo Umans. 'So it could be anything from a super hero project that we do with a bunch of second grade classes, a poetry project, we've done school newspapers before.'"